SANITARY PLUMBING. - 607 



pleasure, we have made the night almost as subservient as the day. On the con- 

 trary, how gloomy must have been the long winter nights of our ancestors with- 

 out illuminated streets, and with houses dimly lighted with rude lamps ? 



Gas for illuminating streets was first used in London in 1816. The candle 

 is a comparatively modern invention. The so called candles alluded to by the 

 ancients and in the Scriptures, are believed to have been rude lamps for the 

 burning of olive oil, and these were continued down to the end of the eighteenth 

 century. The first improvement in wicks took place in France in 1783. 



The use of spectacles did not become general until after 1313, when they 

 were invented by an Italian mouk. This universal boon to mankind ought to 

 be considered a very considerable set off against relic worship and asceticism. 



Think of one reaching forty-five years of age and then the print of the news- 

 paper growing dim, week by week, until at fifty one is shut off from the news for- 

 ever. Again, the first weekly newspaper was not printed until 161 5, when it 

 was issued in Frankfort-on-the-Main ; but the real newspaper, the morning daily, 

 with its fresh news from all parts of the world, is a work that has been perfected 

 and brought into successful operation within the period of our own memories. 



But again, nowhere do the advantages of our modern civilization and the 

 disadvantages of our ancestors stand out so conspicuously as in the comparison of 

 habitations. Chimneys were unknown before the fourteenth century, and did 

 not come into general use for a long time afterward. It is even said that the 

 ancients had no knowledge of chimneys. We have only to contemplate our 

 comfortable rooms, heated with stoves or hot air furnaces, or with steam, and 

 then to view our ancestors hovering over a few coals in a dim, smoky room, with 

 no place for the escape of smoke and the poisonous products of combustion, 

 except a hole in the .roof, to appreciate our inestimable advantages. Window- 

 glass, also, did not come into use before the fifteenth century. Paving the streets 

 was unknown to our ancestors until 1184, when it was first tried in Paris. It 

 seems to have been an invention which made but little impression on the people, 

 as it was not introduced into London until 1533. Sewers were unknown to our 

 progenitors until the beginning of the thirteenth century and were then only used 

 for the removal of storm-water. Until a comparatively recent period, the dis- 

 charge of sewage proper into the sewers was prohibited by law in London. The 

 use of sewers for the removal of house waste is an invention of the present cent- 

 ury. 



But I will not dwell longer on the enumeration of those inventions which 

 are calculated to give a charm and to impart an attachment to this existence un- 

 known to our forefathers. 



Although we have elaborated the fact that the tendency of our modern civ- 

 ilization is to the congregating of mankind in great cities, and have pointed out 

 the many gains which we possess over our ancestors, we have yet to mention the 

 additional fact that all these benefits have been obtained by many sacrifices, and 

 that there are innumerable dangers inseparable from our present social organiza- 

 tion. These dangers are such as affect the public health. The very flocking 



