126 The Essentials of House Sanitation — 



munication from some engineer in a London professional jour- 

 nal suggesting that these gratings at the street should be all 

 replaced by valves opening inwards, something like the valves 

 which we now put in chimney breasts to ventilate our rooms, 

 the exits to be only at certain selected spots where shafts might 

 be erected. Mr. Gray and Mr. Scott also suggested a tall shaft, 

 and if the Corporation gas or other cheap fuel can be utilised 

 to create a strong draft there, the combustion will destroy all the 

 foul products of the sewer, and you will have a quantity of 

 fresh air passing in at all these valves and passing out purified 

 at the chimney. Mr. Gray has further referred to the condition 

 of our workers' houses, and especially to those in the older parts 

 of the town. Superficially you may say that these houses 

 generally conform to sanitary rules : that is, they are absolutely 

 disconnected from the drains or sewer, but althongh the house 

 itself is disconnected and the jaw tub is discharging over an 

 open grating, yet the yard itself is so close to the house and so 

 small that the very imperfect trap often gets filled up, and prac- 

 tically might as well discharge into the house itself. You will 

 find also that in nearly all these houses the tiling and paving 

 are very defective, and the whole sub-soil at the back of the 

 house is in about as bad a condition as can be. I can also con- 

 firm what Mr. Gray stated with regard to the back lanes ; it is 

 high time Mr. Scott steps in and has them cleaned, I know, 

 however, from my own personal knowledge, it is not his fault 

 if some of the right things have not been done sooner. 



A gentleman in the audience asked Mr. Gray if he attached 

 any importance to the question of wall paper in houses as dan- 

 gerous to health, as arsenic and other impure ingredients are 

 often used in its manufacture. 



Mr. J. Brovv^n — Mr. Gray has referred to the regulations of 

 the authorities in Belfast respecting houses. I have not seen 

 these, but should like to ask whether they have anything to say 

 to the ground on which the houses are built. I refer specially 

 to ground, which I observe in more than one place, being made 

 up of rubbish from ashpits and other refuse of that kind. 



