226 ftEPORT — 1870, 



it as practicable. The results have been most satisfactory. I quote from a report 

 of the health committee, giving to the council the result of an inspection of a num- 

 ber erected as a trial by the committee : — ''It was found that the yards at the back 

 of the houses, and the privies themselves, were entirely free from any offensive 

 odom-s." 



Th^ contents of the ash-pits were dry ; the surfaces of the yards were clean. 

 When the hand was placed in the opening of the seat a cm-rent of air was percep- 

 tible ; when a piece of brown paper was lighted and then blown out, so as to pro- 

 duce considerable smoke, and the paper then held over the grid in the wall of the 

 privy, the smoke was strongly drawn down into the ash-pit ; the same when ap- 

 plied to the seat of the privy. No smoke escaped at the opening of the seat, but 

 all passed up the flue and mixed with the atmosphere above the roof of the house. 

 The information from the occupants of the houses was most interesting. Some of 

 them stated that whereas before the alterations were made they neA^er opened 

 the windows of the back bedroom in consequence of the stench that came into the 

 room from the privies and ash-pits below, they now opened them daily, and got 

 the rooms ventilated, and that, although foiiuerly they were scarcely conscious of 

 the disagreeable stench from their neighbours' premises, now their own were cleaner 

 these faecal smells affected them. The officer of health in his report, and as the 

 result of careful inquiries, states that where the new form of ash-pit has been 

 adopted, whether in old or new houses, there was not last summer a single case of 

 diarrhoea or fever in the families of any of the occupants, although the former 

 disease prevailed to a considerable extent in neighbouring families ; the testimony 

 of many house-owners is to the same effect. It is found that in new dwellings the 

 cost of the new privy amd ash-pit is less than the old one ; while in the recon- 

 struction in old property it is much less than, in their fears, they had anticipated. 



In the appendix to the report of the medical officer of the Privy Council just 

 printed. Dr. Buchanan and Mr. Eadcliffe made the following remarks on the 

 Manchester system : — " We inspected a midden-closet an-anged on this plan in 

 a' position where the advantage of careful superintendence was secured for it, 

 built according to the requirements of the corporation — roofed, drained, and' 

 ventilated by a shaft canied up above the eaves of the adjoining building. The 

 closet or privy used by a single family onlj' opens into a small yard, 8 ft. 2 in. 

 across at tne widest part, and faces the living room of the cottage occupied by the 

 family. A mine catch-pan was fixed beneath the privy-seat ; the midden was two- 

 thirds full of ashes and refuse, the latter cast in beneath the hinged seat, and no 

 excrement was exposed to sight. As it contained fifteen months' accumulation of 

 excrement, ashes, and house-refuse, its condition might not unfairly be regai'ded as 

 similar to that of a closet emptied more frequently, but used by several fiimilies. 

 There was no smell of excrement, nor, indeed, any marked odour about the privy, 

 though on the same day (during a frost) in unimproved privies about the town there 

 was notable stink. A current of air, as we determined by experiment, passed down 

 through the aperture of the seat and upwards through the ventilating-shaft. The 

 occupants of the house averred that no foul smell was at any time experienced by 

 them from the closet. The removal of the contents of the ash-pits has been 

 managed by the corporation since 184-5. There are about .38,000 ash-pits of all 

 sizes in the city, some large ones requiring to be emptied only once or twice a 

 year ; on an average, the contents will not be removed oftener than from two to 

 three times in the course of a year. In the newly constructed ones, the size being 

 so much reduced, the contents require to be removed more frequently ; but the 

 health-committee, regarding the matter in a sanitary point of view, not in an eco- 

 nomical one, consider even the size of the new ones too large, and are gi-aduaUy 

 aiming at a size that will necessitate the removal of the contents every two or three 

 weeks ; but it is difficult to effect great changes all at once. jNIany people object 

 to the emptying of the ash-pits fi-equently, or until they are filled with ashes, ex- 

 crement, and refuse, and frequent removal can only be eftected by limiting the 

 space in which this refuse matter is contained. The ultimate aim, then, of the 

 health-committee is to provide for every cottage a privy and small ash-pit, not 

 sunk deep in the ground and perfectly water-tight, excluding the water from the yard 

 and slops from the house, and covered over to exclude the rainfall — excluding alsoj 



