A cesspool should not be dug in a heavy clay or a clay loam, through which liquids will not drain away. In such cases it is necessary to carry the drainage farther from the house—say 200 or 300 feet—and allow it to flow over a considerable surface. This tract may be grass land, or, better, artificially prepared by covering it with sand. It should have an area of from 25 to 100 feet square for every ten persons in the family; and the sewage should be distributed by drains or furrows, so that it will come in contact with all parts of the sur face, and not settle in a single pool.
Sink Drain. — A temporary drain for waste water from the kitchen sink may be made very cheap. Four-inch vitrified tile costs about seven cents a foot. A drain may be run about 25 feet in the opposite direction from the well, and the waste conveyed to a tub or barrel, whence it may be run off to the garden by a small pipe or carried away in pails. If a barrel can be provided with two wheels, and a tongue like a cart, it can be easily drawn away from time to time and emptied. The expense of such a drain is nominal: twenty-five feet of vitri fied tile, $1.75; sink, $1.25; pipe and trap, $1. Total, $4.
Another method is to dig a trench 75 to 100 feet long, 2 or 3 feet wide, and the same deep. Lay in the bot tom of this trench 4- or 6-inch drain tiles. Leave the joints open, and fill around the drain with field stone and pebbles as large as your fist. This should be 200 feet or more from buildings. The top is to be left open, and waste water discharged into it by pipes leading from the house. The drain will be filled to the top, but in a short time it will leach away into the soil. A pound or so of copperas dissolved in a pailful of hot water and poured into the drain will destroy all offensive odors.
Water Pipes. — To prevent the freezing of water pipes where there is a regular water supply, always turn off the water from the house by turn ing the stopcock leading to the street main. Open all faucets and allow pipes to drain thoroughly, also empty the kitchen boiler. If this is not done the boiler may collapse. To empty the boiler attach a garden or other hose to the top and let the water run into the sink. You should do this every spring and fall to clean the tank.
To prevent freezing in pumps, lift the trap in the valve and allow the water to run back into the well.
Kitchen sinks should not be put against the outer wall of a house. If this has been done and the sink can not be changed, circular tubes of as bestos can be purchased and fitted over the pipes, or the wall may be lined with asbestos. But on cold nights it is safer to turn the water Off, Frozen Water Pipes. — While the pipes are frozen care must be taken not to build a fire in furnace or range, as direct heat from the pipes will gen erate steam and severe explosions may follow. At the very least pipes will burst and the plumbers' bills for re pairs will be heavy. Pipes that are slightly stuck may be thawed by wrapping them round with flannel or other cloth and pouring on hot water. Plumbers use gasoline or kerosene gas in lamps which blow around the frozen pipe, and they move the lamp back and forth so as not to apply too much heat at any one spot.
Drinking Water. — The source of supply of drinking water should be absolutely pure. And it is a good idea to have drinking water, especial ly from wells and cisterns, tested chemically at least twice a year. Water from deep cisterns, from wells, and from the deepest portions of large ponds and reservoirs, is to be preferred to that from running streams. Water is often contaminat ed by its proximity to stables, cess pools, and open drains, through un derground leaching in sandy or other porous soil. Bacteria of typhoid fever, cholera, and dysentery may be taken into the system from impure drinking water. When there is any reason to suspect the water supply, especially if these diseases are preva lent, all drinking water should be boiled. A little lemon juice will take away the flat taste of boiled water.
Physicians frequently recommend drinking water in large quantities, say, a pint half an hour before each meal, and the same quantity before retiring at night. The effect of this is to increase the muscular activity of certain internal organs by distention, and to dissolve certain poisonous se cretions, as uric acid, for instance, which causes rheumatism. This prac tice is also a preventive in cases of threatened diabetes or kidney disease. It is probable that few persons drink as much water as is advisable from a hygienic standpoint. But, of course, the more water taken into the system the more important it is that the source of supply should be pure.