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in a large radius of the country round each of these places, 

 cover no inconsiderable area of the more populous parts of 

 Great Britain. The Associations in these places embrace in 

 their membership a large number of hospitals, banks, schools, 

 asylums, and country mansions, in addition to private dwelling- 

 houses ; their popularity is rapidly increasing, and their sphere 

 of usefulness widening. Medical men especially have been 

 prominent in seeking the benefit of the inspection for their own 

 residences. 



The second argument may be drawn from the facts told in 

 the reports of the Associations themselves. The London report 

 for 1883, for instance, shows that their engineers had examined 

 during the year 404 houses. Nine of these were found to have 

 their drains entirely closed up, and no connection whatever with 

 the main sewer, all the foul matter sent down the sinks and soil 

 pipes simply soaking into the ground under the basement of the 

 houses. In ninety-three houses, or twenty-three per cent., the 

 overflow pipes from the cisterns were led direct into the drains 

 and soil pipes, allowing sewer gas to pass up them and con- 

 taminate the water in the cisterns, and in many cases to pass 

 freely into the houses. In seventy-nine houses, or about twenty 

 per cent., the soil pipes were found to be leaky, allowing sewer 

 gas, and in many cases liquid sewage, to escape into the houses. 

 In two hundred and sixty-nine houses, or about sixty-seven per 

 cent, the waste pipes from the baths and sinks were found to be 

 led direct into the drains or soil pipes (presumably, doubtless, 

 with the usual inadequate S trap), thus allowing the possibility 

 of sewer gas passing up them, instead of these pipes being led 

 outside the house, and made to discharge over trapped gullies as 

 they should be. 



A very similar condition of things is revealed by an exami- 

 nation of the reports of the Edinburgh Association. Of the 

 houses inspected by its officers for the first time, seventy-five 

 per cent, were found to have the cistern overflows connected 

 with the foul or drainage system, which practically means that 

 in each of these cases a direct channel existed for the introduction 

 of poison into the house, arranged in a manner which did not 



