SANITARY PLUMBING. 611 



plumbing, and as to the dangers of cheap and imperfect drainage? And have 

 you superintended all your work punctiliously ? Have you scrutinized every 

 joint, every gasket, every pipe, as to weight and freedom from imperfect cast- 

 ing? Were there no flaws in the drain pipe, was it properly glazed and laid at 

 a proper inclination ? These are questions for you to answer in your moments of 

 self-interrogation. It is only a few weeks since, that a plumber was arrested 

 and punished in New York for carrying through the roof of a house, a phantom 

 or dummy soil pipe. I suspect, notwithstanding the heartless motives unjustly 

 imputed to the plumber, that there are times in his history, when he takes up the 

 morning paper and reads the death notice of some child, "that has been removed 

 by diphtheria, in which a feeling of chagrin and remorse steals over him. But 

 again, the city government, the health department, and the sanitary superintend- 

 ent are responsible for this lack of correct plumbing; for it is a fact, that good 

 plumbing is not general in any city unless regulated and obtained by law. 



As long as street cleaning or the removing of garbage is not regulated by 

 law, so long will the city be filthy. So long as every man is let to adulterate 

 food, so long will the common necessities of life be debased by heartless men, 

 and so long as the building of a system of house drainage, in any building, pub- 

 lic or private, is left to the avarice or ignorance of any man, so long will that art 

 jeopardize the safety and welfare of the community. As before remarked, I sup- 

 pose that some of the plumbing work in this city has been faultless, both in theory 

 and construction, but it has not fallen to my lot to see any of this work. I have, 

 however, been credibly informed of its construction. I have, on the contrary, 

 seen numerous instances of incorrect plumbing. I have seen soil pipes without 

 fresh air inlets, and terminating on the same floor as the fixtures, or on the first 

 or second floor, without going up through the roof. I have seen a soil pipe in a 

 residence end in the chimney. I have known it to terminate in the smoke-stack 

 of a public building, either to be filled up with soot or, under some circumstances, 

 to be so affected by the draft as to unseal the traps. As a rule, I believe that 

 the danger of the siphonage of traps has been wholly overlooked and ignored in 

 this city. I have never seen a common "S," or siphon trap, ventilated in this 

 city, yet I know that there is not a city, where there is a plumbing law, that would 

 allow an '• S " trap without a vent pipe to be connected with any fixture of a soil 

 pipe. 



Now, gentlemen, I think you will agree with me when I say that we need a 

 reformation in the plumbing work of this city. That reformation should begin 

 first with the work of putting in the water service. There is nothing so essential 

 to the public health and comfort as the general use of the water service. We 

 need in this city to get our water supply from above Argentine, or preferably 

 above Wyandotte, and then we shall abandon all cisterns and wells. In fact, no 

 well should now be allowed by law within the city limits. Water then should be 

 introduced from the public supply into every tenement and lodging house and 

 into every habitation in the city. But the water service pipe must be put in dif- 

 ferently from the work done heretofore. This freezing of the water pipe or shut 



