water thickened to the consistency of porridge by the hornylike shells of black-beetles. My friend Dr. Dudfield has lately reported a similar occurrence. We need not stop to notice the danger of drinking rain-water, for its use is confined to very few places. If collected from leaden flats or lead hipped and valleyed roofs it would be wisest to discard it. And where most unfortunately the use of it must obtain, from lack of a supply of spring or river water, it is necessary to make sure that the tanks are free from decayed leaves, dead mice and rats, and the bloated remains of the order Batrachia. Rain-water should invariably be filtered before it enters into the tank.

I will now make a few remarks upon the gas supply, and I will make bold to say that if the 7,000 and odd houses which were added to London during 1874 were carefully tested, not a tithe, if indeed a dozen, would prove absolutely free fron escapes of carburetted hydrogen. I tested one house a few days ago and found five very serious leaks in the walls and partitions alone, where in fact the pipes had been hidden over with plaster, and where no gasfitter would have dreamed of searching. And it is not an uncommon thing to find families who have been suffering for months from this slow poisoning. Onepart of coal-gas to eleven of air constitutes an explosive mixwill ture, but an atmosphere containing one-fifteenth of gas cause the death of a rabbit in a very few minutes, and a longer exposure would prove fatal to human life by bringing on coagulation of the blood or congestion of the brain. Numbers of persons do die annually amongst us from this cause. I would therefore say to those who use gas, test your gaspipes in the only safe way, which is by stopping up all burners but one, and fixing upon that a mercury gauge connected with a forcepump, nor resting satisfied that all is sound until the gauge no longer shows signs of sinking when the pumping ceases. It is the only known mode for thoroughly proving the gas service, and it is a crying scandal with us that any uncertificated person can set up business as a gasfitter, and that not one out of every hundred gasfitters in Great Britain is acquainted with any scientific method of testing gaspipes, laid down under floors or spiked up against walls.

In conclusion, I am very mindful that no paper upon defects in house sanitation can be even approximately complete without treating of the general arrangements and aspects of the various rooms, and without entering upon the twin-born quesBut tion of how best to warm and ventilate a residence. these subjects would require a lengthy paper to themselves, and

I will therefore relegate them to the future, or leave them to be treated by more worthy hands.

6

Mr. H. H. COLLINS also read a Paper in the question.'-Mr. Collins contended that the subject of the unsanitary condition of the houses of the poor had fully enlisted the sympathy of the thinking public, and that those who could not help themselves' were rather the upper and middle classes of society than the lower; none were more powerless, and few more helpless. That in all modern buildings erected for the poor, the assistance of the best professional ability had been consulted, their accommodation had been carefully planned, and their sanitation studiously arranged, with so great a success, that whilst the average mortality of the metropolis was 24 per thousand, that of the poor residing in these dwellings was only 14 per thousand. He stated that the pretentions houses of the 'well-todo' contained more unknown and concealed immundicities than the unobtrusive dwellings of the poor, which he attributed principally to the method of letting land, by which the honesty and interest of all concerned were opposed to each other. He showed that the architect or engineer had no control or supervision, and that if consulted at all, it was merely for the purpose of assessing the market value of the property; with its defects of plan or want of sanitary arrangements he had absolutely nothing to do. He showed, that whilst legislative enactments were good in theory, in practice they were inoperative and powerless, and that London and its suburbs were infinitely worse provided for than many second-rate provincial towns. He passed a well-earned encomium on Mr. Arntz, the Surveyor of the Board of Works for Westminster, who had laid down an admirable code for the regulation of the drainage of the houses in his district, and to prevent any excuse for noncompliance therewith. With respect to the Metropolitan Building Act, he pointed out that it was passed more for the prevention of accident by fire than for the sanitation of the buildings themselves. The Nuisance Removal Act was, as a rule, limited in its application to the houses of the poor, and seldom to those of the upper and middle classes. In this respect, a poor man's dwelling had a great advantage over the rich man's; inspection would be resented as an interference by the wealthy, but would in reality be a safeguard and a blessing to them. He then proceeded to the consideration of the nature of the sanitary defects which exist in most of our London structures. As a remedy for the defects which he had

This Paper is printed in full in the Society of Arts Journal, Oct. 22, 1875.

enumerated, he suggested-First. That additional compulsory and not permissive sanitary enactments were necessary. That the Building Act required revision, so as to confer greater authority on, and larger power to, the district surveyor, and that local authorities should be made amenable to a Central Board to carry out with strictness the provisions of the Act of Parliament. Secondly. That the clauses of the present Acts should be carefully utilised, and not rendered imperative by the perfunctory manner in which their obligations are construed, amounting to avoidance thereof. Thirdly. That it should be imperative upon vestries or local authorities that they should appoint well qualified and well paid officers to interpret and to carry into effect the laws relating to the health of the people, men whose professional attainments, scientific knowledge, and social position shall command respect and ensure obedience. The best prevention, however, he contended, would be by educating the people to a sense of their own danger and ignorance. He said that by attention to the following suggestions the lives of both old and new houses, together with their inmates, may be prolonged and preserved. That all subsoils should be drained, proper thickness of concrete should be applied to foundations. Damp proof courses should be inserted over footings: earth should be kept back from walls by dry areas. External walls should be built with good well hard-burnt stock brickwork, never less than 14 inches thick. Internal divisions should be of brick, in cement. It is essential that the mortar or cement should be of good quality. All basement floors should have a concrete or cement bottom, with air flowing over the same, and the boarding thereof should be tongued. Ample areas back and front should be insisted on, the fence walls of which should never be allowed to be more than seven feet in height; main drains should be carried through the backyards; and to prevent inconvenience to adjoining sewers from any obstructions, they should be laid in subways, or that the sewer inspector could gain ready access thereto without entering any of the premises. No basement should be allowed to be constructed at such a level as will not permit of the pipes having good steep gradients. Pipes should be of glazed earthenware, with joints made in Portland cement, resting on solid foundations; connections with sewers should be direct, without intervention of syphons or other traps. All drains should be ventilated by lead ventilating pipes carried up beyond ridges of roofs. Special care should be taken to prevent any direct connection from the house with the sewers; all sinks should be placed next external walls having windows

over the same, and removed from the influence of the fire grates; all waste pipes should discharge exteriorly over and not into trapped cesspits. These require care in their construction. Syphon traps and bell traps are to be avoided, whenever possible; they often cause the very injury they are intended to prevent. The scullery sink should have a special fat trap provided, or one of Field's patent self-acting flush traps.' The basement cisternage should be placed in convenient and accessible positions, protected from dirt, and guarded from the effects of alternations of temperature. They should be slate or galvanised iron, and never of lead or zinc. They should be filled with overflows discharging over the sink or over trapped cesses as just mentioned. They should be supplied with stout lead encased block tin pipe; the services therefrom for all drinking purposes should be of the same description, and should be attached to an ascending filter, so that the water may be delivered free from lead or organic impurities. Leadpoisoning is more frequent than is generally believed. The servants' water-closets, of which there should always be two, for the accommodation of each sex, should be placed in an open well-lighted and well-ventilated position: it is a false idea of decency which dictates locating them in out-of-the-way positions. The cisterns should be distinct in position and supply, from the store of drinking water cistern, the wastes thereof should turn out over cesspits, and the closets should be good earthenware and copper, having flushing runs, with syphon traps and pull-down chain. Cupboards under stairs, under sinks, under dressers, or out-of-the-way' places should be avoided, and when fitted up should always be well ventilated. All passages should be well lighted and ventilated. Borrowed lights are better than not having any other. Every room should be furnished with a fire-place. Ventilators over doors and windows should be freely disposed. It will conduce to the health of the house, without adding one shilling to its cost, to build next the kitchen flue a separate ventilating flue, and to conduct the products of combustion from gas and other impure or soiled air, &c., into the same, from ventilators placed in the centre of or close to the ceilings, as may be found most convenient. The staircases should be made the main ventilator of the house, and it is essentially necessary to preserve the air surrounding the same uncontaminated, pure, and undefiled. It will be better to light and ventilate them from the top. An invisible gauze net may be placed under it, which can periodically be easily removed and cleansed, or to furnish it with a movable inner ornamental flat light. The water-closets, both

on the ground of sanitary consideration and constructional economy, should be placed over each other, out of the house, and separated therefrom by necks or lobbies, lighted and ventilated each side by windows extending to the ceilings. These passages should be enclosed by glass screens, and may be made very ornamental features; these lobbies can be fitted up with closets or as ferneries, or to suit the exigencies or taste of the occupants. The water-closets should be of valve construction; the soil pipes should be of block tin cased pipes, and should be ventilated by being carried up well over roofs, and left with hoods or cowls open to the atmosphere. If safes are introduced under the same, the overflow therefrom should be carried through the walls, and furnished at feet with ground brass flaps to prevent any back draught. The water-closet fittings should be constructed to remove, the risers being hung as doors, so as to admit of ready inspection and cleansing. There should be an air grating fixed between the seat and floor to prevent impure air lodging there. All closets should have indiarubber bands between seats and basins, to prevent draught penetrating, a source of danger productive of illness. Pan closets should never be used. The apartment in which the water-closet apparatus is placed should be well lighted and ventilated top and bottom; separate cistern should be provided to supply the closets, which should have waste pipes discharging into the open air. Baths must be carefully disconnected from drainage; all waste therefrom should be carried through the external wall of house and should turn over and into rain-water heads. The pipe should be continued to area, where it should discharge over trap cesspits. Mansard,' or sloping roofs, should be avoided as being injurious to the health of the domestics, whose sleeping apartments they are generally appropriated to; they are unhealthy, hot in summer, and prejudicially cold in winter. Gutters taken through roofs, and known as trough gutters, should never be permitted; they congregate putrescent filth. Mr. Collins concluded by some interesting statistics bearing on the subject of his paper.

DISCUSSION.

Captain DOUGLAS GALTON, C.B., F.R.S. (London) said both papers contained a great deal of very interesting information, and it was perfectly well known that the defective sanitary construction of our houses was a fruitful source of suffering. A very important matter, and one to which attention was not sufficiently drawn, was the effect of subsoil gases on