1873.: 
Notices of Books, 
563 
the Ancient Hebrews, in dedicating flies to the Evil One, were 
influenced by a knowledge of their function as disseminators of 
disease and death. We learn that sewage-irrigation was prac- 
tised in Jerusalem. The blood of the sacrifices offered in the 
Temple, and doubtless the other nuisances of the city, were 
flushed down with abundant water into the Valley of the Kedron, 
and were there received in subsidence-tanks. The solid matter 
was collected and sold for manure, and the effluent used for 
irrigation. It must be remembered that in a climate like that of 
Judaea, where the rainfall is scanty and the evaporation excessive, 
a supply of water is often the one thing needed to convert a 
desert into a garden. The water-closet, which is often considered 
as a modern and an English invention, and is often spoken of in 
France as “ cabinet Anglais,” is traced back to Asia. “ They 
were introduced into Rome during the Republic, and are noticed 
by several ancient writers. Those constructed in the palace of 
the Caesars were adorned with marbles, arabesques, and mosaics. 
At the back of one still extant there is a cistern the water of 
which is distributed by cocks to different seats.” In Ogilby’s 
“ Africa,” a work published in 1670, these are described as being 
numerous in the city of Fez. Sir John Harrington introduced 
them into this country in the reign of Elizabeth, but, according 
to M. Roubo, they had been long used in France before becoming 
known in England. As a contrast we find that in our own days, 
in the sixteen years ending in 1862, fifty-one cesspools in 
Windsor Castle were abolished. These foci of disease and 
nuisance within the ancient palace of our monarchs varied in 
size from 12 feet by 8, and 9 feet in depth, to 3 feet in diameter 
by 6 feet in depth. 
But indeed we are only beginning to throw off the heritage of 
filth handed down to us from the Dark Ages. Mr. Latham may 
perhaps exaggerate when he tells us that ‘ 4 for a thousand years 
there was not a man or a woman in Europe that ever took a 
bath.” But it is certain that for a long time cleanliness and 
heresy were deemed to be closely connected. Even in our own 
days, in the south-eastern and south-western peninsulas of 
Europe, dirt is regarded as the characteristic privilege of the 
Christian as compared with the Turk or the Moor. 
Among other subjects Mr. Latham discusses the vexed ques- 
tion of a single or a double system of drainage. He points out 
that the surface-water of our cities is almost, if not quite, as 
impure as sewage properly so-called. He shows that if the 
rainfall is entirely excluded from the sewers, the latter will 
require flushing. But, as the best arrangement, he seems to 
recommend “ a system of sewerage combining the admission of 
small amounts of rainfall into the intercepting sewers of a town, 
while in time of heavy rainfall the comparatively pure surface- 
water should flow on to its natural outlet.” The great argu- 
ments in favour of this plan are that it restores to the streams 
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