2. Dwelling-houses and Public Buildings in the Country.—It would be useless to dis cuss a dry-earth system like what has been mentioned anywhere but for outhouses attached to cottages: the general feelings of the inhabitants would not tolerate it. We must therefore accept the water-closet as the system universally adopted. In planning the position of water-closets for a house, the first thing to be thought of is, that they shall be if possible on the n. or cool side of the house, and upon exterior walls. If they are placed in the interior of the house, it is troublesome to get at the drains when required. an 1 the closets themselves cannot be sufficiently ventilated. If the closet is inside the house, then Bramait's patent with a D trap underneath is the only form that should buUsed; but if the closet is outside. then a less expensive one with a syphon earthenware trap may be adopted: It is desirable that the closet should lie surrounded with brick walls, and, in fact, isolated from all other parts of the house. The window of the closet when inside the house should always reach the ceiling; and a ventilating shaft is desirable where the closet is much used, and the window must be shut occa sionally. The ordinary water that passes into the drains leading from any closet— such as is discharged each time that the handle is raised—is not sufficient to sweep out thoroughly all the solid matter from the drain-pipes, and therefore a flushing apparatus at the highest point of all sets of drains is essential, so that a body of water may be allowed to pass down with a rush at least twice or three times a week. It is also desirable that the foul air engendered in the drain-pipes them selves should have some free outlet into the air at some point where it will not be injurious. The gas given off under such circumstances is of a very light char acter, and has a great tendency to ascend and draw toward heat. During the greater part of the year, especially since the system has been introduced of heating houses by hot air, the temperature of living-rooms is much higher than the atmosphere outside; a pumping action is exercised upon the drains, or indeed upon any outlet, for a fresh supply. If, therefore, some safety-valve is not provided, the gas will force an entry either the traps or some imperfection in the joints of the drains. In constructing• the drains from houses or large public buildings, it is now a well-decided point that there should be an entirely separate system for the sewage or foul water, apart from that for rain and surface-water. The reasons are many and obvious, but they are given more appropriately under the head of the drainage of towns. Stone ware pipes are the best material to be used for drains, because they are perfectly non-absorbent: but in many cases glazed earthenware will answer very well. The smallest size of pipes of any description that should be used for removing sewage from a house is n in. in diameter. This size, then, may he gradually increased as is necessary, and one of 9 in. will remove the sewage of 500 people. The best fall to be given to a sewage-drain is 1 in. in 10 ft.; butstll will work well from 1 in. in 5 ft. up to 1 in. in 60—provided the flushing arrangements are as they ought to be. In order to keep the drains clean, not less than 10 gal. of water daily should pass down the drain for every person in the house; while anything over 25 gal. is superfluous. At every 20 yards there should be a pipe laid from which the upper half can be removed, and the interior inspected at any time, and any stoppage remedied without the necessity of breaking the pipes. Greasy water, such as is poured down from the kitchen and scul lery of a house, is one of the constant causes of such stoppages. The fat, as it cools, congeals on the sides of the pipes, and forms a hard cake. The best Method of pre venting this is to form a small cesspool, into which the kitchen water is poured first, and then to take an overflow through a syphon into the foul drain, so that the liquid only enters, while the fat can be removed by hand from the cesspool. The sewage-mat ter having been thus all thoroughly removed from the house, a sewage-filter should be built; The solid and liquid matters of the sewage are here mechanically separated, and the former can be removed from time to time—say once in six weeks or two months— while the latter must be passed on for irrigation. It is clearly illegal to pass it into any stream; and it is apt to become a serious nuisance if anything else is done with it. We shall treat of the best method of utilizing this liquid under the fourth head. It is always
advisable to get space ftir all these arrangements on the n. and c. side of a house, when possible, so as to run no risk of contaminating the air on the s. or hot side of a dwelling; and if a belt of trees can be placed between the sewage-filter and the irrigated land and the house, it will also be'advantag,eous.
3. The Drainage of within the last 40 years. the only drainage which existed in towns was for the rain-water and .su•face-water alone, anti the inhabitants were strictly watched to prevent their passing any sewage matter into these drains. The introduction of the water-closet, however, gradually increased the water which over flowed from the old cesspools to such an extent that it was impossible to prevent over flows of this description, and systems of drainage were designed to carry off the whole, both sewage and rain-water. A very composite system of drainage then arose. Gen erally, the bed of some stream or natural rivulet passing through the town was covered over, and the whole filth passed into that along with the rain-fall of the district. This soon was found unsatisfactory, because the flood-waters of the stream were not to be relied on to keep the channel clean, and so the filth remained festering underneath the ground, giving off deadly gases in the midst of the population. The next arrangement which succeeded to that system was to plan large drains for the rain and surface-water and sewage, and still keeping the idea of the size of the bed of a natural stream before them, engineers thought it necessary to make all the main drains large for a man to pass through them, and keep them clean, Seeing the vast quantity of sand and grit that was occasionally washed off the streets, something might be said in defense of this system. Vast numbers of these great main sewers still exists Into these sewers all the smaller house-drains were to enter, and the surface-water through street-gratings as well. The ordinary water used for domestic purposes, and the occasional rain-falls, were relied upon to fl ush those large main sewers; but their great size made this an exceed ingly difficult and uncertain process, and they, in fact, hecame only cesspools elon gated. In dry weather, the filth was retained in them to such an extent, that after heavy rains, chemical analysis showed that the water that was discharged contained frequently twenty times the amount of human fecal matter per gallon more than it did in dry weather. This state of matters, added to the fact that long-continued dry weather was always attended by an increase of deaths from typhus and other fevers, clearly showed that something more must be done. A further step was then taken by sanitary engi neers. The idea of men passing up the drains was set, aside, and the smallest possible drains were constructed. until these have arrived at such dimensions as an 18 in. main drain for a town of 10.000 inhabitants. The rain-fall was still to be relied on to a eir tain extent for flushing purposes, but a supplementary assistance was to be given at some points by flushing with water from the ordinary regular supply of the town. As these smaller drains were not sufficient to carry off all the surface and rain-water, as well as the sewage, overflow weirs have been provided at certain points, where the excess must go over, and pass away into some other channel. This is the system now most gen erally adopted, and is better than its predecessors; but it is now decided that it, in its turn, must give way to something better, and the change has commenced. The neces sity of dealing with the swage at the main (atal], and the utilization of it for agricul tural fertilization, while, m nine eases out of ten, pumping must be employed to lift the sewage of a town at the discharging point for such a purpose, have gradually forced upon us the conviction that the sewage and household water must be kept quite dis tinct from the surface-water. subsoil water, and rain-fall.
The outfall of the sewage drain, and subsequent disposal of the filth, are in reality the first things to be considered. Hitherto, engineers in general have taken the nearest stream, and polluted it to such an extent, that perpetual law-suits, nuisances, and dis eases have been the result. Fever of the worst class is certain to follow the drinking of water tainted in this manner, and there is scarcely a stream in the interior of the coun try which has not been injured more or less from this cause.