7 he Health Exhibition . 
[October, 
582 
the ground-landlord and the tenant-occupier. The second 
step would involve the abolition of the convention by which 
a dwelling-house — in contradistinction to a place of business 
— is officially considered to become of higher value as the 
neighbourhood becomes dirtier, noisier, and more crowded, 
and as all who can afford migrate further out into the 
country, whilst their place is filled by a lower class. 
It will have been noted that our correspondent, Mr. Thos. 
Fletcher, has little hope for the introduction of earthenware 
stoves instead of our dirty and uneconomical fire-grates. 
He forgets that such stoves need not be costly structures of 
porcelain. Ordinary fire-clay tiles answer just as well. He 
overlooks, too, the fafts that fuel is much higher in price 
than it was formerly, and that our winter, though not so 
severe as that of Holland, Germany, &c., is quite as long. 
The fire-clay stove is more under control as regards the 
temperature to be obtained than is the grate under any of 
its modifications. 
Whilst speaking of sanitary and insanitary houses we 
cannot help referring to the “ Introduction ” to the Official 
Catalogue. A marginal note speaks of “ former ignorance 
regarding sanitary matters.” We submit that popular no- 
tions on this head are ill-founded. The Books of Moses 
and the Laws of the Buddhists show an acquaintance with 
sanitary science on a level with the knowledge of the piesent 
day, and in too many instances sadly ahead of its practice. 
Says the Catalogue “ Systematic drainage and water- 
supply for towns and villages were not thought of.” What 
of ancient Rome, far better supplied with water than London 
or Paris, and, so far as we can judge, as well-sewered ? As 
for domestic architecture the remains of Pompeii are supe- 
rior to our towns, no less from the sanitary than fiom the 
esthetic point of view, — no jerry-work, no lurking places 
for vermin or for putrescent matter ; everything sound, hard, 
compart, so as to be incapable of absorbing foul gases or 
fluids. It is sad, indeed, that with all the economies and 
all the over-work of the modern world its children cannot 
afford to be as healthily housed as were their predecessors 
eighteen centuries ago. 
The ancients were certainly not unacquainted with the 
water-carriage of sewage, though we have no evidence that 
they tried any method of purifying waters so polluted. In 
China, indeed, the use of alum in cleansing contaminated 
waters, so as to render it fit for drinking purposes, seems to 
have been known and practised from time immemorial. A 
quantity of water from one of their muddy, impure streams, 
