636 
Cottage Sanitation. 
left all round ; and this should be done in such a way as to leave 
sufficient slope for the speedy removal of surface water. 
Where there is an ordinary house di-ain for sewage, it should 
not commxinicate with these subsoil-water drains. 
The surface of the ground immediately around the house 
should be concreted, paved, or macadamised, and sloped so that 
rain water may flow off without penetrating. 
The floor of the house should always be of some impervious 
material. Concrete is best, and the next best is good hai’d sand- 
stone set in cement. The floor should be a little above the level 
of the ground outside. 
Where a boarded floor is desired, there should be a space 
between the concrete and the boards freely communicating with 
the open air to prevent dry rot. This space is sometimes diffi- 
cult to obtain, and Mr. Councillor Hannam, of Leeds, has sug- 
gested and carried out the plan shown in fig. 3, whereby a 
concrete surface can be boarded over. 
Fig. 3.— Concrete floor with boarded surface, a, floor boards; B, slips 2" xlj"; c, cement 
concrete 4" thick ; D, rubble. 
fl'he ground is first prepared with rubble, on which is laid 
two inches of cement concrete. Wooden slips 2" x 1^" are then 
laid about a foot apart, and the spaces between filled with cement 
concrete so as to make a level surface. To the slips the flooring 
is nailed. The writer has seen the basement of a house in Leeds 
in which this plan had been carried out. The result is excellent. 
(2) For want of eave spouting. — The roof of the cottage 
should be properly guttered, and have a fall-pipe to conduct the 
water either to a cistern or to a channel which conveys it away 
from the foundations of the house. Fig. 2 on p. 635 shows some 
of these improvements. 
(3) For a leaking roof. — The roof should be made water- 
tight. It is hardly within the scope of this paper to discuss the 
merits of the various methods of roofing. Thatched, tiled, and 
slated roofs may be all perfectly good if they are kept in good 
repair. Thatch requires frequent renewal, and should never be 
allowed to get moss-grown or grass-covered. 
(4) For ground damp. — There is only one way of preventing 
