6o 



NATURE 



[Nov. 27, 1873 



(p. 29) a new Crustacean— .'£;i,'/<vr audina (pp. 36, 37), two 

 new Violets, Viola acantlwphylta, and V. portiilacea (p. 

 38), a new Pigeon, Coliimbina aurisqiiamata (p. 45), 

 Orcosphacus. a new genus of Menthoides ; and subse- 

 quently two new Snakes, Bothrops ammodvtoides and 

 Pelias trigonatus. 



As regards these and other supposed novelties, it may 

 be remarked that it is not very convenient to scatter such 

 descriptions through the pages of a book of travels, where 

 they are liable to escape notice. Moreover, an isolated 

 worker in a remote part of the earth's surface is in great 

 danger of not knowing what is already known to others, 

 and should take the precaution of consulting some corre- 

 spondent in the great European centres of scientific activity 

 before publishing what is new to him as new to every one 

 else. Dr. Finsch has already shown that Leybold's 

 Conurus glaucifrons is a well-known species of Parrot ; 

 and we do not doubt that most of the other supposed 

 novelties will be found to have been previously described 

 elsewhere. !"• L. S. 



A HEALTHY HOUSE 



What a House should be, versus Death in the House. By 

 William Bardwell, Architect and Sanitary Engineer, 

 (London : Dean and Son.) 



THE author of this work is evidently an enthusiast in 

 sanitary matters, but there is much in it worth the 

 attention of the professional architect and builder, as also 

 of the house-owner and occupier. It will be some time 

 before the precepts of hygienic architecture can be ex- 

 pected to pervade all classes of the community ; but reforms 

 in this direction must commence from above, and will 

 gradually be accepted by the poorer classes : this work 

 will assist the dissemination of wholesome rules. 



The subject of drainage, which necessarily occupies 

 much of the work, has been forced into prominence by 

 the dangerous illness of the Prince of Wales, in the Autumn 

 of 187 1 ; and this work meets to some extent the demand 

 for further and better information on the subject. Our 

 author is not new to the task, having so long ago as 1828 

 turned his attention to the sanitary conditions of buildings, 

 and has published several treatises on cognate subjects. 

 The work before us, however, is suggestive rather than pro- 

 found, and we find a tendency in it to describe very prosaic 

 details in stilted language. There is .ilso a general want of 

 references, so that many of the statements cannot be easily 

 verified— such, for instance, as this, p. 6, art. 10 :— 

 "We have progressed some little since 1828, when my 

 first essays on health were published, and pubUc attention 

 has been directed to the subject ; but still, one half of the 

 children born in London and other large towns, die before 

 they are three years old ; while at a parish in Norfolk, 

 where the principles here set forth are rigidly enforced 

 by the excellent rector, a child is never known to die.'' 

 After making, however, every abatement — as we are bound 

 to do — the work will not fail to prove very useful, and 

 will assist in leading people to better sanatory arrange- 

 ments. 



In p. 8 he justly animadverts on many modem cottages, 

 which " from admiration of mediaeval architecture are 

 irregular in plan, and irregular in outline from an idea of 

 being picturesque ; and hence the chimneys are outside, 



involving loss of heat, the roof all hips and valleys, and 

 dormer windows requiring constant repairs, and e.\hibiting 

 an utter ignorance of the very first principles of a healthy 

 home." Some fallacy seems, however, involved in the pas- 

 sage which follows, and which describes the effect of as- 

 phalted ground floors in some Essex cottages. The in- 

 babitants suffered from rheumatism until the asphaltewas 

 covered with boards — "because the boards were conductors 

 of damp, whilst the asphalte was a non-conductor of mois- 

 ture." It must have been the conduction of temperature, 

 and not of moisture, that led to the inconvenience. 



Chapter ii. is on bad drainage, and opens sensibly 

 thus : — " The use of water in cabinets in disobedience to 

 God's command to the Israelites to bury excreta in 

 the earth is unquestionably the cause of those alarming 

 modern 'diseases — the something in the air — with which the 

 whole country is affected." It may be impossible to return 

 to the more primitive practice, but the fact remains that 

 even the old cesspool system was less unhealthy than the 

 modern more artificial one. Some valuable hints are 

 given in pages 12 — 13, for discovering the inlets of sewer 

 gases into houses. The closet soil-pipe is often the origin 

 of these irruptions ; for the inclosed gases decompose the 

 soldered joints of the lead pipe in a few years' time, if the 

 pipe is not ventilated, as indeed it seldom is, and the 

 junction of the lead-pipe with the drain is often defective. 

 Every sink, too, which modern luxury has introduced to 

 save the old-fashioned labour of throwing slops away out 

 of doors, opens a pathway for the poisonous gases, of 

 which one part in 260 mixed with common air is fatal to 

 life, and of which no sensible proportion can long be 

 breathed with impunity. 



There is also a moral aspect to the question. The fol- 

 lowing passage is introduced as a quotation, but it does 

 not appear from what author, p. 19 : — 



" A clean, fresh, and well-ordered house exercises over 

 its inmates a moral no less than a physical influence, and 

 has a direct tendency to make the members of the family 

 sober, peaceable, and considerate of the feelings and hap- 

 piness of each other." 



In chap. iii. are some valuable remarks about drains 

 stink-traps, and rain-water pipes. Water-closets, it is 

 said in p. 29, should never be in a basement— for if so, 

 the house is liable to draw its supply of air through them 

 — but always in a back-yard. Those that are wanted to 

 be in immediate connection with the house should be in 

 the upper floors only, and, whenever practicable, ap- 

 proached through a greenhouse. 



At p. 33 are some remarks on the necessity of pure, 

 untainted water ; and, in p. 34, on the danger of lead- 

 poisoning. The pipes made by Messrs. Walker, Camp- 

 bell &; Co., of Liverpool- lead-cased block-tin pipes — are 

 recommended in those cases where the water acts upon 

 lead. A caution as to the use of these pipes should, how- 

 ever, have been added, as very great care and peculiar 

 arrangements are required in jointing them ; other- 

 wise, the combination of the two metals becomes exposed 

 to the action of the water at the joints, when decomposition 

 will take place, and the water will still be affected with 

 lead. 



In p. 41 the importance of a dry basement is incul- 

 cated, and with a well-merited encomium on Mr. 

 John Taylor's clever contrivance of the damp-proof 



