xlii 



3,500 cesspits yet existing, and it has been recommended to have 

 these replaced by brick trough closets, such as are in use at Liverpool. 

 The cost of these has not been stated ; but they could not be erected 

 and furnished with pipes, junctions, trough, brick walls, and other 

 fittings, as shown on sketch, under the sum of £18 for each one or a 

 total cost of £63,000, this expense resting upon the owners of the houses 

 to which the closets are added, and exceeding Mr. Mault's total 

 estimate for underground sewers by £3,000. But, considered apart 

 from the cost, such receptacles as advocated in the report, unless 

 punctually attended to, _ would prove very offensive, and, however 

 much attention they might have, accumulations would collect on the 

 sides and edges, which practically could never be cleansed. Referring 

 to waterclosets generally, my experience in Manchester has taught me 

 to regard them with a very jealous eye. They appear to be directly 

 opposed to the first principles of sanitary science, and should only be 

 tolerated in large and lofty buildings where the adoption of the dry 

 system is practically impossible, and then they should be separated 

 by an open air space, and the ventilating and other pipes carefully 

 supervised. 



We are aware that the patent wash-out pan looks cleanly, and is 

 in a certain sense convenient, but speaking as a sanitary surveyor, and 

 using metaphor, it is typhus and typhoid fever garbed as an angel ; I 

 should not have to go away from Hobart to reduce this metaphor to 

 hard fact. In the city of Mancheser this has been proved scores of 

 times. The officer of health for that city states in his report for 1869, 

 with regard to waterclosets and grids, that " no trap as ordinarily 

 constructed is proof against the passage of sewer gases. The water 

 which forms the valve becomes saturated with the gases (sulphuretted 

 hydrogen, etc.) from below, and gives them off again above into the 

 cellars or other apartments. There is no such thing as permanent 

 retention of gases by water except under pressure. There is constant 

 absorption on the one side, and constant elimination on the other." 



The noxious quality of evolved sewer gas, assisted as it is in its 

 evolutions by the bungling of plumbers, causes more sickness and death 

 in first-class houses than the generality of the inhabitants of such houses 

 dream of. 



I would here mention that there is room for legislation with regard 

 to allowing workmen to interfere with lead-piping in houses unless they 

 are duly qualified and authorised. 



It is certain that the "residuum" would not rise to the occasion in 

 the use of the trough. Bundles of rags, and vegetable and animal 

 refuse, would assuredly find their way into the trough pipe, just as they 

 do in the pail or the cesspit, but in the former they are not easily 

 removed ; we should then have stoppage, nuisance, and expense to all 

 connected with that sewerage area, both above and below the 

 stoppage. 



As Liverpool is a water-closeted city and Manchester is a dry-closeted 

 city, it would perhaps be useful to compare the death rates as far as we 

 can obtain them. The infant mortality per 100,000 persons under 5 

 years of age, from 1851-1860 was for Manchester 11 '7, for Liverpool 



are from the figures of the Registrar-General, as quoted in the report of 

 the officer of health, Manchester, 1876, p. 35. The death-rate per 

 1,000 for the whole town of Liverpool in 1880 was 27"3 ; for the city of 

 Manchester 25'99, this including 659 deaths which occurred at Crumpsall 

 workhouse near to Manchester, and which should not have beenincluded. 

 By these facts the system of Liverpool soil pipes stands condemned. 



