SEWAGE. It is of the first importance to health for houses, both in the town and in the country, that all filth should be removed from them as speedily as possible, and disposed of in such a manlier as to cease to be injurious to mankind. It may be taken as a pretty safe general guide, that all matters which give off it disagreeable small are dangerous if allowed to remain near our dwellings; nature thus giving us warning of the presence of something, that may do us harm. _Many people have thought that if, by using certain deodorizing materials, they could either fix this effluvium permanently or for a time, they had surmounted the difficulty; but this is scarcely half a cure, and a palliative like this is much less advisable that a radical measure of removing the filth by suspension in water, and rendering of it not only innocuous, but beneficial, by incor porating it with the great deodorizer—living vegetation. It seems as if nature had planned all this for us, if we will only follow her teaching. During the• first two or three days after sewage is deposited in water, the smell is unpleasant, but not dangerous to mankind; after that, putrefaction begins, and the gases given off become deleterious. Here, then, is time for removal, and a punishmeut for neglect. Fevers, gangrene, ophthalmia, and many other diseases, especially among children, are certain to break out and become malignant if the eta:mations from such filth exist in the air around human habitations. Until within the last years, privy-pits and cesspools prevailed everywhere. In the country the former were generally placed in the -garden attached to the house, and at some distance off, so that there was not much danger attached to them. In tle.• towns cesspools existed the houses, but they were very objectionable and danger. ous, and constantly neglected. These cesspools were large underground tanks built is brickwork, into which all the sewage from the house was discharged. In them the filth accumulated and petrified until it was periodically removed by manual labor. They
acted like an immense brewing vessel sending up deadly vapors which had no escape, except back into the houseamong the inhabitants. 'Phe cesspools also frequently leaked, , and so if any wells were near poisoned the water. When Brainah invented the water- , closet, and a larger supply of water had to be found for towns, the cesspools began to 1 overflow at such a rate that a general revision of the whole system became necessary, a•d at the same time medical men insisted upon the continuous and perfect removal of filth as the only reliable sanitary process of dealing with the matter. A return to the use of cesspools in any form would therefore be a step in the wrong direction, and would lend to disastrous results.
We may divide the subject as follows: 1. The management of the sewage of cottages; 2. Dwelling-houses and public buildings in the country; 3. Towns; and 4. The utilization of sewage.
1. Cottages.—It is obvious that in the case of single detached cottages expensive arrangements such as those necessary for water-closets could hot be provided, and some simpler plan must be followed.
It is very objectionable to allow either cesspool or privy-pit, if they can be avoided, as they are constantly neglected, and overflew into some stream, or poison the wells and the air. The privy should be placed, wherever that can be managed, on the n. or e. side, and to the rear of the house, so as not to be between the people and the sun and softest winds. The whole sewage-matter should be received in a square galvanized iron pail underneath a seat, which pail can be removed from the outside. and into which a small quantity of house-ashes should be placed, either daily, or as often as the closet is used. This will quite fix the ammonia. The iron pail must be removed by the cot tigers at least once a week, and emptied into their garden. No danger can possibly arise from this, if strictly followed, and all the sewage-matter is placed to its best. pur pose. There has not been found any difficulty in introducing this system among cot tagers.