145 



Hygiene of Indoor Swimming Pools, with Suggestions for 

 Practical, Disinfection. 



Bv Severance Birrage. 



The "Ole Swiniinin' Hole" of our boyhood days is doomed. The fa- 

 vorite spot in pond or stream to which we used to go after school for a 

 good swim and play, with no thought for the microbe in the water nor the 

 bathing suit for our bodies, is. for the boy of today almost unknown, and 

 for the boy of the future will be but an unrealizable dream. With the 

 advance of civilization these swimming holes are being replaced by public- 

 bath-houses, and to these, or to gymnasiums that are provided w r ith 

 swimming tanks, the boys must go for their swim. The streams and 

 ponds have become polluted to such an extent that it is dangerous for 

 the boys to bathe therein. This is the result of the increase in population, 

 coupled with the great carelessness of individuals and communities in the 

 disposal of wastes. This replacement of the natural swimming pool by 

 the indoor swimming pool may carry with it new unhygienic conditions, 

 and it is a discussion of these conditions and their elimination that forms 

 the purpose of this paper. 



CONSTRUCTION OF INDOOR SWIMMING POOLS. 



One of the first requirements in the sanitary construction of the indoor 

 swimming pool is that it must be so constructed that it may be easily 

 cleaned. To this end the surface of the lining material of the pool should 

 be very smooth, such a surface as is provided by glazed tiles so laid as 

 to avoid all cracks and crevices. At the angles formed by the meeting of 

 the sides and tloor of the pool, curved tiling should be used, which would 

 give the same result in the border of the pool flooring as is obtained in 

 the angleless baseboard in up-to-date hospitals and operating rooms. The 

 almost universal deposit of a slimy sediment in these pools, even when 

 the water is comparatively clear, makes it necessary to provide for an 

 easy and complete cleaning. A concrete or cemenr lining, made as smooth 

 as it is possible to make it. furnishes a surface that is difficult to keep 

 clean. 



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