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 DEPARTMENT OF 
 
 University of Illinois. 
 
 Books are not to be taken from the Library Room. 
 
 
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' J . 
 
 HAND-BOOK 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION 
 
 FOR 
 
 HOUSEHOLDERS, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 FACTS AND SUGGESTIONS ABOUT VENTILATION, 
 DRAINAGE, CARE OF CONTAGIOUS DISEASES, 
 DISINFECTION, FOOD, AND WATER. 
 
 WITH APPENDICES ON 
 
 DISINFECTANTS AND PLUMBERS’ MATERIALS. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 
 I, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET. 
 
 1884, 
 
EOGER 
 
 COPYRIGHT BY 
 
 S. TEACT, M. D. 
 
 1884. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The preparation of this hand-book was suggested 
 by persistent questioning about the matters it con- 
 tains. Its purpose is to furnish householders with 
 information which has been so scattered, or buried 
 so deep in technical discussions, that it has not been 
 easy for them to find it for themselves. It is, of 
 course, mainly a compilation, and the only difficul- 
 ties met with have been those incident to the ar- 
 rangement and condensation of a large mass of 
 material. I have intended to give credit, where 
 credit seemed to be due, for everything borrowed, 
 and, if I have failed to do so in any case, it is not 
 my fault, but my misfortune. 
 
 R. S. T. 
 
 

CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. — Air 7-21 
 
 Normal Air. — Contamination of the Air. — Test for 
 Carbonic Acid in Air. — Diseases caused by Foul 
 Air. — Composition of Sewer- Air. — Ground Air. — 
 Ventilation. — Smoky Chimneys. 
 
 II. — Drainage 21-66 
 
 Privy - Vaults. — Tanks. — Pails. — Earth - Closets. — 
 Water-Carriage. — Plumbing Regulations of New 
 York City Board of Health. — Explanatory Re- 
 marks. — Drainage of Country Houses. — Subsoil 
 Drainage. — Defective Drainage. — Sources of Bad 
 
 Odors. — Examination of House-Drainage.-— Pepper- 
 mint Test. — Summary. — Exclusion of Ground- Air. 
 
 III. — Disinfection 66-73 
 
 Directions issued by the National Board of Health. 
 
 — Comments. — Precautions in Special Diseases. 
 
 IV. — Food 73-85 
 
 Adulterations, and Methods of detecting them. 
 
 V. — Water 86-go 
 
 Pollution of Water. — Filters. — Tests for Impuri- 
 ties. — Precautions. 
 
 APPENDIX A. — Disinfectants 91-99 
 
 “ B. — Plumbers* Materials . . 100-102 
 
 INDEX 103 
 

 
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Necessary to continued good health are Good 
 Air, Good Food, and Good Water. It is the 
 object of Sanitary Science to secure these. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 AIR. 
 
 Normal air contains 79 per cent of nitrogen, 
 20.96 per cent of oxygen, and .04 per cent (4 parts 
 in 10,000) of carbonic acid. 
 
 Oxygen supports animal life ; carbonic acid, 
 vegetable life ; and the use of the nitrogen, other- 
 wise than as a diluent, is not known. 
 
 Very pure air contains 78.98 per cent of nitrogen, 
 20.99 per cent of oxygen, and .03 per cent of car- 
 bonic acid. 
 
 Air begins to be very bad when the oxygen is 
 reduced to 20.60 parts in 100. In mines, where can- 
 
8 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION 
 
 dies go out, oxygen is reduced to 18.50 parts in 100, 
 and, in the worst specimen yet examined by Angus 
 Smith, to 18.27. which the percentage of 
 
 oxygen has been reduced to 17.20 is very difficult to 
 remain in for many minutes. 
 
 Aside from impurities due to local causes, the 
 purest air is found from six to forty feet above 
 the ground, and the - most impure from seventy to 
 ninety feet, where the air from chimneys is poured 
 forth. 
 
 Air is contaminated by the products of 
 respiration and the bodily emanations of 
 healthy persons, and by the products of com- 
 bustion. 
 
 An adult man, in ordinary work, gives off in 
 twenty-four hours from twelve’ to eighteen cubic 
 feet of carbonic acid, according to his size ; women, 
 children, and old persons less. 
 
 Edward Smith found that an adult asleep ex- 
 haled about nineteen grains of carbonic acid per 
 hour, and, when he walked three miles an hour, the 
 amount was increased to 100.6 grains. 
 
 W. R. Nichols, of Boston, found in passenger- 
 cars 23.2 parts of carbonic acid to 10,000 parts of 
 air, and in the Berkeley Street sewer 10.4 parts per 
 10,000. Wilson found in Portsmouth Prison, in cells 
 containing six hundred and fourteen cubic feet of 
 air, always occupied, 7.20 parts per 10,000, and in 
 cells containing two hundred and ten cubic feet, oc- 
 cupied only at night, 10.44 per 10,000. 
 

 9 
 
 Besides the carbonic acid, there is exhaled from 
 the lungs a small amount of organic matter, of un- 
 known composition. It forms a glutinous coating 
 on the furniture, walls, and windows of closed rooms, 
 decomposes rapidly, imparts a peculiarly offensive 
 odor to the air of a badly-ventilated room, and poi- 
 sons those who inhale it. Its quantity is so small 
 that it has so far defied analysis. In a room con- 
 taminated by respiration alone, the odor of this sub- 
 stance begins to be perceived when the carbonic acid 
 has increased to about 7 parts in 10,000, and 10 parts 
 in 10,000 may be considered the maximum amount 
 of carbonic acid allowable in dwellings. 
 
 The following table shows how much carbonic 
 acid artificial lights produce per hour : 
 
 Petroleum, slit-bumer, 
 
 10 
 
 candle-light, 1.98 
 
 cubic feet. 
 
 Petroleum, round-burner. 
 
 7.6 
 
 “ 2.15 
 
 it 
 
 Oil-lamp, 
 
 4 
 
 “ 1.09 
 
 a 
 
 Candle, 
 
 I 
 
 “ -39 
 
 it 
 
 Coal-gas, slit-bumer, 
 
 7.8 
 
 “ 3-25 
 
 it 
 
 Coal-gas, flat-burner, 
 
 10 
 
 “ 3 
 
 u 
 
 A five-foot gas-burner produces as much carbonic 
 acid per hour as five men. 
 
 As the most poisonous element of the breath can 
 not readily be detected by analysis, the amount of 
 carbonic acid is taken as a measure of the impurity 
 of air contaminated by respiration. 
 
 Test for carbonic acid in air (Pettenkofer’s 
 method) : 
 
 Shake up a definite volume of the air in a closed 
 
lo SANITARY INFORMATION, 
 
 vessel with a definite amount of lime-water. The 
 carbonic acid unites with the lime, forming carbon- 
 ate of lime. This compound, being insoluble in 
 water, renders it turbid. The degree of turbidity 
 may be judged of by looking through the water at 
 a cross marked in lead-pencil on the inside of a 
 piece of paper pasted on the opposite side of the 
 bottle, and a standard may be fixed by shaking up 
 ordinary external air in a sixteen-ounce bottle, as 
 described below, which will show the degree of tur- 
 bidity produced by 4 parts of carbonic acid in 10,000. 
 Lime-water can be bought of a druggist, or made by 
 shaking distilled water with slaked lime, allowing it 
 to settle, and pouring off the clear liquid. With a 
 common hand-ball syringe, the end of the rubber 
 tube resting on the bottom of the bottle, pump in air, 
 until the bottle is filled with the air to be tested. 
 Put in half an ounce of lime-water, cork the bottle, 
 and shake it up well. Let it stand for five minutes, 
 and if the water becomes turbid, as if a little milk 
 had been dropped into it, the presence of carbonic 
 acid in the air will be indicated in the following pro- 
 portions. 
 
 Size of bottle. Amount of lime-water. Parts in 10,000. 
 
 16 
 
 ounces 
 
 1-2 ounce 
 
 12 
 
 u 
 
 (( 
 
 10 
 
 il 
 
 it 
 
 8 
 
 it 
 
 u 
 
 6 
 
 i( 
 
 u 
 
 4 
 
 (( 
 
 (( 
 
 A little less than 4 
 A little more than 5 
 
 (( (t t( ^ 
 
 8 
 
 A little more than 10 
 
 (t 
 
 u 
 
AIR. 
 
 11 
 
 Dangers of such Contamination. 
 
 Air contaminated by the products of respiration 
 and by bodily emanations (perspiration, etc.) con- 
 tains substances which have been ejected from hu- 
 man bodies as useless or injurious. What all sys- 
 tems reject can not be healthy for any, and it is 
 found that long-continued exposure in an atmos- 
 phere laden with these impurities produces anaemia, 
 general debility, and poor nutrition, conditions likely 
 to result in the development of scrofula and con- 
 sumption. It is believed, too, that typhus fever may 
 originate in this manner, while when such poisons 
 are inhaled in a more concentrated form, as in the 
 famous Black Hole of Calcutta, nausea, vertigo, 
 convulsions, and even death are produced. 
 
 The air is at certain times and places con- 
 taminated by the products of respiration and 
 the bodily emanations of diseased persons. 
 
 In certain diseases, commonly known as con- 
 tagious, organic matters are thrown off by the 
 lungs and skin of the sick, which tend to reproduce 
 these diseases in the bodies of other persons. The 
 exact nature of these poisons is in most cases un- 
 known, but they are generally believed to be living 
 microscopic organisms (bacteria, bacilli, .micrococci, 
 etc.), which multiply their kind in the blood of the 
 person who has inhaled them. 
 
 Of such diseases, the dangerous ones are small- 
 pox, measles, scarlet fever, typhus fever, and diph- 
 
 % 
 
12 
 
 SANITAR Y INFOjRMA TION. 
 
 theria, and their contagious quality is marked very 
 nearly in the order in which they are here men- 
 tioned. 
 
 The less harmful of these diseases are whooping- 
 cough, chicken-pox, mumps, and German measles. 
 
 There is strong evidence that consumption is 
 contagious, though not as markedly so as the dis- 
 eases above enumerated. 
 
 The air may be contaminated by the prod- 
 ucts of the decomposition of the excreta of 
 healthy persons. 
 
 The contents of cesspools, privy-vaults, and sew- 
 ers, are generally composed of discharges from the 
 bowels and kidneys, various matters washed off from 
 the bodies of animals and from culinary and house- 
 hold utensils, and dissolved soap, constituting a mix- 
 ture which rapidly decomposes and affords a fine soil 
 for the nourishment and propagation of microscopic 
 organisms. 
 
 Air contaminated in this way, popularly known 
 as sewer-gas, contains sulphide of ammonium and 
 sulphureted hydrogen (which cause the characteristic 
 odor of rotten eggs), carbureted hydrogen, nitrogen, 
 and carbonic acid (odorless), and certain undeter- 
 mined organic matters. 
 
 Professor Nichols analyzed the air of the Berke- 
 ley Street sewer in Boston, a type of a badly-con- 
 structed and badly-ventilated sewer. The sulphu- 
 reted hydrogen, etc., were in too small quantity to 
 be measured. The highest percentages found were. 
 
AIR. 
 
 13 
 
 of oxygen, 20.90; of nitrogen, 79.26; of carbonic 
 acid, .4 (40 parts in 10,000). The lowest were, 
 oxygen, 20.48 ; nitrogen, 78.89 ; and carbonic acid, 
 .05 (5 parts in 10,000). 
 
 Letheby found that sewer- water (containing 128.8 
 grains of organic matter to the gallon) excluded from 
 air yielded, for nine weeks, 1.2 cubic inches of gas 
 per hour. In one hundred volumes of this mixture 
 there were 78.83 parts of marsh-gas (carbureted hy- 
 drogen), 15.90 parts of carbonic acid, 10.19 parts of 
 nitrogen, and .08 of sulphureted hydrogen. Exami- 
 nation of sewage-mud in the Seine by Durand-Claye 
 gave 72.88 parts of marsh-gas, 13.30 of carbonic acid, 
 6.70 of sulphureted hydrogen, 2.54 of carbonic oxide, 
 4.58 of nitrogen, and some other gases. Such mixtures 
 are sometimes found in long-closed cesspools and 
 privy-vaults, but not in sewers proper. 
 
 Of these gases, sulphureted hydrogen and car- 
 bonic acid are very poisonous, and when they are in- 
 haled in concentrated form produce almost imme- 
 diate unconsciousness, and often death. When less 
 concentrated, sewer-air may cause nausea and vomit- 
 ing, followed by a low fever which sometimes kills, 
 and, if not, results in a tedious convalescence. As 
 a rule, it is so largely diluted that it produces no 
 immediate effects, excepting the discomfort due to 
 offensive odor, and the mental anxiety resulting 
 therefrom. 
 
 The effects usually attributed to the continued 
 
 breathing of diluted sewer-air are general malaise^ 
 2 
 
H 
 
 SANITAJ^Y INFORMATION. 
 
 loss of appetite, anaemia, impaired nutrition, and 
 therefore diminished power of resistance to attacks 
 of disease which are not directly attributable to 
 sewer-air poisoning. It is doubtful whether these 
 effects are due to the constant introduction of sewer- 
 air in minute quantities into the blood, or to the 
 inhalation of particles of organic matter floating in 
 such a contaminated atmosphere. 
 
 The greatest danger, however, in the 
 breathing of sewer-air is that of inhaling 
 with it the living particles (bacilli, etc.) con- 
 tained or developed in the excreta of diseased 
 persons. 
 
 The diseases believed to be propagated in this 
 way are cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery. 
 
 The discharges both from the mouth (stomach) and 
 bowels are known to be poisonous. 
 
 It believed by many that the poisons of typhoid 
 fever and diphtheria may be developed de novo by 
 the decomposition of the mixtures found in cess- 
 pools and sewers. 
 
 There also seems to be a connection, imperfectly 
 understood, between bad drainage and malarial fevers, 
 and perhaps cerebro-spinal meningitis. 
 
 The origin of yellow fever is not yet ascertained. 
 
 Surgical erysipelas, puerperal fever, and hospital 
 gangrene, are only developed on and about wounded 
 surfaces, and seem to be due to the organisms de- 
 veloped in the secretions of such surfaces, where 
 ventilation and drainage are bad. 
 
AII^. 
 
 15 
 
 Air may be contaminated by the products 
 of organic decomposition rising from the 
 ground and drawn into the house through 
 furnace-flues, etc. 
 
 Ground-air contains from 1.49 to 80 parts per 
 1,000 of carbonic acid, and frequently contains prod- 
 ucts of organic decomposition. A damp soil is also 
 very unhealthy, as shown by Bowditch and others. 
 
 persistently low ground-water, say fifteen feet 
 down or more, is healthy ; a persistently high ground- 
 water, less than five feet from the surface, is un- 
 healthy ; and a fluctuating level, especially if the 
 changes are sudden and violent, is very unhealthy 
 (De Chaumont). Such soils are especially produc- 
 tive of consumption. 
 
 VENTILATION. 
 
 The contamination of the atmosphere by the res- 
 piration and bodily emanations of human beings and 
 other animals is unavoidable, but the noxious matters 
 thus added to the air are being constantly changed 
 in the following ways : 
 
 1. Oxidation. The organic matters, which have 
 
 been mentioned as especially injurious, are grad- 
 ually decomposed by the oxygen of the air, and 
 changed into harmless substances, which either re- 
 main as constituents of the atmosphere, or are washed 
 into the earth by rains. > 
 
 2. Vegetable growth. Plants absorb carbon- 
 ic acid (which is composed of carbon and oxy- 
 
i6 
 
 SANITAJ^y INFORMATION'. 
 
 gen) through their leaves, and give back oxygen to 
 the air, retaining the carbon for their own nourish- 
 ment. There is thus a constant interchange between 
 animals and vegetables, the former exhaling carbonic 
 acid and appropriating oxygen, and the latter appro- 
 priating carbonic acid and exhaling oxygen. The 
 small percentage of carbonic acid always found in 
 the air is, therefore, essential to vegetable life, while 
 harmless to animals. 
 
 It is necessary, for the proper purification of a 
 contaminated atmosphere, that it should be largely 
 diluted with fresh air. Hence arises the need of the 
 C9nstant change of air in dwellings. 
 
 ^ Air expands when heated and so becomes lighter. 
 Local differences of temperature, created by natural 
 and artificial means, therefore bring about currents 
 in the atmosphere, the cooler and heavier column of 
 air always descending, and the warmer and lighter 
 always rising. This fact is taken advantage of in 
 ventilation. 
 
 It has been estimated that, to keep the air pure, 
 three thousand cubic feet of fresh air per hour are 
 required for a male adult, and that a sleeping-room 
 should contain at least twelve hundred cubic feet of 
 air-space for each occupant. 
 
 When the temperature of the external air is such 
 that the doors and windows can be constantly open, 
 they afford the best means of ventilation for dwell- 
 ings. An exposure to draughts, however, is danger- 
 ous to many persons, and it is desirable, therefore, in 
 
AIR. 
 
 17 
 
 cooler weather, to devise means of admitting fresh 
 air without creating a draught. At a temperature of 
 60°, a draught is perceived when the air moves at a 
 higher rate of speed than three feet a second. Now 
 it is obvious that a draught may be rendered harm- 
 less if the entering current of air is guided in such a 
 direction as not to strike the occupants of a room. 
 This is accomplished simply and cheaply by either 
 of two devices : If the lower sash of a window is 
 raised a few inches (say four), and jhe»>g^ ace between 
 the bottom of the sash and tbtf^indoy^^^S:^^ filled 
 by an accurately fitted boar^ there wifr'beV^^^ace 
 between the panes of the two sash^, throughfi?^ 
 air will enter, spouting upward tow^^j^h^^ceillh 
 and not falling until its mon|y^f^um^s'^^^ 
 minished that it will not be The 
 
 other plan is to make the upper^rtion of the^^per 
 sash movable, so that it can be tilt^i^H%ar at sud 
 an angle as to direct the entering ci 
 (essentially the Sherringham valve, though this is 
 made of iron, with side-cheeks to prevent a lateral 
 outflow of air). 
 
 There are various patent apparatuses for the ad- 
 mission of fresh air through windows without draught, 
 but they are mostly modifications of the methods 
 above mentioned. 
 
 In weather when artificial heat is necessary for 
 comfort, thorough ventilation is not difficult, pro- 
 vided expense is not considered. As the removal 
 
 of the foul air, however, involves a considerable waste 
 2 
 
i8 
 
 SANITAR Y INFORMA TION. 
 
 of heat and consumption of fuel, the means of pro- 
 curing the best ventilation at the least cost becomes 
 a problem of great intricacy, which has not yet been 
 satisfactorily solved. 
 
 Fireplaces, or open grates, are excellent venti- 
 lators. An ordinary fireplace renews the air of the 
 room four or five times hourly, remo\dng in that time 
 from fifteen to twenty thousand cubic feet of air. 
 But only about 12 or 14 per cent, of the heat given 
 off by the fuel is utilized, the rest passing off by 
 the chimney. The objections to the fireplace as a 
 sole means of heating are, its wastefulness, and the 
 fact that it warms only by radiation, so that the room 
 is unequally warmed, and may be too cold in one 
 place and insupportably hot in another. 
 
 Stoves and fumaces can not be relied on for 
 ventilation, the ventilating power of a close stove 
 being only one tenth of that required for a single 
 adult. 
 
 Modem fireplaces are sometimes built with a me- 
 tallic flue extending upward into the chimney. Be- 
 tween this flue and the masonry is an air-chamber 
 opening to the external air and communicating with 
 the room near the ceiling, so that fresh air from out- 
 side the house is continuously warmed, and dis- 
 charged into the room at a temperature of 80° or 90°. 
 The Galton fireplace (Fig. i) is of this kind, and 
 utilizes 35 per cent of the fuel. 
 
 The best combined heating and ventilating ar- 
 rangement at present seems to be that which warms 
 
AIR. 
 
 19 
 
 the fresh air by means of a soapstone furnace or 
 steam-coils, and removes the foul air through a fire- 
 place. In milder weather, gas may be burned in the 
 chimney at a slight expense. According to Morin, 
 
 i •' ‘ i ' 'I "1 ' — T I- 
 
 Fig. I. — Galton’s fireplace. 
 
 seven cubic feet of gas burned in a flue eleven inches 
 square and sixty-six feet high, will draw thirteen 
 thousand three hundred cubic feet of air per hour 
 from a room. 
 
 The dampers of stoves should never be in the 
 
20 
 
 SANITAR Y INRORMA TION. 
 
 pipes, for they dam back the gases which ought to 
 enter the chimney, and force them into the room. 
 The fire should be regulated by dampers which pre- 
 vent the access of air, and not its escape after con- 
 tamination. 
 
 Ventilating flues in walls do very little good, un- 
 less special means are provided to heat them (e. g., 
 gas lights or lamps). 
 
 The common whirling ventilators in window-panes 
 are of very little use. 
 
 As a rule, fresh air should enter a room near the 
 ceiling, and foul air be removed near the floor. 
 
 In very cold climates, dangerous draughts are 
 often produced by the cooling of the air in contact 
 with the window-panes, so that it falls and sweeps 
 along the floor. This danger may be prevented by 
 double windows, which also save fuel. Double win- 
 dows may be utilized in ventilation, by raising the 
 lower outer sash a few inches, and lowering the up- 
 per inner one. 
 
 Smoky Chimneys, 
 
 When a chimney smokes, the draught is down- 
 ward. This may b^ caused — i. By an obstruction 
 in the flue or stove-pipe. 2. By a higher chimney in 
 the same house, the air coming down the shorter 
 chimney, and going up the other. The remedy is to 
 equalize the heights, or close the doors between the 
 two. 3. If, when the fire is started, the air outside is 
 warmer than that in the chimney, the heavier column 
 
DRAINAGE, 
 
 21 
 
 will of course fall. This effect will vanish in a few 
 minutes, when the flue becomes heated. 4. The 
 doors and windows of the room may be so tight as 
 to prevent a sufficient supply of fresh air to burn the 
 fuel. If so, they must be opened. 5. The chimney 
 may be lower than the adjoining wall, and the wind 
 from certain directions, striking the wall, may be di- 
 rected down the flues. This may be remedied by 
 extending the chimney above the wall, or by cap- 
 ping the flues with one of the various cowls that pre- 
 vent a downward draught. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DRAINAGE. 
 
 How to prevent the contamination of the 
 air by the products of decomposition. 
 
 There is no evidence to show that the emana- 
 tions from fresh house-slops, or the excreta of healthy 
 animals, are injurious to health, but it has been 
 proved that when these matters decompose they be- 
 come dangerous. The bubbles of gas which rise to 
 the surface of such decomposing matters, when they 
 burst, throw up solid particles of organic matter in 
 the air, which float about for some time before fall- 
 ing to the ground. It is, therefore, essential to 
 health that all such matters shall be removed from 
 the vicinity of human beings promptly, before de- 
 
22 
 
 SAmTAI^Y INFOI^MATION’. 
 
 composition sets in, or else so manipulated as to pre- 
 vent decomposition, or promote rapid oxidation. 
 
 The lower animals seem to recognize by instinct 
 that their excreta are dangerous, and they deposit 
 them (except when penned up by men) in places re- 
 mote from their abodes, or else carefully cover them 
 with fresh earth. Man alone retains his excreta in 
 carefully prepared receptacles near his place of resi- 
 dence, until the accumulation is so large that he is 
 forced to remove it. 
 
 The ordinary privy-vault should never be al- 
 lowed. Its only advantage is its cheapness, while it 
 involves constant danger of contamination of the 
 water of adjoining wells or cisterns. Many an epi- 
 demic of typhoid fever has been unmistakably traced 
 to this source. If such a vault is a necessity, it 
 should be made water-tight, be small and frequently 
 emptied, the contents should be frequently disin- 
 fected, preferably by being covered with fresh earth, 
 and it should be built in such a spot that the cur- 
 rent of ground-water (which furnishes the well-water) 
 shall be from the well toward the vault, and never in 
 the opposite direction. Better still is a movable 
 tank, in which the excreta are received and covered 
 with fresh earth daily. This can be emptied over a 
 garden or field without offense. In villages where 
 sewerage is impossible, pails are sometimes used. 
 They have tight covers, and are removed frequently 
 (once or twice a week, clean ones being substituted 
 at the time of removal by the proper authorities). 
 
DRAmAGE. 
 
 23 
 
 the contents being converted into poudrette at some 
 place remote from habitations. 
 
 A better means of disposing of the excreta, where 
 water-closets can not be had, is the earth-closet, 
 of which there are several varieties. These are so 
 constructed that they resemble a water-closet in ap- 
 pearance, but the excreta are caught in a receptacle 
 beneath the seat, and covered with earth, when the 
 handle beside the seat is raised. Dry earth is an 
 excellent disinfectant,* and when excreta are thus 
 mingled with it they are gradually oxidized and dis- 
 appear, so that after a time the same earth may, with 
 proper precautions, be used again. 
 
 The earth for these closets must be dry, and 
 sifted of coarse particles, and enough must be de- 
 posited upon the excreta to cover them and to absorb 
 the urine. 
 
 Its advantages, as compared with the water-closet, 
 are, that it is cheaper, requires less repair, is not 
 hurt by frost, is not injured when improper sub- 
 stances are thrown down it, and requires no water. 
 Its disadvantages are, the trouble of collecting and 
 drying the earth, the necessity of frequently remov- 
 ing the soil, the dust sometimes caused by its use, 
 
 * Its disinfectant properties have been shown to be due to 
 the presence of microscopic organisms, which decompose the 
 excreta in the act of nourishing themselves. A little chloro- 
 form paralyzes them, and deprives the earth of its disinfect, 
 ing properties, which return, however, when the chloroform is 
 washed out, and the organisms recover their natural vigor. 
 
24 
 
 SANITAR Y INFORMA TION. 
 
 and the necessity of providing additional means for 
 the disposal of slops. 
 
 A perfect method of disposal of excreta and 
 other house refuse would be one which would in- 
 sure their prompt and rapid removal in such a way 
 as to prevent the contamination of the air of any 
 inhabited locality during such removal, or after their 
 final deposition. The most convenient and economi- 
 cal means yet invented of accomplishing this object 
 is water-carriag6 ; i. e., the matters referred to are 
 conveyed from the house, with the addition of suffi- 
 . cient water to insure a rapid flow, through a series of 
 pipes and tunnels into a large body of running water, 
 or over the surface of the earth, under conditions 
 which insure their rapid conversion into harmless sub- 
 stances. 
 
 The water-carriage system includes bowls or 
 sinks for the deposit of refuse matters, connecting- 
 pipes to remove such matters from the house, and 
 public sewers for their further conveyance away 
 from human abodes. The construction and care of 
 public sewers belong to the local government ; we 
 have here only to do with house-drainage. 
 
 The essentials of house-drainage are : i. The 
 primary receptacles (bowls, sinks, water-closets, etc.) 
 should be of such material and so constructed as to 
 be impervious to fluids, and easy to clean and keep 
 clean. 2, The pipes should be of such material as 
 to be as durable as possible, and so laid and con- 
 nected as to form gas-tight conduits, and to insure 
 
DRAINAGE. 
 
 25 
 
 the rapid passage of whatever enters them, so as to 
 prevent the formation of deposits or incrustations. 
 3. The drainage system should be so planned and 
 constructed that neither the atmosphere of the house 
 nor the drinking-water can be polluted by anything 
 escaping from it, and no noxious matters can enter 
 it from any other house. 
 
 The following plan of construction is that rec- 
 ommended by the Board of Health of New York 
 city : 
 
 1. All materials must be of good quality and free 
 from defects ; the work must be executed in a thor- 
 ough and workmanlike manner. 
 
 2. The arrangement of soil and waste pipes must 
 be as direct as possible. 
 
 3. The drain, soil, and waste pipes, and the traps, 
 must, if practicable, be exposed to view for ready 
 inspection at all times, and for convenience in re- 
 pairing. When necessarily placed within partitions 
 or in recesses of walls, soil and waste pipes must be 
 covered with wood-work, so fastened with screws as 
 to be readily removed. In no case shall they be 
 absolutely inaccessible. 
 
 4. It is recommended to place the soil and other 
 vertical pipes in a special shaft, between or adjacent 
 to the water-closet and the bath-room, and serving 
 as a ventilating shaft for them. This shaft should 
 be at least two and a half feet square. It should 
 extend from the cellar through the roof, and should 
 be covered by a louvered sky-light. It should be 
 
26 
 
 SANITAR Y INFORMA TION 
 
 accessible at every story, and should have a very 
 open but strong grating at each floor to stand upon. 
 
 Shafts not less than three feet square in area are 
 required in tenement-houses, to ventilate interior 
 water-closets. 
 
 5. Every house or building must be separately 
 and independently connected with the street-sewer. 
 
 6. Where the ground is made or filled in, the 
 house-sewer — that is to say, the portion of the drain 
 extending from the public sewer to the front wall — 
 must be of cast-iron, with the joints properly calked 
 
 . with lead. 
 
 7. Where the soil consists of a natural bed of 
 loam, sand, or rock, the house-sewer may be of hard, 
 salt-glazed, and cylindrical earthenware pipe, laid on 
 a smooth bottom, free from all projections of rock, 
 and with the soil well rammed to prevent any set- 
 tling of the pipe. Each section must be wetted be- 
 fore applying the cement, and the space between 
 each hub and the small end of the next section must 
 be completely and uniformly filled with the best 
 hydraulic cement. Care must be taken to prevent 
 any cement being forced into the drain to become 
 an obstruction. No tempered-up cement shall be 
 used. A straight-edge must be used inside the pipe, 
 and the different sections must be laid in perfect 
 line on the bottom and sides. 
 
 8. Where there is no sewer in the street, and it 
 is necessary to construct a private sewer to connect 
 with a sewer on an adjacent street or avenue, it must 
 
DRAINAGE. 
 
 27 
 
 be laid under the roadway of the street on whkh the 
 houses front, and not through the yards or under 
 the houses. 
 
 9. The house-drain must be of iron, with a fall 
 of at least one quarter inch to the foot, if possible, 
 and not more than one inch to the foot. 
 
 10. Where water-closets or a school-sink dis- 
 charge into it, the drain must be at least four inches 
 in diameter. 
 
 11. It must be hung on the cellar wall or ceiling, 
 unless this is impracticable, in which case it must be 
 laid in a trench cut at a uniform grade, walled upon 
 the sides with brick laid in hydraulic cement, and 
 provided with movable covers, and with a hydraulic 
 concrete base of four inches in thickness, on which 
 the pipe is to rest. 
 
 12. It must be laid in a straight line, if possible. 
 All changes in direction must be made with curved 
 pipes, and all connections with Y-branch pipes and 
 one-eighth bends. 
 
 13. Any house-drain or house-sewer, put in and 
 covered without due notice to the Health Depart- 
 ment, must be uncovered for inspection at the direc- 
 tion of the inspector. 
 
 14. A running or half S-trap must be placed on 
 the house-drain at an accessible point near the front 
 of the house. This trap must be furnished with a 
 hand-hole for convenience in cleaning, the cover of 
 which must be properly fitted and made gas and air 
 tight with some proper cement. 
 
28 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION. 
 
 15. There must be an inlet for fresh air entering 
 Xhe drain just inside the trap, of at least four inches 
 in diameter, leading to the outer air and opening at 
 or near the street curb, or at a convenient place not 
 less than ten feet from the nearest, window. No 
 cold-air box for a furnace shall be so placed that it 
 can by any possibility draw air from this inlet-pipe. 
 The inlet-pipe should never be carried up to the 
 roof inside or outside the house. 
 
 16. No brick, sheet-metal, earthenware, or chim- 
 ney-flue shall be used as a sewer-ventilator, nor to 
 .ventilate any trap, drain, soil, or waste pipe. 
 
 17. Every Vertical soil-pipe and waste-pipe must 
 be of iron, and, where it receives the discharge 
 of fixtures on two or more floors, it must be ex- 
 tended at least two feet above the highest part 
 of the roof or coping, of undiminished size, with 
 a return bend or cowl. It must not open near 
 a window, nor an air-shaft which ventilates living- 
 rooms. 
 
 18. Soil, waste, and vent pipes, in an extension, 
 must be extended above the roof of the main build- 
 ing, when otherwise they would open within twenty 
 feet of the windows of the main house or the ad- 
 joining house. 
 
 19. Horizontal soil and waste pipes are pro- 
 hibited. 
 
 20. The minimum diameter of soil-pipe per- 
 mitted is four inches. A vertical waste-pipe, into 
 which a line of kitchen-sinks discharge, must be at 
 
DRAINAGE. 
 
 29 
 
 least two inches in diameter, with one inch and a 
 half* branches. 
 
 21. Where lead pipe is used to connect fixtures 
 with vertical soil or waste pipes, or to connect traps 
 with vertical vent-pipes, it must not be lighter than 
 D-pipe. 
 
 22. There shall be no traps on vertical soil-pipes 
 or vertical waste-pipes. 
 
 23. All iron pipes must be sound, free from holes, 
 and of a uniform thickness of not less than one eighth 
 of an inch for a diameter of two, three, or four inches, 
 or five thirty-seconds of an inch for a diameter of 
 five or six inches ; and, in case the building is over 
 sixty-five feet in height above the curb, the use of 
 what is known as extra heavy pipe, and correspond- 
 ing fittings, are required, which weigh as follows : 
 
 2 inches, 5^ pounds per lineal foot. 
 
 3 
 
 
 9i 
 
 it 
 
 it 
 
 4 
 
 a 
 
 13 
 
 it 
 
 it 
 
 5 
 
 it 
 
 17 
 
 it 
 
 it 
 
 6 
 
 it 
 
 20 
 
 it 
 
 it 
 
 7 
 
 it 
 
 27 
 
 it 
 
 it 
 
 8 
 
 it 
 
 33i 
 
 it 
 
 it 
 
 10 
 
 it 
 
 45 
 
 it 
 
 it 
 
 12 
 
 it 
 
 54 
 
 it 
 
 it 
 
 24. Before they are connected they must be thor- 
 oughly coated inside and outside with coal-tar pitch, 
 applied hot, or some other equivalent substance. 
 
 25. When required by an inspector from the 
 Board of Health, the plumbing must be tested with 
 
30 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION. 
 
 the peppermint or the water test, by the plumber in 
 the presence of the inspector, and all defective joints 
 made tight, and other openings made impermeable 
 to gases. Defective pipe discovered must be re- 
 moved and replaced by sound pipe. 
 
 26. All joints in the iron drain-pipes, soil-pipes, 
 and waste-pipes must be so calked with oakum and 
 lead, or with cement made of iron filings and sal- 
 ammoniac, as to make them impermeable to gas. 
 
 27. All connections of lead with iron pipes must 
 be made with a brass sleeve or ferrule, of the same 
 size as the lead pipe, put in the hub of the branch 
 of the iron pipe, and calked in with lead. The 
 lead pipe must be attached to the ferrule by a wuped 
 joint. 
 
 28. All connections of lead pipe should be by 
 wiped joints. 
 
 29. Every water-closet, urinal, sink, basin, wash- 
 tray, bath, and every tub or set of tubs, must be 
 separately and effectively trapped, except where a 
 sink and wash-tubs immediately adjoin each other, 
 in which case the waste-pipe from the tubs may be 
 connected with the inlet side of the sink-trap ; in 
 such a case the tub waste-pipe is not required to be 
 separately trapped. 
 
 30. Traps must be placed as near the fixtures as 
 practicable, and in no case shall a trap be more than 
 two feet from the fixture. 
 
 31. All exit-pipes must be provided with strong 
 metallic strainers. 
 
DRAINAGE. 
 
 31 
 
 32. In no case shall the waste from a bath-tub or 
 other fixture be connected with a water-closet trap. 
 
 33. Traps must be protected from siphonage, and 
 the waste-pipe leading from them ventilated, by a 
 special air-pipe, in no case less than two inches in 
 diameter for water-closet traps, and one inch and a 
 half for other traps. Except in private dwellings, 
 the vertical vent-pipes for traps of water-closets in 
 buildings more than four stories in height must be at 
 least three inches in diameter, with two-inch branches 
 to each trap, and for traps of other fixtures not less 
 than two inches in diameter, with branches one and 
 a half inches in diameter, unless the trap is smaller, 
 in which case the diameter of branch vent-pipe must 
 be at least equal to the diameter of the trap. In all 
 cases vertical vent-pipes must be of cast or wrought 
 iron. 
 
 34. These pipes must either extend two feet above 
 the highest part of the roof or coping, the extension 
 to be not less than four inches in diameter to avoid 
 obstruction from frost, or they may be branched into 
 a soil-pipe above the inlet from the highest fixture. 
 They may be combined by branching together those 
 which serve several traps. These air-pipes must al- 
 ways have a continuous slope, to avoid collecting 
 water by condensation. 
 
 35. Traps of fixtures near the fresh-air inlet may 
 be ventilated by being connected with it. 
 
 36. No trap vent-pipe shall be used as a waste or 
 soil pipe. 
 
32 
 
 SANITAR Y INFORMA TION 
 
 37. Overflow-pipes from fixtures must, in each 
 case, be connected on the inlet side of the trap. 
 
 38. Every safe under a wash-basin, bath, urinal, 
 water-closet, or other fixture, must be drained by a 
 special pipe not directly connected with any soil- 
 pipe, waste-pipe, drain, or sewer, but discharging 
 into an open sink, upon the cellar-floor, or outside 
 the house. 
 
 39. The waste-pipe from a refrigerator shall not 
 be directly connected with the soil or waste pipe, or 
 with the drain or sewer, or discharge into the soil ; 
 it should discharge into an open sink. Such- waste- 
 pipes should be so arranged as to admit of frequent 
 flushing, and should be as short as possible, and dis- 
 connected from the refrigerator. 
 
 40. The sediment-pipe from kitchen boilers must 
 be connected on the inlet side of the sink-trap. 
 
 41. All water-closets within the house must be 
 supplied with water from special tanks or cisterns, 
 the water of which is not used for any other pur- 
 pose. The closets must never be supplied directly 
 from the Croton supply-pipes. A group of closets 
 may be supplied from one tank ; but water-closets 
 on different floors are not permitted to be flushed 
 from one tank. 
 
 42. The valves of cisterns must be so fitted and 
 adjusted as to prevent wasting of water, especially 
 where cisterns are supplied from a tank on the roof. 
 
 43. The overflow-pipes from water-closet cisterns 
 must discharge into an open sink, or where its dis- 
 
DRAINAGE, 
 
 33 
 
 charge will attract attention and indicate that waste 
 of water is occurring, but not into the bowl of the 
 water-closet, not into the soil or waste pipe, nor into 
 the drain or sewer. When the pressure of the Croton 
 is not sufficient to supply these tanks, a pump must 
 be provided. 
 
 44. Tanks for drinking-water are objectionable ; 
 if indispensable, they must never be lined with lead, 
 galvanized iron, or zinc. They should be constructed 
 of iron, or wood lined with tinned and planished 
 copper. The overflow should discharge upon the 
 roof, or be trapped and discharge into an open sink, 
 never into any soil or waste pipe or water-closet trap, 
 nor into the drain or sewer. 
 
 45. Rain-water leaders must never be used as 
 soil, waste, or vent pipes ; nor shall any soil, waste, 
 or vent pipe be used as a leader. 
 
 46. When within the house, the leader must be 
 of cast-iron, with leaded joints ; when outside of the 
 house, and connected with the house-drain, it must 
 be trapped beneath the ground or just inside of the 
 wall, the trap being arranged in either case so as to 
 prevent freezing. In every case where a leader opens 
 near a window or a light-shaft, it must be properly 
 trapped at its base. 
 
 47. No steam exhaust or blow-off pipe from a 
 
 steam-boiler will be allowed to connect with any soil 
 
 or waste pipe, or directly with the house-drain. They 
 
 should discharge into a tank or condenser, the waste 
 
 from which, if to be discharged into the sewer through 
 
 3 
 
3 + 
 
 SANITAR Y INFORM A TION, 
 
 the house-dram, must be connected on the sewer 
 side of the running trap. 
 
 48. Subsoil drains must be provided whenever 
 necessary. 
 
 49. Yards and areas should always be properly 
 graded, cemented, flagged, or well paved, and prop- 
 erly drained ; when the drain is connected with the 
 house-drain, it must be effectively trapped. Front- 
 area drains must, where practicable, be connected 
 with the house-drain inside of the running trap. 
 
 50. Cellar and foundation walls must, where pos- 
 sible, be rendered impervious to dampness, and the 
 use of asphaltum or coal-tar pitch, in addition to 
 hydraulic cement, is recommended for that purpose. 
 
 51. No privy-vault or school-sink will be allowed 
 in any cellar or basement ; nor shall the general privy 
 accommodation of a tenement or lodging house be 
 allowed to be in the cellar or basement. 
 
 52. No privy- vault, or cesspool for sewage, will 
 be permitted in any part of the city where water- 
 closets or a school-sink can be connected with a 
 public sewer in the street. 
 
 53. School-sinks must be of cast-iron, not more 
 than two feet in depth, connected at the upper end 
 with the Croton supply, and at the lower end with a 
 drain leading to the street-sewer, and provided with 
 an outlet at the lowest point and on the bottom so 
 as to admit of a complete discharge of the contents 
 whenever the outlet is opened and the sink flushed 
 with water. 
 
35 
 
 DRAINAGE, 
 
 54. The sink must be set so that the flange will 
 be at least two feet below the yard surface, to pre- 
 vent freezing. It must be at least ten feet from any 
 window, or as near that distance as practicable. 
 
 55. The waste-pipe from a hydrant-sink in the 
 , yard must be properly trapped, especially where it 
 
 discharges into a school-sink, a privy-vault, or cess- 
 pool, or the house-drain. 
 
 56. Open light and air courts must be properly 
 drained. 
 
 57. When a privy-vault or cesspool must neces- 
 sarily be used, and the water-supply of the premises 
 is from a well, they must be at least fifty feet from 
 the well ; and the privy-vault must be absolutely 
 tight 
 
 Explanatory Remarks, 
 
 2. As direct as possible. To insure an unin- 
 terrupted flow. When a pipe has to pass an obstruc- 
 tion (a beam or post) an offset is used (Fig. 2). 
 
 3. The soil-pipe is that which conveys the con- 
 tents of water-closets to the house-drain : the waste- 
 pipes are intended to carry other refuse fluids only. 
 The house-drain is the large pipe which receives 
 the contents of the soil and waste pipes and conveys 
 them outside the house. 
 
 A trap is a bend (with or without an enlarge- 
 ment) of the pipe, intended to retain a sufficient 
 amount of the fluids that enter it to occlude the pipe 
 and prevent the backward flow of air. The effective 
 
3 ^ 
 
 SANITAR K* INFORMA TION 
 
 water-seal is represented by the total depth of 
 water in the trap, minus the inside diameter of the 
 pipe, and should be at least one inch. 
 
 Traps are of various kinds, and many are pat- 
 ented. The accompanying figures represent the prin- 
 cipal types. 
 
 Fig. 3 is the S-trap. Fig. 4 is the half S-trap. 
 There is also a three-quarter S-trap. Fig. 5 is a D- 
 trap, formerly much used, but now mostly out of 
 date, because it retains dirt. Fig. 6 is a bag-trap. 
 
 It has no advantage over the S-trap, and uses more 
 material. Fig. 7 is a bottle-trap, much used in Bos- 
 ton. This also retains dirt. There are varieties of 
 
 fluids enter them at the bottom and flow out at the 
 top. 
 
 Fig. 2. — Offset. Fig. 3. — S-trap. Fig. 4. — Half S-trap. 
 
 Fig. 5. — D-trap. 
 
 it, the distinguishing feature of all being that the 
 
DRAINAGE. 
 
 37 
 
 ' Fig. 8 is the bell-trap, so called from its shape. 
 Much used for the drains of paved areas, yards, 
 and cellars ; liable to retain dirt, and needs frequent 
 
 cleaning ; not a good trap. Fig. 9 is a running- 
 trap, used in house-drains and other pipes that are 
 nearly horizontal. Fig. 10 represents a mason’s 
 
 Fig. 9. — Running-trap. 
 
 T .\ ' \ - T-T ' V, . r- T ^_^r;n n 
 
 — , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 [ " 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Fig. 10. — Mason’s trap. 
 
 trap. Is built of brick or stone and cement. Used 
 in brick-drains and sewers, in receiving-basins at 
 street corners, etc. Requires frequent cleaning, and 
 should never be used inside a building. Fig. ii 
 represents the method of trapping a cesspool. The 
 same plan is also used for grease-traps, the outlet- 
 pipe dipping below the surface of the contents so 
 
38 
 
 SANITAI^Y INFORMATION, 
 
 that it is never obstructed by the grease, which floats 
 on top. 
 
 A few patent traps are shown as samples : 
 
 Fig. II. — Trapped cess-pool. 
 
 Fig. 12 is the Adee trap, a modification of the D- 
 trap. Fig. 13 is the Bower trap, claimed to be se- 
 cured against siphonage or back pressure by a rub- 
 
 ber ball which floats up against the entering-pipe. 
 Modification of the bottle-trap. Fig. 14 is Bedell’s 
 trap, with a metallic flap or valve, and an opening on 
 the sewer side of the valve, to relieve pressure. Fig. 
 
DRAINAGE. 
 
 39 
 
 15 is Stewart’s trap, intelligible from the diagram. 
 Traps are also made of iron or glass, with a mercury 
 seal, which, it is claimed, are proof against siphon- 
 ing, pressure, or evaporation. 
 
 4. A louvered sky-light is one with slats at the 
 sides inclining outward, so that air can escape but 
 rain can not enter. 
 
 6. Calked with lead. (See 26.) 
 
 7. Tempered-up cement. Cement which has 
 been used once, and has been broken up and ground, 
 for using a second time. 
 
 9. House-drain, of iron. (See Bad Odors, 
 2, a.'*) 
 
 10. Water-closets. Four principal classes, 
 with innumerable varieties, mostly patented. 
 
 I. The pan-closet (Fig. 16). Its chief advan- 
 tage is its cheapness and the ease with which it can 
 be repaired. Its disadvantage is the odor that usu- 
 ally attends its use. When the handle {a) is raised, 
 the contents of the pan {b) are thrown against the 
 side of the iron container {c), and some filth adheres 
 there and decomposes, filling the container with a 
 noisome stench, which escapes into the room every 
 time the closet is used. An abundant flush, an en- 
 
40 
 
 SANITAjRY iatfoj^ma ttojv. 
 
 ameled container, and proper ventilation of the con- 
 tainer, reduce this nuisance materially. Generally 
 condemned by sanitarians. 
 
 2. Hopper-closets (Fig. 17). Rather unsight- 
 ly, because the water and floating matter in the trap 
 
 are visible, and matters often cling to the sides, but, 
 with an abundant flush suddenly discharged, are very 
 inoffensive. 
 
 3. Plunger-closets, of which the Jennings closet 
 (Fig. 18) may be taken as a type. The handle lifts a 
 plug, which allows the contents of the boWl to run 
 out, and, when the plug is dropped in place, the bowl 
 is filled again from a ball-cock. These closets are 
 liable to get out of order ; the plungers or plugs lose 
 their rubber flanges and leak, and the plunger-cham- 
 ber is apt to retain filth. 
 
 4. It is evident that if the hopper-closet could 
 have its trap bent to one side out of sight, and its 
 hopper enlarged toward the bottom, so that nothing 
 would strike and cling to its sides, it would be an ex- 
 
 Fig. 16. — Pan-closet. 
 
 Fig. 17. — Hopper-closet. 
 
DRAINAGE. 
 
 41 
 
 cellent one. Of such a type are the Tidal- Wave and 
 National closets (Fig. 19), a being the water-pipe, 
 which discharges into a flushing rim, and b a vent- 
 pipe to relieve pressure between the two bodies of 
 water during a discharge, and prevent siphoning. 
 
 Fig. 19.— Tidal-wave closet. Fig. 20.— Y-branch. Fig. 21.— Quarter bend. 
 
 A water-closet, to be well flushed, should have a 
 discharge of three gallons of water in five seconds, 
 sent directly downward all around the rim. 
 
42 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION 
 
 School-sink (also called trough-sink or privy- 
 sink). An iron trough, having a sewer-connected 
 opening with a movable iron plug in the bottom at 
 one end, for the discharge of its contents, and a pipe 
 at the other end, from which it is filled with water. 
 It is practically an elongated water-closet. (See 53.) 
 
 12. Y-branch (Fig. 2o\ so named from its shape. 
 There are also half Y-branches. 
 
 Eighth bends. There are also quarter bends 
 (Fig. 21), sixth bends, and sixteenth bends. These 
 are used in pipe-connections in order to discharge 
 the contents of the branch pipes in the same general 
 direction with the current in the main pipes, for, if 
 the discharge enters at a right angle, a deposit is apt 
 to form opposite the point of connection. 
 
 14. Trap in house-drain. Intended to cut off 
 all communication between the house and the street 
 sewer. If a contagious disease occurs in one’s own 
 house, he can be sure that the excreta are disinfected, 
 and that disease-germs can not escape into the air, 
 even if the pipes happen to be defective ; but he can 
 not be sure that such excreta are properly disinfect- 
 ed in other houses. The only safe way, therefore, is 
 for each house to be cut off from all others by the 
 means described. The objections to the trap on the 
 house-drain are, that it forms a slight obstruction to 
 the flow of drainage, and is liable to be obstructed by 
 deposits, and that it favors cushioning,” i. e., the 
 forcing of smaller traps, when the air in the drain is 
 compressed between this trap and a down-coming 
 
DRAINAGE, 
 
 43 
 
 mass of water. (See Bad Odors/’ i, d.) The first 
 of these objections is met by making the trap a 
 half S one, so that the fluids fall down one limb with 
 sufficient force to wash out the bottom of the trap 
 thoroughly with each discharge, and the second by 
 the fresh-air inlet, which relieves the pressure that 
 otherwise might force the traps. 
 
 15. The fresh-air inlet affords free entrance for 
 air, and, as the main lines of pipe are open above the 
 roof, the difference in length of the pipes will give 
 rise to a constant current of fresh air through them, 
 in one direction or the other. (See ^^Bad Odors,” 
 I, c,) This results in the oxidation of whatever filth 
 may cling to the pipes, and dilutes offensive gases so 
 that they are rendered harmless. It has also been 
 shown that the various microscopic organisms, which 
 are believed to be the specific cause of certain dis- 
 eases, increase in virulence, when they propagate in 
 the absence or with a deficient supply of oxygen, 
 while the intensity of their action is diminished if*^ 
 they grow where oxygen is plentiful. 
 
 16. Ventilation in chimney-flues. (See ‘‘Bad 
 Odors,” I, c.) 
 
 17. Vertical pipes of iron. Iron resists corro- 
 sion and the assaults of rats better than lead, and 
 lead pipes are sometimes occluded by pressure and 
 settling. Branch wastes are generally of lead be- 
 cause it is easily cut and bent, so as to be used in 
 difficult situations. 
 
 Return-bend or cowl. To prevent senseless 
 
 v*f' 
 
44 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION. 
 
 persons from throwing things down the pipe, and 
 thus obstructing it. 
 
 20. Diameter of pipes. The inside diameter 
 is always meant. 
 
 21. D-pipe. (See Appendix B.) 
 
 22. No traps on vertical pipes, i. e., at the 
 
 foot of such pipes, because they would prevent the 
 free circulation of air, and thus render the fresh-air 
 inlet practically useless. Also to prevent cush- 
 ioning.'' 
 
 23. Cast-iron pipes are made in five-foot lengths, 
 with an enlargement at one end, called the hub or 
 
 ^ bell, and a bead around the edge of the other end 
 (the spigot-end). The spigot-end of one pipe fits 
 loosely^into the hub of another, sufficient room being 
 left Tor calking. (See 26.) 
 
 24. Pipes are tarred by being heated to 500° 
 Fahr. and then dipped perpendicularly into a hot 
 bath of coal-tar pitch mixed with a small proportion 
 
 ♦ of heavy coal-oil. This coating prevents corrosion, 
 
 I or at least greatly retards it. 
 
 J 25. Wrought-iron pipes, with screw joints, are 
 used by the Durham House Drainage Company, the 
 joints being gas-tight. They have the advantage of be- 
 ing very durable and impervious to gases, but the dis- 
 advantage of being too permanent. If it is desired 
 to change the position of a fixture, or to connect a 
 new one, it is easy to break a hole in a cast-iron pipe, 
 or to remove a portion of it, but where wrought-iron 
 pipe is used this is almost impossible. The Durham 
 
DRAINAGE, 
 
 45 
 
 system also costs about twenty-five per cent more 
 than the common one, and it is not strictly correct 
 to say that its use renders a house absolutely secure 
 against leakage of sewer-air, because it does not 
 do away with lead branch-pipes, in which frequent 
 leakages occur, and all irregular portions of pipe, 
 with branches, etc., in this system are made of cast- 
 iron with calked joints, as in the ordinary system. 
 
 The water-test is applied by plugging the pipe 
 carefully, and closing all openings below a certain 
 point, and then filling it with water to that level. If 
 there is any leakage, the water-level will gradually 
 sink. If the pipes are tight, it will remain the same. 
 
 Peppermint-test. (See hereafter 
 
 26. Oakum is packed into the the 
 
 spigot-end of one pipe and the hi 
 driven against the bead abov( 
 packing is called a gasket, 
 in on top of the oakum, and, wl 
 driven in tight with a calking iroi 
 ordinary pipe is used, the calk] 
 split the hub, and this furnishes 
 general use of extra-heavy pipe. 
 
 Iron-filings, etc., making what is 
 joint. 
 
 27. Ferrules, or sleeves, are used because lead 
 pipes are too soft and yielding to withstand the calk- 
 ing. Lead can not be soldered to iron, and therefore 
 brass or copper has to be used. If iron ferrules are 
 used, the lead pipe must be turned up on the outside 
 
46 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION 
 
 far enough so that its edge shall be covered by the 
 melted lead used in calking, so as to prevent leakage 
 of gas, as hereafter described. (See ‘‘ Bad Odors,’’ 
 h i>-) 
 
 28. "Wiped-joints are those always used for lead 
 pipe, and are indicated by a raised ring of solder 
 surrounding the pipe. 
 
 29. A trap, with a good water-seal, is an effect- 
 ive barrier against the passage of sewer- air or parti- 
 cles of organic matter. The experiments of Carmi- 
 chael, confirmed by Wemich and Pumpelly, have 
 amply demonstrated that sewer-air passes through 
 the water-seal in such minute quantities that it can 
 not possibly harm any one, and that solid particles 
 of matter can not pass at all. 
 
 Separate traps, except, etc. (See Bad Odors,” 
 
 I, d.) 
 
 33. Siphonage. (See “ Bad Odors,” i, d.) 
 
 37. Overflow-pipes from fixtures. It is better 
 to connect them with the trap below the water-level. 
 (See “ Bad Odors,” i, d,) 
 
 38. Safes are sheets of metal (generally lead) 
 with turned-up edges, placed beneath basins, sinks, 
 water-closets, etc., to protect the floor in case of 
 leakage. The waste-pipes of safes are common 
 sources of nuisance. (See ‘‘ Bad Odors,” i, c.) 
 
 39. To prevent contamination of the contents of 
 the refrigerator. 
 
 41. When water-closets are flushed directly from 
 the common supply-pipe of the house, as in the dif- 
 
DRAINAGE. 
 
 47 
 
 ferent kinds of valve-closets, the water in the pipes, 
 under certain circumstances, will be contaminated : 
 e. g., if a person opens a faucet on one floor at the 
 same moment that the valve is opened to flush a 
 water-closet on a higher floor, water will be sucked 
 back from the valve, and the air of the closet will 
 follow it. Check-valves have been used to prevent 
 this, but they should not be depended on. 
 
 Various forms of tanks or cisterns for water- 
 closets are here shown. Fig. 22 represents a tank, 
 
 b, which discharges water as long as the handle (at- 
 tached to the chain a) is raised. It gives a flush also 
 of the entire contents of the service-box c, after the 
 handle is lowered. Fig. 23 shows a waste-preventing 
 tank, which is divided into two compartments, b and 
 d. It will be seen that this allows only the contents 
 of d to be discharged,' with an after-flush from c. 
 Fig. 24 shows a tank, in which the chain a is attached 
 
48 SANITARY INFORMATION. 
 
 to the seat, and is pulled down when the seat is de- 
 pressed. It wiU be seen that no water can flow 
 
 while the closet is in use, but, when the seat is re- 
 leased, the contents of c are discharged with great 
 
 force. In all these figures, ^ is a ball-cocL This 
 cock is controlled by a hollow copper ball, which 
 
DRAINAGE, 
 
 49 
 
 floats on water, and is attached to the end of a lever. 
 When the water falls, the ball falls with it, and opens 
 the cock. When it is floated up to a certain^ point, 
 it closes the^cock and stops the flow. 
 
 45. Leaders should not be used as soil-pipes, 
 because, during a rain, the ventilation of the pipes 
 is interfered with by the downward flow of water, 
 4 
 
50 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION 
 
 which will also empty unventilated traps by siphon- 
 ing. The necessity of having leaders open flush with 
 the roof also interferes with proper ventilation. 
 
 47. If steam enters a soil-pipe, it heats the water 
 in the traps, injures joints on account of the extreme 
 changes of temperature induced, and hastens corro- 
 sion of the pipes. 
 
 Fig. 25 shows a system of house-drainage fora 
 city house planned in accordance with the above 
 rules. 
 
 In country houses, where there are no sewers, 
 the best method of disposing of the house-slops is 
 subsoil drainage. The house system may be the 
 same as that already explained for city housesi. The 
 fluids are conducted by a pipe with tight joints to a 
 flush-tank (Fig. 26) near the house. This tank is 
 
 so constructed that it empties itself, by a siphon 
 action, whenever it gets full, discharging all its con- 
 tents in a very short time, and thus washing out 
 
DRAINAGE. 
 
 51 
 
 thoroughly the pipes into which it empties. The 
 outlet-pipe from this tank is continued by a cemented 
 vitrified pipe to a point about twenty-five feet farther 
 away. Here it connects with a system of open- 
 jointed drain-tiles, consisting of one main, fifty feet 
 long, and ten lateral drains, six feet apart, and each 
 about twenty feet long. These drains underlie a 
 part of the lawn, and are only about ten inches below 
 the surface ” (Waring). It will be understood that 
 the purpose of this method of drainage is to have 
 the organic matter contained in the house-refuse 
 appropriated by vegetation, and it must therefore be 
 distributed within reach of the grass-roots. 
 
 If water-closets are used, the following system is 
 recommended in ^^The Sanitary Engineer’’ : Collect 
 all the sewage of the house in a small and perfectly 
 tight tank or cesspool, in which the paper and fecal 
 matter soon become macerated by fermentation and 
 reduced to a pulp. This tank should overflow into 
 the flush-tank, the overflow-pipe dipping at least a 
 foot below the point of discharge, to avoid the scum. 
 The siphon of the flush-tank should be accessible 
 by a man-hole, so as to be readily cleaned. If thus 
 arranged, and if no roots of trees are in the soil, the 
 distribution-pipes will not clog for a year or more, 
 sometimes not for ten years. 
 
 Pipes should be laid at a depth of eight inches, 
 with a slight and uniform descent of not over six or 
 eight inches in one hundred feet. Branches from 
 a four-inch main to the two-inch distribution-pipes 
 
52 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION. 
 
 should lead from the bottom of the former, instead 
 of from the side, as in ordinary drain connections. 
 
 There should be a grease-trap (see Explanatory 
 Remarks,"' 3) attached to the kitchen waste-pipes, 
 in order to prevent clogging of the tanks and pipes 
 by the congelation of fat. 
 
 Bad Odors. 
 
 When bad odors in a house are traceable 
 to the drainage, they will usually be found 
 to be due to one or more of the following 
 causes : 
 
 I. To faulty construction, {a.) Drains. — 
 ' These may be made of brick or stone and cement. 
 Such materials are pervious to gases, even when 
 sound, and are peculiarly liable to be channeled by 
 rats, especially where an iron or lead pipe enters 
 them. Such a drain should be replaced by an iron 
 one. 
 
 {b.) Joints.-^Cement-joints are pervious to 
 gases. Putty-joints crack and so become pervious. 
 A lead pipe is sometimes connected with an iron 
 one by means of an iron ferrule, the lead pipe pass- 
 ing inside the ferrule and being turned over its lower 
 edge, extending up on the outside, the ferrule then 
 being calked into the hub. When paper is used for 
 the gasket or packing, it rots away in time, and a 
 passage is left through which gas can escape as fol- 
 lows : up between the hub and the turned-over lead 
 pipe, over its edge, between it and the calking, down . 
 
DIZAIN AGE. 
 
 53 
 
 between the lead pipe and the ferrule, across the 
 lower edge of the ferrule, and out between the inner 
 surface of the ferrule and the outer 
 surface of the lead pipe. (See Fig. 
 
 27.) Sometimes a connection of lead 
 with iron is made by means of a lead 
 flange fastened around the iron pipe 
 with wire, and sometimes the lead 
 pipe is simply stuck into a hole in the 
 iron pipe and fastened with cement ^ ^ 
 
 Fig. 27. — Iron fer 
 
 or putty. Such work should be re- rule improperly 
 
 Ml- ^ CaXICwCI# 
 
 placed by properly made joints as 
 
 described in the above regulations. (Or in Bad 
 
 Odors,*' 2, c.) 
 
 {c.) Pipes. — If the leaders are not trapped at 
 the bottom, offensive gases from them may enter the 
 nearest windows. . A leader is never of the same 
 length as the soil-pipe, and, if there is direct com- 
 munication between them through the house-drain, 
 there will always be a current of air through them in 
 one direction or the other. If the external air is 
 colder than that inside the pipes, then the heavier 
 column of air will be over the shorter pipe, and the 
 current will be down that one and up the other. If 
 the external air is warmer than that in the pipes, the 
 heavier column will be that which includes the longer 
 pipe, and the current will be down that one and up 
 the shorter. So, as a rule, the current in winter is 
 down the short pipe and up the long one, while in 
 summer it is reversed, and, as the short pipe often 
 
54 
 
 SANITAR Y INFORMA TION 
 
 ends near windows, the nuisance is greatest when 
 these windows are open. Of course, in such cases, 
 the leader must be trapped. 
 
 Ventilating-pipes sometimes end in chimney- 
 flues. This is a bad plan, for, if the flue is in use, 
 the open end of the pipe will become choked with 
 soot and finally be rendered useless. If the flue is 
 not used, there will often be a down draught in it, 
 and the offensive gases may be conveyed through 
 stove-pipes or fireplaces into the rooms of the house. 
 Such gases may even penetrate the walls of the flue 
 and so enter the house. If such a pipe is ever run 
 into a flue, it should be extended at least two feet 
 above the chimney-top. 
 
 Ventilating-pipes are sometimes badly arranged, 
 so that they actually neutralize a trap and render it 
 useless. (See Fig. 28.) In this figure a is the soil- 
 pipe and b the ventilating-pipe. 
 
 Safe-wastes and the overflow-pipes of tanks 
 and cisterns may be connected with the soil or waste 
 pipe. When they are, they are usually trapped. It 
 will often be • found that the traps are empty and 
 useless, so that offensive gases escape from the pipes. 
 With tank-overflow pipes this is generally the case. 
 Safe- waste traps are sometimes provided with small 
 feed-pipes, intended to discharge water into them 
 every time the fixtures are used. It will often be 
 found, however, if the end of the feed-pipe is pulled 
 up out of the waste, that no water runs through it, 
 and it is useless, sometimes because it is too small 
 
DRAINAGE. 
 
 55 
 
 and is choked with dust and sediment, and some- 
 times because it is wrongly attached to the source of 
 supply. Safe-wastes, discharging into the kitchen or 
 cellar, may convey to the rooms odors of cooking or 
 
 of articles stored in the cellar (onions, turnips, etc.), 
 or from the servants’ water-closet, which is often 
 offensive. If urine or other offensive liquids from 
 leakage flow through them, the upward currents of 
 air will be impregnated with odors from the filth that 
 has clung to the pipe long after the leak has been 
 repaired. In any event these safe-wastes constitute 
 a direct communication between different rooms of 
 a house, which is not always desirable. It is better 
 to do without them. They are rarely of any use? If 
 
 Fig. 28. — Faulty arrangement of ventilating pipes. 
 
56 
 
 SANITAjRY informa tiojv. 
 
 required, however, they should either be trapped 
 under the safe, and means taken to insure a constant 
 water-seal, or they may be closed by a piece of paper 
 pasted over the lower opening, which will prevent 
 the entrance of any odors from cellar or kitchen, but 
 will give way in case of leakage. The safe-wastes of 
 water-closets often discharge into the trap of the 
 water-closet. This is a bad plan, because, if there 
 is an obstruction in the trap, the safe-waste is, of 
 course, useless. If offensive odors are traced to 
 safe-wastes, the openings had better be sealed. If 
 overflow-pipes are the source, they must be discon- 
 nected from the soil or waste pipe and made to dis- 
 charge elsewhere (e. g., into some sink or water- 
 closet). 
 
 (r/.) Traps . — If two traps are so arranged that 
 the air is compressed between them by an oncoming 
 rush of water, the trap containing the shallowest wa- 
 ter-seal will be forced, and a certain amount of air 
 will escape through it from the interior of the pipe. 
 
 This result is due to “ cushioning,’' as it is called, 
 and is illustrated in Fig. 29. Such a fault is to be 
 remedied by connecting the crown of one of the 
 
 Fig. 29, — Cushioning illustrated. 
 
DRAINAGE. 
 
 57 
 
 traps with a ventilating-pipe, so that any pressure of 
 the kind is immediately relieved without disturbing 
 the seal of the trap. 
 
 If there are two traps on the same line of pipe 
 (Fig. 30), so that a part of the interior of the pipe is 
 cut off from the external air in both directions, it 
 becomes ‘‘air-bound,’* and one of two results will 
 follow, viz. : water discharged into the fixture above 
 the higher trap will remain in the bowl and not run 
 down, on account of the compression of air between 
 
 Fig, 30. — Double-trapped waste-pipe Fig. 31. — Two sinks with but 
 
 (air-bound). one trap. 
 
 the traps ; or, if it does run out of the fixture, it will 
 displace an equivalent bulk of foul air, which will 
 bubble up through the upper trap and cause offen- 
 
S8 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION. 
 
 sive odors. In such a case, the lower trap should 
 be removed. 
 
 If two or more waste-pipes (as in sets of tubs, 
 in sinks, and often in urinals) are provided with but 
 one trap for all (Fig. 31), there will be a constant 
 current of air along the pipes, sometimes emerging 
 from one opening and sometimes from another. 
 This air will be contaminated by the filth that lines 
 the pipes, and will often be quite offensive. In such 
 cases, each waste - pipe should be independently 
 trapped, or (as in the case of bath-tubs or urinals) 
 the overflow -pipe should be connected with the 
 trap of the waste-pipe below the water-seal, as in 
 Fig. 25. 
 
 When a body of water sufficiently large to nearly 
 fill a pipe is discharged into it, it drags air along 
 with it, and exhausts the air in all branch-pipes to a 
 greater or less extent. When this exhaustion amounts 
 to a diminution of the pressure in the pipe of about 
 3^, the water in an ordinary trap (with a one-inch 
 seal) will be forced out of it by the pressure of the 
 external atmosphere, or in other words will be sucked 
 out of the trap into the pipe, leaving no water-seal 
 in the trap, and, therefore, allowing free exit for 
 sewer-air. This effect is known as the “siphon- 
 ing of the trap, and is most likely to occur when 
 the main pipe is not open at its upper extremity (is 
 not ventilated), and when the branch w’astes are of 
 the same size with the main one. This fault is reme- 
 died by the ventilation of the traps, and of the main 
 
DRAINAGE, 
 
 59 
 
 pipes, as described in the regulations above quoted 
 (17 and 33). 
 
 •2. To defects in the pipes, (a.) Drains. — 
 Bad odors in cellars often come from broken earth- 
 enware or tile drains, cracked by settling, or from 
 rat-holes in cemented drains. Earthenware or brick 
 drains inside a house should be replaced by iron 
 ones. 
 
 (^.) Joints. — Cement or putty joints are often 
 cracked. Water-closets sometimes become loos- 
 ened from the floor and leak fluids and gases. The 
 covers of hand-holes of traps sometimes get loose 
 and leak gas. Sometimes trap-SCrews, instead of 
 being at the bottom of the trap, where they are cov- 
 ered by water, are at the top ; if these are loose, 
 gases may escape. All such defects should be re- 
 paired. 
 
 (<r.) Pipes . — Both lead and iron pipes are cor- 
 roded and in time perforated by sewer-air. Such 
 corrosion is most likely to occur at points where 
 gases come in contact with a dry part of the pipe, 
 viz., at the crowns or domes of traps, and in ventilat- 
 ing-pipes. For this reason, ventilating-pipes should 
 never be made of thin iron (galvanized iron), and 
 should always be protected by a tar-coating. The 
 crowns of lead traps (especially of water-closets) are 
 often bitten into by rats in search of water. In all 
 cases when the crown of a trap is perforated, there 
 is rarely any leakage of fluid to indicate it, but offen- 
 sive gases escape. All corroded traps and pipes 
 
6o 
 
 SANITAR Y INFORMA TION. 
 
 should be replaced by new ones, and not patched up. 
 Holes in iron pipes may be closed by iron bands 
 surrounding the pipe, and fastened with red-lead 
 putty and screw-bolts (Fig. 32). A new joint may 
 be made by means of a saddle-hub (Fig. 33) care- 
 
 Fig. 32.— Bands. Fig. 33.— Saddle-hub, 
 
 fully secured in a similar manner. Lead pipes are 
 sometimes protected against rats by being encircled 
 by tin, or packed in pounded glass. 
 
 3. To carelessness, {a.) Evaporation. — If 
 fixtures are not in constant use, the water soon 
 evaporates from the traps and gives exit to sewer- 
 air. This often happens in warm weather, and 
 when a house is vacant for a time. To prevent 
 evaporation, a little oil may be poured into the trap, 
 to protect the surface of the water-seal, or it may be 
 made the special duty of a servant to keep the traps 
 full of water when the fixtures are not in use. 
 
 (^.) Dirt. — The inside of a pipe often becomes 
 coated with slime, consisting largely of grease, espe- 
 cially in kitchens. This filthy lining rapidly decom- 
 poses, and that portion above the trap may give out 
 bad odors. The pipes may be cleansed with a strong 
 hot solution of soda. 
 
DRAIIVAGE. 
 
 6i 
 
 Examination of House- Drainage, 
 
 If the object of an examination is to determine 
 whether the drainage is planned and constructed in 
 accordance with the best methods of the day, each 
 point referred to in the above regulations should be 
 carefully investigated. 
 
 If the object is to determine the source of offen- 
 sive odors, or if there has been sickness in the house 
 of such a character as to indicate possible defects in 
 the plumbing, the several sources of bad odors just 
 enumerated should each be carefully inquired into. 
 A few additional suggestions as to the method of ex- 
 amination will not be out of place. 
 
 It will be found much easier to determine the 
 direction, number, and situation of the main lines of 
 pipe, if the examination is begun at the roof and 
 continued downward. If a beginning is made in the 
 cellar, confusion results. 
 
 “ Cushioning is determined by causing the 
 discharge of a considerable mass of water (as from a 
 bath-tub or water-closet) into the main pipe, at some 
 distance above the suspected fixture. If there is a 
 regurgitation in the fixture under observation, there 
 is certainly an obstruction in the pipe at some point 
 below the fixture.* If the obstruction is caused by 
 something lodged in the pipe, the back-flow in the 
 fixture will be a steady one, because there will be 
 some leakage through the obstruction, while if it is 
 due to compressed air, which is elastic, the regurgi- 
 
62 SANITAR Y INFORMA TION. 
 
 tation will be by spurts, and the water in the trap 
 may even be thrown up to a considerable height. 
 
 Siphonings ’’ is also determined by filling the 
 pipe with water in the manner just explained. If 
 the trap of the fixture under observation is emptied 
 by siphoning, a sucking or gurgling noise will be 
 heard in it, and a flame held over the outlet of the 
 fixture will be drawn downward by the inward cur- 
 rent of air. 
 
 One trap to several pipes (when it is sus- 
 pected but not certainly known because the trap is 
 out of sight) may be detected by the fact that there 
 will always be a current of air in one direction or 
 the other through such pipes, and more or less odor 
 will escape. If the back of the hand is wet, it be- 
 comes very sensitive to such a current, and by hold- 
 ing alternately the palm and the back of the hand, 
 or even of the forefinger (wet), over an opening, the 
 existence and direction of such a current can be 
 easily determined. If the odors are from such a 
 source, it can then be made evident by covering all 
 the outlets but one with wet paper, so as to prevent 
 the air-currents, when the odors will temporarily dis- 
 appear. 
 
 If a trap is accessible, it is easy to determine 
 whether its water-seal is preserved or not by tapping 
 it from top to bottom with some metallic substance, 
 when the difference in sound will indicate the exact 
 level of the water inside. 
 
 Those parts of the plumbing which are not ac- 
 
DRAINAGE. 
 
 63 
 
 cessible to inspection must be examined by intro- 
 ducing into the pipes some strong-smelling sub- 
 stance, which will indicate defects by its escape 
 through them into the house. Oil of peppermint 
 is often used for this purpose. 
 
 The Peppermint-Test. 
 
 For testing the pipes of an ordinary dwelling, 
 one ounce of the oil of peppermint is sufficient. 
 For a large building more may be needed. The 
 drug costs from twenty-five to seventy-five cents an 
 ounce, according to its quality and the place where 
 it is bought. 
 
 It is best to introduce the oil into the pipes from 
 outside the house, if possible, so that the odor which 
 inevitably attends the process may be dissipated in 
 the external air. The object being to ascertain the 
 location of defects in the pipes inside the house, the 
 examiner must feel certain, if he detects the odor of 
 peppermint anywhere, that the vapor has come to him 
 from inside the pipes, and not from the outside. If 
 • the ventilating-pipes are so constructed that the oil 
 can not be poured in from the roof, then it must be 
 poured into some basin or water-closet in the upper 
 portion of the house. The peppermint should first 
 be mingled with a pailful of hot water to promote 
 rapid volatilization, and poured slowly down the pipe. 
 After it is poured down, the openings at the upper 
 extremities of the pipes should be closed, so that the 
 pressure of the vapor inside the pipes may not be 
 
64 
 
 SAATITAJiY INFORMATION. 
 
 relieved in that direction. If the odor of peppermint, 
 thus introduced with the pecautions mentioned be- 
 low, is perceived anywhere in the house, it is an in- 
 dication that there is an opening in some pipe, 
 through which sewer-air may escape. This opening 
 may be a defect, or it may be due to siphoning of 
 traps, or to faults of original construction. There 
 will not usually be much difficulty in locating it 
 with considerable exactness. 
 
 Special Precautions, 
 
 The peppermint should be kept on the roof, or 
 on a window-sill outside the house, until needed, for 
 it is so volatile that the vapor escapes through the 
 cork, and if the odor gets into the house in this way, 
 it will vitiate the examination. 
 
 The person who pours the peppermint should re- 
 main on the roof or in the room where he does it, 
 with the doors closed, until the examination is com- 
 plete, for the odor will cling to his clothing and fol- 
 low him wherever he goes for an hour or more. 
 
 Additional Remarks, 
 
 If bad odors have been noticed, and no defect 
 can be found in the ways above mentioned, they may 
 be due to decaying animal matter (dead rats, etc.), 
 or (in the city) to defects in the plumbing of the ad- 
 joining house, offensive gases from which may pene- 
 trate the wall. 
 
 The source of bad odors need not necessarily be 
 
65 
 
 , DRAINAGE. . 
 
 in the immediate vicinity of the place, where they 
 are noticed, for the walls of buildings are full of 
 channels and openings, through which offensive 
 gases may be carried by currents of air, so as to 
 emerge at a considerable distance from their origin. 
 Thus, in winter, they are apt to be most noticeable 
 near a fire. ‘ , 
 
 SUMMARY OF THE BEST METHODS OF DRAINAGE. 
 
 For houses where there are public sewers: 
 water-carriage. 
 
 For country houses, if isolated from sewers, 
 
 and where expense is no objection : water-carriage 
 with subsoil drainage. 
 
 In villages and small towns, without sewers : 
 
 subsoil drainage (for slops), and pails (for excreta), 
 frequently removed by proper officers. 
 
 For farm-houses : subsoil drainage for slops, 
 and a movable tank, with dry earth disinfection, for 
 excreta. 
 
 For sea-side houses, isolated : if there is 
 vegetation, subsoil drainage for slops, and earth- 
 closets. . . ; 
 
 For sea-side villages : subsoil drainage and 
 the pail system. 
 
 For sea-side houses, where there is no vege- 
 tation : for excreta, earth-closets or a movable 
 iron tank, with dry-earth disinfection ; for slops, a 
 water-tight cesspool, with arrangements for empty- 
 ing its contents into the sea when the tide is ebbing. 
 
66 
 
 SANITAR Y IJYFORMA TION, 
 
 How to prevent contamination of the air 
 from the ground. 
 
 Have the house separated from the soil on which 
 it is built by a layer of asphalt between two layers 
 of cement, extending over the whole cellar-floor, 
 through the foundation- walls and up above the point 
 where the ground touches the walls outside. Or 
 have the house built without a cellar, and with per- 
 forated underpinning, so as to allow a free circula- 
 tion of air underneath it. The subsoil should also 
 be drained by tiles laid at least a foot lower than the 
 cellar-bottom. 
 
 The cold-air boxes of furnaces should draw their 
 supply from the external air. It is advisable to have 
 a thin layer of cotton held in place by wire gauze to 
 filter the air as it enters them. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 DISINFECTION. 
 
 How to prevent contamination of the air 
 by the respiration, bodily emanations, and 
 excreta of diseased persons. 
 
 It is not possible with our present knowledge to 
 prevent the multiplication of morbid germs in the 
 human body, when they are once implanted there, 
 nor to prevent their discharge ; but we can destroy 
 them after their exit from the body, and so protect 
 other persons who are not yet affected. 
 
DISINFECTION, 
 
 67 
 
 The following instructions for the management 
 of contagious diseases were prepared for the Na- 
 tional Board of Health by Professors C. F. Chandler, 
 Henry Draper, G. F. Barker, S. O. Vander Poel, E. 
 G. Janeway, and Ira Remsen. 
 
 Instructions for Disinfection, 
 
 Disinfection is the destruction of the poisons of 
 infectious and contagious diseases. 
 
 Deodorizers, or substances which destroy smells, 
 are not necessarily disinfectants, and disinfectants 
 do not necessarily have an odor. 
 
 Disinfection can not compensate for want.^of 
 cleanliness nor of ventilation. 
 
 I. Disinfectants to he employed, 
 
 1. Roll-sulphur (brimstone) for fumigation. 
 
 2. Sulphate of iron (copperas) dissolved in water 
 in the proportion of one and a half pounds to the 
 gallon ; for soil, sewers, etc. 
 
 3. Sulphate of zinc and common salt, dissolved 
 together in water in the proportion of four ounces 
 sulphate and two ounces salt to the gallon ; for 
 clothing, bed-linen, etc. . 
 
 II. How to use Disinfectants, 
 
 I. In the sick-room. The most available agents 
 are fresh air and cleanliness. The clothing, towels, 
 bed-linen, etc., should on removal from the patient. 
 
68 
 
 SANITATE Y INFORMA TJON. 
 
 and before they are taken from the room, be placed 
 in a pail or tub of the zinc solution, boiling-hot if 
 possible. 
 
 All discharges should either be received in ves- 
 sels containing copperas solution, or, when this is 
 impracticable, should be immediately covered with 
 copperas solution. All vessels used about the pa- 
 tient should be cleansed with the same solution. 
 
 Unnecessary furniture, especially that which is 
 stuffed, carpets and hangings, should, when possible, 
 be removed from the room at the outset ; otherwise 
 they should remain for subsequent fumigation and 
 treatment. 
 
 2. Fumigation with sulphur is the only practi- 
 'cable method for disinfecting the house. For this 
 
 purpose, the rooms to be disinfected must be va- 
 cated. Heavy clothing, blankets, bedding, and other 
 articles which can not be treated with zinc solution, 
 should be opened and exposed during fumigation, as 
 directed below. ' Close the rooms as tightly as possi- 
 ble, place the sulphur in iron pans supported upon 
 bricks placed in wash-tubs containing a little water, 
 sqt it pn fire by hot coals or with the aid of a spoon- 
 ful oTaJcohol, and allow the room to remain closed 
 for twenty-four hours. For a room about ten feet 
 square, at least two pounds of sulphur should be 
 used ; for larger rooms, proportionally increased 
 quantities. 
 
 3. Premises. Cellars, yards, stables, gutters, 
 privies, cesspools, water-closets, drains, sewers, etc., 
 
DISINFECTION. 
 
 69 
 
 should be frequently and liberally treated with cop- 
 peras solution. The copperas solution is easily pre- 
 pared by hanging a basket containing about sixty 
 pounds of copperas in a barrel of water. 
 
 4. Body and bed* clothing, etc. It is best to 
 burn all articles which have been in contact with 
 persons sick with contagious or infectious diseases. 
 Articles too valuable to be destroyed should be 
 treated as follows 
 
 {a.) Cotton; linen, flannels, blankets, etc., should 
 be treated with the boiling-hot zinc solution ; intro- 
 duce piece by piece, secure thorough wetting, and 
 boil for at least half an hour. 
 
 ( 3 .) Heavy woolen clothing, silkj 
 bed-covers, beds, and other article|^hich^can 
 be treated with the zinc solution, s] 
 the room during fumigation, their 
 ly exposed and pockets turned 11 
 ward they should be hung in th< 
 and shaken. Pillows, beds, stuff( 
 bolstered furniture, etc., should 
 contents spread out and thoroughly 
 pets are best fumigated on the floor, 
 terward be removed to the open air and thoroughly 
 beaten. 
 
 5. Corpses especially of persons that have died 
 of any infectious or malignant disease, should be 
 thoroughly washed with a zinc solution of double 
 strength ; should then be wrapped in a sheet, wet 
 with the zinc solution, and buried at once. 
 
70 SANITAI^Y INFOJ^MA TIOAT. 
 
 Metallic, metal-lined, or air-tight coffins should 
 be used when possible ; certainly when the body is 
 to be transported for any considerable distance. 
 
 Comments, 
 
 Section I. i. Copperas, also called green vitriol. 
 
 2. About four tablespoonfuls of the zinc and two 
 tablespoon fuls of the salt, making a solution of the 
 chloride of zinc. 
 
 Section II. i. The windows should be kept 
 open, if possible, but in such a way as to avoid 
 draughts on the bed. A fire should be constantly 
 burning in an open fireplace. 
 
 The room should be on the top floor, and all 
 cracks and openings communicating with other 
 rooms should be closed tightly. The door which 
 has to be used should have a wet sheet hanging en- 
 tirely over it, the windows and fireplace being alone 
 relied on for ventilation. 
 
 2. The burning of sulphur produces sulphurous 
 acid, which is an irrespirable gas. The person who 
 lights the sulphur must, therefore, immediately leave 
 the room, and after the lapse of the proper time, 
 must hold his breath as he enters the room to open 
 the windows and let out the gas. After fumigation, 
 plastered walls should be whitewashed, the wood- 
 work well scrubbed with carbolic soap, and painted 
 portions repainted. 
 
 3. Or put copperas in a pail of water, in such 
 quantity that some may constantly remain undis- 
 
DISINFECTION. 
 
 71 
 
 solved at the bottom. This makes a saturated solu- 
 tion. To every privy or water-closet, allow one pint 
 of the solution for every four persons when cholera 
 is about. To keep privies from being offensive, pour 
 one pint into each seat, night and morning. 
 
 4. {a.) Such articles should never be sent to a 
 public laundry or mingled with the family washing. 
 
 {F) The cutting open of stuffed articles may 
 seem unnecessary, but it is not. The poison of con- 
 tagious diseases clings to such stuffs (called fomites) 
 with great tenacity for years, and must be destroyed 
 before they are fit to be used again. 
 
 5. It is also well to fill a large wad of cotton 
 or fine shavings with coal-tar powder or chloride 
 of lime and place it beneath the hips, to absorb 
 fluids. 
 
 Contagious diseases are often caught at the fu- 
 nerals of those who have died of them, and the sani- 
 tary code of New York city forbids a public funeral 
 of any person who has died of small-pox, diphtheria, 
 scarlet fever, yellow fever, typhus fever, or Asiatic 
 cholera. It is better to limit the attendance at such 
 funerals to as few as possible. 
 
 Additional Precautions in Special Diseases. 
 
 Small-pox. — Every one in the vicinity should 
 be vaccinated with fresh virus. Every person should 
 be vaccinated in infancy, again after puberty, and 
 again within four days after exposure to small-pox. 
 Special care shguld be paid tg isolation. Inmates 
 
72 
 
 SANITAJRY INFORMA TIOJY, 
 
 of the house should neither make nor receive visits 
 while the patient is sick. 
 
 Diphtheria and Consumption.— Special care 
 should be taken to avoid inhaling the breath of the 
 patient, as the diseases are communicated through 
 the secretions of the nose, throat, and lungs. The 
 matter coughed up should be received on rags and 
 immediately burned. ' 
 
 Scarlet Fever and Measles. — These are com- 
 municable during convalescence, as well as during 
 the illness. The body of the patient should be 
 anointed twice a day with sweet-oil, lard, or vaseline, 
 containing ten grains of carbolic acid or thymol to 
 the ounce. This should be continued until all bran- 
 . like scaling of the skin is at an end. Before again 
 associating with unprotected persons, the patient 
 should have several complete ablutions, including 
 thorough washing of the hair with soap or borax ; 
 and none of the clothing wora for several days be- 
 fore the disease declared itself should be again used 
 until thoroughly disinfected, and ventilated in the 
 open air several days (New York State Board of 
 Health circular). 
 
 Typhoid Fever, Asiatic Cholera, and Dys- 
 entery. — Poison contained in discharges from the 
 bowels. Particular attention should be paid to the 
 disinfection of . such discharges by the zinc or cop- 
 peras solution. 
 
 ^ Yellow Fever. — Poison possibly contained in 
 discharges from stoniach and bowels, but requiring 
 
FOOD* 7 ^ 
 
 Special conditions for development outside the body 
 before it can affect other persons. Excreta should 
 be immediately disinfected. Germs may be carried 
 long distances in fomites (clothing, bedding, and 
 other porous substances), and disinfection of such 
 articles must be very thorough. 
 
 Typhus Fever. — No visiting to be allowed. 
 
 When there is small-pox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, 
 measles, or typhus fever in a house, immediate at- 
 tendants on the sick should not leave the house 
 without a change of outside clothing. 
 
 General Precautions for those entering a Sick-Room. 
 
 Never enter a sick-room, with an empty stomach, 
 or when very tired. 
 
 Never eat or drink anything that has been long 
 exposed to the air of the sick-room. 
 
 Breathe through your nose, and keep your mouth 
 shut except when you are talking. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FOOD. 
 
 < 
 
 How to distinguish a good article of food from 
 a bad one, when both are in their natural state, is 
 within the province of the cook-book. In this place 
 will be pointed out only the adulterations of food, 
 and those methods of detecting them which can be 
 
74 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION 
 
 used by householders who have no special knowledge 
 of the instrumental and chemical means which are 
 generally necessary. 
 
 Adulterations are of two kinds : those which in- 
 jure the consumer, and those which simply cheat 
 him. The following details are chiefly taken from 
 the New York State Board of Health report for 
 i88i~* 82, the name of the analyst being in each case 
 appended. 
 
 Arrowroot. — Often mixed with cheaper starches. 
 Twenty- three samples examined : seventeen were 
 arrowroot, one was arrowroot and tapioca, two ar- 
 rowroot, tapioca, and potato, and three tapioca and 
 potato. Harmless. (E. G. Love, Ph. D.) 
 
 Bakers’ chemicals. — (Saleratus.) This was 
 
 originally bicarbonate of potash, but the name is 
 now applied to the bicarbonate of soda. Twenty 
 samples: none adulterated. — (Baking-soda.) Twen- 
 ty-three samples: twenty samples unadulterated. One 
 contained 25 per cent of gypsum ; one same quan- 
 tity of gypsum and a little starch ; one a large amount 
 of sulphate of soda and 17 per cent of carbonate of 
 lime. — (Cream of tartar.) This is the bitartrate of 
 potash. Twenty-seven samples : sixteen adulterated 
 and in some not a particle of cream of tartar found. 
 Six adulterated with terra alba (gypsum) and starch, 
 one with starch alone, two with starch, terra alba, 
 and acid phosphate of lime. Six had tartaric acid 
 and no cream of tartar. In eight the amount of 
 terra alba was found to vary from 3.27 to 93 per cent. 
 
FOOD. 
 
 7 S 
 
 Five samples contained over 70 per cent of this inju- 
 rious adulteration. (Love.) 
 
 . Baking - powders. — Contain bicarbonate of 
 soda and some acid or acid salt,' which combine 
 when water is added and evolve carbonic-acid gas. 
 There are four classes in use. One contains cream 
 of tartar, one tartaric acid, one the acid phosphate 
 of lime, and one potash or ammonia alum. Many 
 powders contain a salt of ammonia. The pungent 
 odor of this substance prevents its use in any but 
 the smallest quantities, and it can not affect the 
 wholesomeness of the powder. Flour or starch forms 
 an^ingredient of many powders to prevent a prema- 
 ture combination of its constituents and a consequent 
 deterioration of the powder. Eighty-four samples : 
 seventy-three had flour or starch ; thirty-five con- 
 tained ammonia. Eight adulterated with terra alba, 
 phosphate of lime, or tartrate of lime. As a rule, 
 these powders are harmless. (Love.) 
 
 (Alum.) There does not seem sufficient evidence 
 as to the injurious effects of alum upon the human 
 system to warrant legislation against it. (Love.) 
 
 Beer . — Most adulterations are harmless. Corn, 
 rice, wheat, glucose, starch, pt)tatoes, etc., are used 
 in making beer, and in many countries are allowed 
 by special laws (as in England and Germany). The 
 use of substitutes for hops within the last few years 
 is hardly possible to believe, since hops have been 
 so cheap, in fact, almost the cheapest bitter, and 
 are, moreover, as every’brewer knows, the best ma- 
 
7 6 SANITAR Y INFORM A TION. 
 
 terial to preserve his beer. (F. E. Engelhardt, 
 Ph. D.) 
 
 Brandy. — Cognac brandy is naturally colorless, 
 but public taste demands a brown color, which is 
 imparted by a mixture of caramel (burned sugar). A 
 very large proportion of the brandy in the world is 
 made of corn-spirit colored with burned sugar and 
 flavored with oil of cognac (an essential oil derived 
 from the lees of wine ; twenty-five hundred pounds of 
 lees make one pound of oil.) Here is one recipe : 
 To every ten gallons of pure spirits add two quarts 
 New England rum or one quart Jamaica rum, and 
 from thirty to forty drops of oil of cognac cut in 
 one half pint of alcohol ; color with burned sugar.’’ 
 Twenty-five samples examined : sixteen contained 
 ^ fusel-oil, six had traces of it, and three none. (En- 
 gelhardt). The only injurious ingredient (besides 
 alcohol) in the artificial brandies seems to be the 
 fusel-oil contained in the corn-spirit or whisky used 
 as a base. Rub suspected brandy on the palm of 
 the hand until it has evaporated. Fusel-oil may 
 then still be detected by the smell. Good brandy 
 will leave no odor. 
 
 Bread. — Ten samples : no adulteration. (Love.) 
 In 1873, Elwyn Waller, for the New York City Board 
 of Health, examined fifty-one samples, of which 
 forty-one were Tinadulterated, and ten contained 
 traces of copper or alum. 
 
 Butter. — May be mixed with* oleomargarine, and 
 the adulteration is hard to detect. Oleomargarine 
 
FOOD. 
 
 77 
 
 is more crumbly than butter in cold weather. Often 
 colored with annotto, and, as this sometimes contains 
 a little sulphate of copper, a trace of copper may 
 occasionally be found in butter. As a rule, adultera- 
 tions of butter are harmless. 
 
 Candy. — Taffy and gum-drops are almost all 
 glucose. Coloring-matters usually harmless, but of 
 ten samples of yellow candy, seven contained chro- 
 mate of lead. (W. H. Pitt, M. D.) Candy often 
 contains terra alba, flour, and gum-arabic. The only 
 injurious ingredients usually found are terra alba 
 (recognized by its grittiness and. insolubility) and 
 the chromate of lead. On account of the latter it is 
 best to avoid yellow, green, and orange candies. 
 
 Canned fruits and vegetables. — Eighteen 
 samples, including peaches, plums, grapes, strawber- 
 ries, cherries, blackberries, olives, mushrooms, corn, 
 beans, succotash, tomatoes, pumpkin, and peas. No 
 adulteration found. Attention was given to the 
 possibility of the chemical reaction of the fruit acids 
 upon the inner surface of the cans, whereby salts of 
 tin and lead might be produced, rendering the con- 
 tents in some degree poisonous. There was no evi- 
 dence of their presence. Some of the articles were 
 canned over a year before. (S. A. Lattimore, Ph. D.) 
 Per contra, other analysts have found from .1 to 
 2.3 grains of tin to the can. There is,no evidence, 
 however, that this amount of tin in solution is in- 
 jurious, and the recent investigations of Hall seem 
 to show that the fruit acids do not act appreciably 
 
78 
 
 SANITAR Y INFORMA TION 
 
 on the tin or the lead of the solder, so long as the 
 air is excluded. Cans once opened should therefore 
 be emptied, and not left partly full. 
 
 Canned meats. — No adulterations and no tin 
 or lead found. The heads of all cans should be 
 slightly concave. This shows that the contents were 
 hot when the can was sealed. If the heads are con- 
 vex, the contents are decomposing. 
 
 Cereals. — Ninety-four samples, including wheat 
 and Graham flour, farina, oatmeal, rye, barley, corn- 
 meal, rice, buckwheat, sago, and tapioca. Two 
 adulterated. Adulterations consisted in mixture of 
 other cereals, and were harmless. (Love.) 
 
 Cheese. — Skim-milk cheese often contains lard, 
 put in to replace the butter which has been removed. 
 This adulteration improves the quality of the cheese 
 and often can not be detected by experts. One 
 sample of cheese, which had caused sickness in those 
 who ate it, was examined, and, although it also made 
 the analyst ill, no known poisonous substance could 
 be detected in it. (G. C. Caldwell, Ph. D.) All yel- 
 low cheese is colored with annotto, which can there- 
 fore hardly be considered an adulteration. The rind 
 is sometimes washed with a mercurial or arsenical so- 
 lution, to protect it from insects, and should therefore 
 never be eaten. 
 
 Cocoa and chocolate. — Six samples. None 
 adulterated. (Lattimore.) 
 
 Coffee. — Thirty-five samples of unroasted, three 
 of roasted unground, twenty-one of ground, three of 
 
FOOD. 
 
 79 
 
 coffee extract. Of the thirty-five unroasted^ in five 
 a few grains were found which had been slightly 
 colored or faced, apparently with Prussian blue ; the 
 three roasted unground were pure ; of the twenty-one 
 ground, nineteen contained chiccory, beans, wheat, 
 rye, etc. One sample consisted entirely of roasted 
 hominy. Three samples of coffee extract consisted 
 chiefly of caramel and licorice, and contained no 
 coffee. (Lattimore.) Pure coffee swims in water, and 
 colors it slowly. Chiccory sinks and colors water 
 rapidly. Peas sink and color water slowly. Rye 
 sinks more rapidly than coffee, and colors water 
 more quickly. Ground coffee is hard and crumbles 
 between the teeth ; chiccory is soft and does not 
 crumble. 
 
 Gin. — No injurious adulterations detected. 
 Twenty-five samples. (Engelhardt.) 
 
 Honey. — Three samples : two pure. One, la- 
 beled white-clover honey,*' contained 50 per cent 
 of artificial glucose. The presence of added glucose 
 is indicated by the turbidity produced by oxalic acid 
 in a solution of the honey in distilled water. This 
 turbidity is due to the presence of gypsum in artifi- 
 cial glucose — a substance which is not contained in 
 pure honey. (Pitt.) 
 
 Horse-radish. — Often harmlessly adulterated 
 with grated turnip. 
 
 Isinglass. — Two samples." Both were common 
 gelatine. (Chester.) 
 
 Jellies . — Fruit-jellies are often simple apple-jel- 
 
8o 
 
 SANITAR Y INFORMA TION, 
 
 ly, flavored with artificial essences and colored with 
 aniline. Safest not to use them unless their source 
 is known to be trustworthy. 
 
 Lard. — Twenty-eight samples. Fifteen pure ; 
 the rest contained water. Good lard should melt to 
 a clear fat without sputtering. 
 
 Meat. — Sound fresh meat is pale red when first 
 cut, the surface after exposure turning to a deep red. 
 The meat of animals that have died a natural death 
 is of a deep purple color, not having been bled. The 
 greatest danger in meat, however, is that due to the 
 presence of trichinae, which are killed by a tempera- 
 ture of i6o® Fahr. All forms of pork should there- 
 fore be cooked thoroughly before eating. (Ches- 
 ter.) Poisoning (vomiting, cramps, and diarrhoea) 
 produced by meat is generally caused by some kind 
 of preserved meat (sausages, pickled meats, etc.), 
 and is probably due to the presence of fungi. 
 
 Milk. — Frauds consist generally in adding water 
 or removing fat (skimming). As the milk of healthy 
 cows varies in composition within certain limits, it is 
 necessary to have a standard of purity, which has 
 been fixed upon in New York as follows : Nearly 
 1,000 cows have been examined, with reference to 
 the specific gravity of their milk, in New York, New 
 Jersey, and Connecticut. The maximum specific 
 gravity was 1.039 Alderney cow. The 
 
 minimum for normal milk from a healthy cow was 
 1.029. specific gravity is determined by an in- 
 
 strument called a lactometer, on which o stands for 
 
FOOD. 
 
 8l 
 
 1,000, the specific gravity of water, and loo for 1,029, 
 that of the poorest milk from a healthy cow. The 
 composition of such milk, adopted by the English 
 Society of Public Analysts and the New York City 
 Board of Health, as a result of fifty analyses, is as 
 follows : 
 
 Fat 2.5 
 
 Solids, not fat (sugar, salt, etc.) , g. 
 
 Water 88.5 
 
 loo.o 
 
 Method of using the Lactometer. — Put the 
 
 milk in a vessel so deep that the lactometer, when 
 introduced and allowed to float, shall not touch the 
 bottom. Notice the reading of the scale at the sur- 
 face of the milk. If it is less than 100, it gives the 
 percentage of milk in the sample. For example, if 
 the reading be 80, the sample contains 80 per cent 
 of milk and 20 per cent of water. 
 
 Sources of Error. — Milk very rich in cream 
 may possibly, though not probably, register less than 
 100, but its very appearance will show that it has not 
 been thinned by water or by skimming. 
 
 Skimmed milk, especially if a little salt has been 
 added, may register high above 100, but its thinness 
 and blueness will show that it has been doctored. 
 
 • Condensed milk was carefully analyzed, and 
 found to be unobjectionable. (C. E. Munsell, Ph. D.) 
 
 Olive-Oil. — Often adulterated with poppy, cot- 
 ton-seed, ground or peanut, sesame, rape-seed, colza 
 
82 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION 
 
 or beechnut oil, all harmless. Sixteen samples ; nine 
 adulterated. (Caldwell.) 
 
 Pickles. — Nine samples. None contained cop- 
 per or any other metal. The only sample that pos- 
 sessed a suspiciously green appearance was found to 
 contain alum. (Lattimore.) 
 
 Rum. — Twenty-five samples. No objectionable 
 additions found. (Engelhardt.) 
 
 Sirups. — Three samples of maple-sirup. Two 
 were pure, and one, manufactured in Chicago and 
 sold in cans, contained 35 per cent of artificial glu- 
 cose. In 1870 Dr. Chandler found .02 per cent of 
 ti each of two samples of sugar-house sirups. 
 Tnis represents .8 grain of tin to the gallon. A 
 common adulterant of sirups is glucose, which di- 
 minishes their sweetening power, but is not consid- 
 ered injurious. 
 
 Spices. — One hundred and eighty samples, com- 
 prising mustard, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, cassia, 
 cloyes, white, black, and red pepper, mace, and nut- 
 meg. One hundred and twelve were adulterated 
 from 40 to 81.8 per cent. All the adulterations 
 were harmless (wheat and buckwheat bran, hulls 
 of different seeds, middlings of corn-meal, stale 
 ship's bread, peas, beans, etc.). No poisonous sub- 
 stance was found. (Lattimore.) 
 
 Sugar. — One hundred and sixteen samples, prin- 
 cipally collected in New York city. Care was taken 
 to secure the samples from different sections of the 
 city and from all classes of stores. Of these, thirty- 
 
FOOD. 
 
 83 
 
 four were microscopically clean, fifty-four slightly 
 contaminated with dust, twenty-two contained con- 
 siderable dirt, and six were very dirty. But in no 
 case was there an intentional addition of insoluble 
 mineral matters. Of forty-nine white sugars, all were 
 pure ; of sixty-seven brown sugars, four were adul- 
 terated with glucose. (A. L. Colby, Ph. B.) 
 
 There have been many exaggerated statements 
 put forth regarding the adulteration of sugar. In 
 1870 Dr. Chandler reported to the New York City 
 Board of Health that sixty samples of sugar bought 
 at small groceries were found pure^^ffrorS^lter- 
 ated without exception. In 1872, EdWyn Wallemor 
 the same board, examined one^^dre<^ and ni^e 
 samples of powdered sugar, but^ffbund ijo adultera- 
 
 tion. 
 
 U- 
 
 
 Powdered sugar is quite geneiSjl]^pelieved to {>e 
 adulterated with gypsum or floi||.OAs both of thesjb 
 adulterants are insoluble in watcV/jit is e^y for any 
 one to convince himself of the pv^^ty of ^u^r bifedife- 
 solving it in water. 
 
 Teas. — Forty- three samples 01 and 
 
 eighteen of black. Many were cheap and of very 
 inferior quality, some mere tea rubbish,, yet no leaf, 
 or fragment of a leaf, which was examined, could be 
 considered anything but tea. No adulterations were 
 found, and even the admixture of exhausted leaves 
 could not be positively asserted. (Lattimore.) Sus- 
 pected leaves should be wet and spread out, and 
 then compared with leaves known to be genuine. It 
 
84 
 
 SANITAR Y INFORMA TION 
 
 is said that exhausted leaves of green tea are often 
 colored or faced'' with plumbago, Prussian blue, 
 soap-stone, etc., so artfully- that only an expert can 
 detect the fraud. Black tea is generally pure. 
 
 Vinegar. — Four samples, all poor, but not adul- 
 terated, unless with water. (Lattimore.) 
 
 Whisky. — Twenty-five samples. Fusel-oil de- 
 cided in twenty, and traces in the rest. No injuri- 
 ous adulteration found. “ It is evident that the ad- 
 dition of water and coloring-matter is practiced more 
 than any other adulteration." (Engelhardt.) 
 
 Wine. — ‘‘A good wine should be transparent, 
 and* should have a bouquet. When pouring it into a 
 glass, it should sparkle. A sour taste is always a sign 
 of poor wine. Dizziness and headache are not pro- 
 duced by drinking pure wine. Cloudy, discolored, 
 highly colored wines are suspicious." There are 
 various substances used in the manufacture of wine 
 which should be classed as adulterations, e. g., cal- 
 cined plaster is added to the grape- juice during fer- 
 mentation (so-called plastering); in this way is formed 
 an insoluble tartrate of lime, and a soluble sulphate 
 of potash, the latter having a bitter taste and acting 
 as a purgative even in small doses. The French 
 Government forbids the sale of wine containing over 
 0.2 per cent of sulphate of potash. This process 
 also leads to the formation of acid sulphates and free 
 sulphuric acid in wines. Plastering of wines is prac- 
 ticed in Spain, Portugal, and the south of France. 
 
 Wines are often fortified by the addition of 
 
FOOD. 
 
 83 
 
 brandy, cologne spirit, or French spirit, to arrest fer- 
 mentation. Ports and sherries are almost invaria- 
 bly so. 
 
 • Red wines are often colored with logwood. Bra- 
 zil-wood, fuchsine, cochineal, black hollyhock and 
 red poppy flowers, alkana-root, red beets, cherries, 
 whortleberries, elderberries, pokeberries, etc. It is 
 very difficult to detect these, and fuchsin is the only 
 one that is poisonous. Carpene gives the following 
 very simple method to decide whether a red wine is 
 naturally or artificially colored : Take a piece of 
 good, white burned lime, break it into two pieces, 
 smooth the surfaces by a knife or file, and place a 
 few drops in succession on the same spot of the 
 smooth surface, and observe after a few minutes the 
 color produced. Natural red wines give a yellowish- 
 brown spot ; colored with fuchsine, or Brazil-wood, 
 a rose-colored spot ; colored with logwood, a dark- 
 violet spot ; colored with cochineal, a reddish-violet 
 spot ; colored with black hollyhock, a yellowish- 
 brown spot ; colored with pokeberries, a yellowish 
 somewhat red spot. (Engelhardt.) 
 
 Another test is to concentrate the wine, and dip 
 in a piece of pure white woolen-yarn. The natural 
 red coloring-matter of wine does not dye without a 
 mordant, while fuchsine and cochineal dye it red or 
 pink. 
 
 8 
 
86 
 
 SANITAR Y INFORMA TION 
 
 CHAPTER y. 
 
 WATER, 
 
 In cities and towns which have a common water- 
 supply, the water sometimes contains impurities dis- 
 solved from the pipes through which it runs, or dirt 
 and vegetable debris stirred up from the bottom of 
 the sources of supply, or brought down into them by 
 heavy storms or melting snows. 
 
 Service-pipes are usually made of lead, and, after 
 moderate use, become coated on their internal sur- 
 face with insoluble compounds (sulphate of lead), 
 which prevent contamination of the water by them. 
 When the water is not very hard, however, a slight 
 amount of lead may be dissolved by it. It is said 
 that Cochituate water (Boston) always contains traces 
 of lead, but that no well-authenticated case of poi- 
 soning from this source has ever been reported. 
 Croton water (New York), which has stood over- 
 night in the pipes, is said to contain one tenth of a 
 grain of lead per gallon — sufficient to produce poi- 
 soning in some instances. One case of this sort has 
 been known. If drinking-water is drawn from tanks, 
 they should never be lined with lead, but should be 
 made of iron, or of wood lined with tinned and plan- 
 ished copper. (See Plumbing Regulations,’^ 44.) 
 
 Water passing through galvanized-iron pipes al- 
 ways contains zinc salts — not, however, in injurious 
 amount. Such pipes soon rust. 
 
WA TER. 
 
 87 
 
 Dirt and other suspended matters should be re- 
 moved by means of a filter. A good household 
 filter must be made of a material which can not 
 communicate any injurious or offensive quality to 
 the water that passes through it ; it must remove all 
 suspended particles, so as to render the water bright 
 and clear ; it must be easy to clean, or so arranged 
 that the filtering material can be readily renewed. 
 The action of a filter is either mechanical or chem- 
 ical ; in the latter case, the organic matters contained 
 in the water are oxidized in the filter. There are 
 innumerable patent filters in the market, to be at- 
 tached to the faucet, but these can only act as strain- 
 ers. There is no material known which can be in- 
 troduced into the small space of a tap-filter and ac- 
 complish any real purification of the water which 
 passes through at the ordinary rate of flow. (Nich- 
 ols.) The only points to be looked to, therefore, in 
 purchasing a tap-filter, are its efficiency as a strainer, 
 and the facility of cleansing or renewing the filtering 
 material. Where the pressure is not too great, a 
 closely woven cotton-flannel bag, fastened to the tap, 
 makes as good a filter as any. For large filters (in 
 cisterns, etc.), those which contain animal charcoal 
 are the most efficient. 
 
 In places where the drinking-water is drawn from 
 wells, it is sometimes polluted by leakage from cess- 
 pools, privy-vaults, stables, and refuse matters lying 
 on the surface of the ground in their vicinity. It 
 has been demonstrated beyond a doubt that epi- 
 
88 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION. 
 
 demies of typhoid fever have often originated and 
 spread in this way. Even when no specific disease 
 is caused, water polluted from such sources often 
 causes diarrhoeal disorders and various forms of in- 
 digestion in those who drink it. 
 
 The determination of such pollution is a matter 
 of great delicacy and difficulty, and can only be 
 trusted to an expert. Waters polluted by organic 
 matters often contain an excess of gaseous constitu- 
 ents, and are clear, sparkling, and palatable, present- 
 ing to the uninstructed eye no indication of impurity. 
 There are certain tests, however, which can be used 
 by any person of intelligence, when, if positive re- 
 sults are obtained, an expert should be called in to 
 determine the source and character of the contami- 
 nation. 
 
 The pollution of water by decomposing animal 
 matters is always to be suspected, if there are evi- 
 dences of the presence of chlorine or nitrogen in the 
 water, as these are invariable constituents of animal 
 excreta. These substances are found in combina- 
 tion — the former in chloride of sodium, and the lat- 
 ter in the so-called nitrites and nitrates.* Their 
 presence is determined as follows : 
 
 Chlorine. — Tests: Nitrate of silver (twenty-five 
 cents a drachm), twenty-four grains to one ounce of 
 distilled water, and dilute nitric acid (ten cents an 
 ounce). Pour a few drops of each into the suspected 
 
 * The albuminoid ammonia test is too technical for inser- 
 tion here. 
 
WA TER. 
 
 89 
 
 water. If chlorine is present, there will be a cloudy- 
 white precipitate of chloride of silver, which will 
 gradually turn darker. One grain of chlorine to a 
 gallon of water gives a haze ; four grains a marked 
 turbidity, and ten grains a considerable precipitate. 
 In case chlorine is found, and any particular source 
 is suspected, a pailful of salt (chloride of sodium) 
 and water may be thrown into the place from which 
 the leakage is supposed to come, and the water again 
 examined, after a few hours, to see whether the 
 amount of chlorine has increased. 
 
 Nitrates. — Tests : Pure sulphuric acid and a 
 saturated solution of sulphate of iron (copperas). 
 Add an equal bulk of the acid to any quantity of 
 the water in a test-tube. The mixture will become 
 very hot. Wait until it is cool, and then pour in the 
 iron solution gently, so that it will float above the 
 mixed acid and water. If nitrates are present, there 
 will be an olive-colored layer where the fluids meet. 
 
 Nitrites. — Test-mixture : Iodide of potassium 
 (fifty cents per ounce), one part ; starch, twenty 
 parts ; water, five hundred parts. Make the starch- 
 solution first, and filter when cold ; then add the 
 iodide of potash. Add to the suspected water this 
 mixture, and then a little dilute sulphuric acid. If 
 nitrites are present, there will be an immediate blue 
 color. 
 
 Organic Matters in general. — Test: Eight 
 grains of chemically pure permanganate of potash 
 in one ounce of distilled water. In half a pint of 
 
90 
 
 SANITAJ^ Y INFORMA TION, 
 
 the suspected water in a tumbler, put one drop of 
 the solution. If the red color disappears in one half 
 hour, add more. For every drop that loses color in 
 the half-pint there will be found one and a half to 
 two grains of putrid organic matter in a gallon of the 
 water. If the action is rapid, the matter is probably 
 animal ; if slow, vegetable. 
 
 To purify such water, if it must be used, drop in 
 the solution until a slight red tinge remains. The 
 organic matter is then all oxidized and rendered 
 harmless. It is better, however to boil such water 
 before using it for drinking. 
 
 Precautions with regard to Drinking- Water, 
 
 Do not drink water that has been standing long 
 in lead pipes, or lead cisterns or tanks. 
 
 Filter it before drinking. 
 
 See that the current of ground-water in the well 
 from which you get your drinking-water is from the 
 well toward any possible source of contamination 
 (privy-vault, cesspool, etc.), and not vice versa. 
 
 If the use of a suspected water is unavoidable, 
 boil it first. It can be rendered palatable by an in- 
 fusion of tea or coffee. 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF THE COMMON DISINFECT- 
 ANTS, WITH A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EACH, 
 AND THE AVERAGE PRICE AT RETAIL. 
 
 Carbolic Acid. — A product of the distillation of 
 coal-tar. When pure and free from water, a trans- 
 parent crystalline solid. Dissolves in twenty parts of 
 cold water. Coagulates albuminous matters. A one- 
 per-cent solution of it in water arrests putrefaction. 
 For disinfection use at least a one-per-cent solution. 
 The chief objection to its use is its odor. This may 
 be modified to some extent by mixing the pure acid 
 with camphor, forming a liquid, which may then be 
 diluted. This acid is often used in combination 
 with other disinfectants. A preparation much used 
 by the New York City Board of Health for the dis- 
 infection of clothing contains eight ounces of sul- 
 phate of zinc and three ounces of carbolic acid to 
 three gallons of water. Another for privie^ water- 
 closets, etc., is composed of ten pounds of copperas, 
 one pint of carbolic acid, and five gallons of water. 
 
92 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION. 
 
 The strong acid injures iron pipe. Do not use in 
 combination with the permanganate of potash or the 
 chloride of zinc. ‘‘ Dead Oil ** (heavy oil of coal- 
 tar) contains from 5 to 15 per cent of carbolic acid 
 mingled with impurities. It is used for the disinfec- 
 tion of drains, streets, stables, etc. Thymol also 
 occurs in coal-tar, but is usually obtained from oil of 
 thyme. Its action is similar to that of carbolic acid. 
 Carbolic Powders are made by mixing five parts 
 of the pure acid, or ten parts of the crude, with one 
 hundred parts of sawdust, clay, or lime. Squibb’s 
 Carbolic Acid (No. i), containing 77.90 per cent of 
 pure acid, costs $i a pint ; (No. 2), with 37.46 per 
 cent of pure acid, 75 cents a pint. Different sam- 
 ples examined (Waller), containing from .20 to .78 
 per cent, cost from 50 cents to $i a pint. Crude 
 acid, containing 50 per cent of acid, with many tarry 
 impurities, costs less than $i a gallon. Thymol, $i 
 per ounce. 
 
 Charcoal. — Absorbs putrid gases. See Lime. 
 Chloride of Lime. See Chlorine. 
 
 Chloride of Zinc. See Zinc. 
 
 Chlorine, — A pale, yellowish-green gas, of a suf- 
 focating quality, possessing great bleaching and dis- 
 infecting powers. When dry, it does not bleach. 
 When moist, it combines with the hydrogen of water 
 or of organic substances, and sets free the oxygen, 
 which constitutes its disinfecting power. It decom- 
 poses sulphureted hydrogen, ammonia, and in general 
 compounds arising from the putrid fermentation of 
 
APPENDIX A, 
 
 93 
 
 organic matter. It is obtained as follows : Pour one 
 pound of sulphuric acid, previously diluted with four 
 times its volume of water, on three pounds of chlo- 
 ride of lime. Mix in a large earthen dish to allow 
 for frothing up. Or mix two parts, by weight, of the 
 black oxide (dioxide) of manganese with three parts, 
 by weight, of strong hydrochloric acid. The gas is 
 evolved very rapidly, so that it is difficult to make 
 the mixture complete before the fumes drive away 
 the person manipulating it. The colors of hangings, 
 etc., are apt to be bleached out by it, and metals are 
 corroded. (See also Sulphurous Acid.) Chlo- 
 ride of Lime. — Made by saturating slaked lime with 
 chlorine-gas. It contains on an average about 30 
 per cent of available chlorine, to be set free by an 
 acid. Very useful for disinfection of cellars, damp 
 yards, and areas. One half pound in a gallon of 
 water may be used for washing floors of sick-rooms, 
 etc. Heat destroys its disinfecting properties. 
 Chloride of Aluminum.— Action similar to but 
 weaker than the iron and zinc salts, q. v. Sulphuric 
 acid, black oxide of manganese, and hydrochloric 
 acid, each 5 cents an ounce. Chloride of lime, 15 
 cents a pound. 
 
 Copperas. (Green vitriol, sulphate of iron.) — 
 Comes in pale-green crystals. It is an efficient 
 disinfectant for privies, water-closets, stables, etc. 
 Stains white goods. Acts by destroying sulphuret- 
 ed hydrogen and ammonia. Also oxidizes organic 
 compounds and coagulates albuminous matters. A 
 
94 
 
 SANITAjR y informa tion 
 
 good mixture is four pounds of copperas and three 
 ounces of carbolic acid to a gallon of water. Ten 
 cents a pound. One hundred pounds for $3 or 
 less. 
 
 Corrosive Sublimate. (Mercuric chloride.) — 
 The most powerful disinfectant known. Coagulates 
 albuminous substances. A solution of one part in 
 2,000 of water kills microscopic organisms. Two 
 drachms of this substance in a gallon of water (i to 
 500) makes a solution sure to destroy any disease- 
 germ. It is a deadly poison, and can only be pur- 
 chased under legal restrictions. Fifteen cents an 
 ounce. 
 
 Dead Oil. See Carbolic Acid. 
 
 Green Vitriol. See Copperas. s 
 Gypsum. See Lime. 
 
 Heat. — Boiling is a good disinfectant. Boil for 
 at least an hour. If dry air is used, the temperature 
 must be from 250° to 300° for five or six hours. 
 Cotton and silk will stand a temperature of 295° for 
 three hours without harm. Woolen suffers more. 
 Iron, Sulphate of. See Copperas. 
 
 Lime. — Twenty parts of quicklime, mixed with 
 two parts of dry, fresh charcoal, form the calx- 
 powder, as sold in the shops. It is useful to absorb 
 putrid gases, when sprinkled in cellars, etc. Sul- 
 phate of lime, or gypsum (plaster of Paris), min- 
 gled with coal-tar or impure carbolic acid, is an ef- 
 fective deodorant for stables and manure-heaps. It 
 absorbs and retains ammonia, and therefore pre- 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 95 
 
 serves to the manure its most valuable constituent. 
 Chloride of lime. See Chlorine. Quicklime, 5 
 cents a pound. Gypsum, 10 cents a pound. 
 
 Nitrate of Lead. — Theoretically a good disin- 
 fectant, but practically of little use. Five cents an 
 ounce. 
 
 Nitrous Acid. — Evolved in the form of brown- 
 ish-red fumes, when nitric acid is poured on copper 
 turnings. Very dangerous to inhale, and little used 
 as a disinfectant. 
 
 Ozone. — Is a form of oxygen, supposed to be 
 three volumes condensed into two. Is a powerful 
 oxidizer. Corrodes cork, paper, and other organic 
 substances. Oxidizes very rapidly compounds of 
 ammonia, phosphorus, and sulphur, which" are offen- 
 sive, instantly removing the odor. Simple vegeta- 
 bles, like mould, are completely destroyed by it. 
 Obtained by gradually mixing three parts of sulphu- 
 ric acid with two parts of permanganate of potash. 
 This mixture will continue to give off ozone for sev- 
 eral months. Or, put a piece of phosphorus on a 
 plate, and pour in water sufficient to cover two 
 thirds of it. These methods are used in the patented 
 ozone generators. Phosphorus, 40 cents an ounce ; 
 sulphuric acid, 5 cents an ounce. 
 
 Permanganate of Potash. — Dark purple 
 crystals, almost black. A solution is of a beautiful 
 purple color,^but stains brown almost everything it 
 touches. Can not be used with carbolic acid or the 
 coal-tar disinfectants. Is a powerful oxidizer, and is 
 
96 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION 
 
 used to disinfect excreta, and to purify drinking- 
 water. Fifty cents an ounce. 
 
 Sulphate of Iron. See Copperas. 
 
 Sulphate of Lime. See Lime. 
 
 Sulphate of Zinc. See Zinc. 
 
 Sulphurous Acid. An irrespirable gas, pro- 
 duced by burning sulphur. Powerful disinfectant. 
 Coagulates albuminous matters and probably de- 
 stroys germs. Destroys sulphureted hydrogen and 
 ammonia. Dry articles are not hurt by it, but wet 
 clothes are bleached. Can not be used with chlorine, 
 as they neutralize each other. Chlorine is as effect- 
 ive, but is so destructive that it can only be used in 
 empty rooms. It requires about a tablespoonful of 
 alcohol to light a pound of sulphur. Sulphur (roll- 
 brimstone), lo cents a pound. 
 
 Thymol. See Carbolic Acid. 
 
 Zinc Salts. — The sulphate and the chloride of 
 zinc are excellent disinfectants. They are colorless, 
 and can therefore be used on clothing. They form, 
 with albuminous matters, extremely insoluble com- 
 pounds, and also absorb gases from putrefying ma- 
 terial. They are the best disinfectants of their class. 
 The sulphate is cheaper, but the chloride more effi- 
 cient. Sulphate of zinc, lo cents an ounce ; chlo- 
 ride of zinc, 20 cents an ounce. 
 
 It is better and cheaper to buy and mix one’s 
 own disinfectants. The many proprietary articles 
 are no more efficient, and are very expensive. The 
 composition of some of those most in use is here 
 
97 
 
 APPENDIX A, 
 
 given. (Analyses by Waller, of the New York City 
 Health Department.) 
 
 The first column gives parts in loo, and the .sec- 
 ond, ounces in a gallon in the case of liquids, and 
 ounces in a pound in case of powders. 
 
 Bromochloralum (Tilden & Co.), 50 cents a pint. 
 
 Chloride of aluminum 8.152 12.71 
 
 Water, bromide of aluminum, lime salts, etc. . . 91.848 143.25 
 
 100.000 155.96 
 
 Burnett's Fluid is a solution of chloride of zinc 
 (25 grains to the drachm). 
 
 Carbolate of lime, in three-quarter pound boxes. 
 
 at 25 cents. 
 
 Lime 64.245 10.28 
 
 Magnesia 0.602 0.09 
 
 Sand, oxide of iron, etc 0.670 o.ii 
 
 Carbolic acid 0.472 0.07 
 
 Carbonic acid and organic impurities 34.021 5.45 
 
 100.000 16.00 
 
 Chloralum (English Chloralum Co.), 50 cents a 
 
 pint. 
 
 Chloride of aluminum 13.213 20.14 
 
 Sulphate of lime o«i97 o*30 
 
 Water, chloride of calcium, etc 86.590 131.99 
 
 100.000 152.43 
 
 Chloride of lime, 20 cents a pound. 
 
 Available chlorine 31*38 5.02 
 
 Lime salts, water, etc 68.62 10.98 
 
 100.00 16.00 
 
 Condy's Fluid is a solution of permanganate of 
 7 
 
98 SANITAI^Y INFORMATION. 
 
 potash (9.26 grains to a fluid ounce, about 2^ 
 drachms to the pint). 
 
 Darby's Prophylactic Fluid, 50 cents a half-pint. 
 
 Permanganate of potash 0.055 0.08 
 
 Sulphate of potash i*750 2.50 
 
 Chloride of potassium 1.270 1.8 1 
 
 Carbonate of potash 6.570 9.40 
 
 Water 90.355 129.24 
 
 100.000 143.03 
 
 Egyptian Disinfectant, 25 cents a pound. 
 
 Clay 87.810 14.05 
 
 Lime 0.354 0.06 
 
 Carbolic acid 0.320 0.05 
 
 Other constituents of dead oil 5*685 0.91 
 
 Organic matter and water 5*831 0.93 
 
 100.000 16.00 
 
 V 
 
 Excelsior Disinfectant, 15 cents a pound. 
 
 Protosulphate of iron (copperas) 31*464 5.03 
 
 Chloride of sodium (salt) 19.251 3.08 
 
 Flowers of sulphur 7.800 1.25 
 
 Water of crystallization, cassia-oil, etc 41*485 6.64 
 
 100.000 16.00 
 
 The Germicide is a patented apparatus for dis- 
 charging chloride of zinc into the bowl of the water- 
 closet, and impregnating the air at the same time 
 with the vapor of thymol. 
 
 Girondin Disinfectant, 75 cents a quart. 
 
 Sulphate of zinc 19.692 32.64 
 
 Sulphate of copper 1.202 1.99 
 
 Sulphate of lime 0.480 0.79 
 
 Water, traces of calcium chloride, etc 78.626 130.34 
 
 100.000 165.76 
 
APPENDIX A, 
 
 99 
 
 Labarraque’s Solution, 50 cents a pint. 
 
 Available chlorine 1423 1.96 
 
 Water and soda salts 98.577 135.54 
 
 loo.ocx) 137.50 
 
 Metropolitan Disinfectant, 30 cents a quart. 
 
 Protosulphate of iron (copperas) ii-4i3 17.10 
 
 Carbolic acid (about) 3.330 4.99 
 
 Water, dead oil, and impurities. 85.257 127.74 
 
 100.000 149.83 
 
 Phenix Disinfectant, 35 cents a pound. 
 
 Silicate of alumina (clay) 56,876 9.10 
 
 Sesquichloride of iron 1.192 0.19 
 
 Sesquioxide of iron 7.102 1.14 
 
 Lime 2.470 0.39 
 
 Carbolic acid 0.400 0.06 
 
 Carbonic acid and organic impurities 31.960 5.12 
 
 100.000 16.00 
 
 Phenol Sodique, 50 cents a half pint. 
 
 Carbolic acid I.i77 1.61 
 
 Soda salts, water, and impurities 98.823 134.29 
 
 100.000 135.90 
 
 Platt’s Chlorides, 50 cents a quart. 
 
 Solution chloride of zinc (saturated) 40 parts. 
 
 “ “ “ lead “ 20 “ 
 
 “ “ “ calcium “ 15 “ 
 
 “ “ “ aluminum “ 15 “ 
 
 “ “ “ magnesium ** 5 “ 
 
 “ “ “ potassium “ 5 “ 
 
 100 “ 
 
 «... J 
 
APPENDIX B. 
 
 
 List of the prices of plumber’s materials and 
 labor, from which a rough estimate may be formed 
 of the probable cost of proposed plumbing. The 
 prices given are wholesale ones, and it must be re- 
 membered that every plumber is also a retail mer- 
 chant, who obtains his materials at a discount, and 
 charges them to his customer at an average advance 
 of I o or 15 per cent on the prices here given. 
 
 All measurements are of inside diameters. 
 Bands. — Ordinary thickness, 2 by 2 inches, 75 
 cents ; 6 by 6 inches, $1.90. Intermediate sizes 
 at corresponding prices. 
 
 Bends and Offsets. — Two inches in diameter, 40 
 cents; extra heavy, 50 cents. Six inches in 
 diameter, $1.20 ; extra heavy, $1.75. 
 
 Cisterns and Service-boxes (for water-closets), 
 $10 to $20 ; (waste-preventing), $13 to $26. 
 Offsets. See Bends. 
 
 Pipe . — Tile or earthenware (vitrified), in lengths of 
 2 ^ feet each, 2-inch, 13 cents a foot ; 3 -inch, 16 
 cents a foot ; 4-inch, 20 cents a foot ; and 5 
 cents more per foot for each additional inch of 
 diameter. 
 
APPENDIX B. 101 
 
 Iron, in lengths of 5 feet each : Ordinary, about 
 10 cents a foot for every inch of diameter. Ex- 
 tra heavy, about twice as much. Double-hub 
 pipe, about 6 cents a foot more. The tar-coat- 
 ing costs about 3 cents a foot for 2 -inch pipe, 4 
 cents for 3-inch pipe, etc. 
 
 Lead, about 9 cents a pound. Manufactured 
 pipe (traps, etc.), 10 cents a pound. Qualities 
 are marked according to thickness — i. e., weight 
 for each size, AAA (best), AA, A, B, C, D, and 
 E. f-inch pipe, AAA weighs i pound 12 ounces 
 per foot ; B weighs i pound per foot ; C weighs 
 14 ounces per foot ; D weighs 7 ounces per foot, 
 f-inch pipe, AAA weighs 3 pounds 8 ounces per 
 foot ; A A weighs 2 pounds 12 ounces per foot ; 
 B weighs 2 pounds per foot, f-inch pipe, AAA 
 weighs 4 pounds 14 ounces per foot ; B weighs 2 
 pounds 3 ounces per foot, i-inch pipe, AAA 
 weighs 6 pounds per foot ; AA weighs 4 pounds 
 8 ounces per foot ; A weighs 4 pounds per foot ; 
 B weighs 3 pounds 4 ounces per foot ; D weighs 
 2 pounds 4 ounces per foot. 2-inch pipe, AAA 
 weighs 10 pounds ii ounces per foot ; A A weighs 
 8 pounds 14 ounces per foot ; A weighs 7 pounds 
 per foot ; B weighs 6 pounds per foot ; D weighs 
 4 pounds per foot. 3-inch pipe, f thick, weighs 
 19 pounds 9 ounces per foot. 4-inch pipe, f 
 thick, weighs 25 pounds 6 ounces per foot, and 
 so on. 
 
 For supply-pipes, A A pipe is generally used. 
 
102 
 
 SANITARY INFORMATION 
 
 Privy-Sinks. — About $5 for every foot in length. 
 
 Saddle-Hubs. — 2 by 2 inches, 30 cents; extra 
 heavy, 40 cents. 6 by 6 inches, $1.10 ; extra 
 heavy, $1.40. 
 
 School-Sinks. See Privy-Sinks. 
 
 Traps. — Adee traps about 5 cents apiece less than 
 ordinary S-traps, and Bower traps about twice 
 as much. 
 
 Earthenware, 2-inch, each; 6-inch, $3.25 
 each. 
 
 Iron (S-traps), 2-inch, 80 cents ; extra heavy, 
 ^1.25 ; 6-inch, $3.75 ; extra heavy, $5. Run- 
 ning traps, with or without hand-holes, about the 
 same. 
 
 Lead, made of 6-pound lead (lead weighing 
 6 pounds to the square foot), i^-inch, 65 cents ; 
 i^-inch, 80 cents ; 2-inch, $1. 10 ; 4|--inch, $3.25, 
 etc. 
 
 Urinals. — (Earthenware), $5 to $6 each. 
 
 Wash-Basins. — (Iron, enameled or marbled), $1.50 
 to $ 4 -So- 
 
 Water-Closets. — Demarest’s (plunger), $15 to $40. 
 Earthenware hopper, $10 to $12. Earthenware 
 hopper, with trap, waste-preventing cistern, chain 
 and bracket, wood-seat, etc., $30. Hopper-valve 
 closet, with self-raising, round seat, $9. 
 
 Pan-Closets. — $4.50 to $22. 
 
 A journeyman and -helper are charged for at the 
 
 rate of from $5 to $6 per day. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Acid, carbolic, 72, 91. 
 carbonic, 7-9, 13, 15. 
 carbonic, test for, 9. 
 hydrochloric, 93. 
 nitric, 88. 
 nitrous, 95. 
 sulphuric, 89, 93, 95. 
 sulphurous, 70, 96. 
 Adulterations of food, 73. 
 
 Air, contaminated by combus- 
 tion, 9. 
 
 contaminated by excreta, 
 12, 21. 
 
 contaminated by respira- 
 tion, 8, II. 
 
 contaminated by the sick, 
 II. 
 
 dangers of impure, 11--14. 
 Air-bound pipes, 57. 
 
 Air in ground, 15, 
 
 Alum, 75. 
 
 Aluminum, chloride of, 93. 
 Annotto, 77, 78. 
 
 Areas, drainage of, 34. 
 Arrowroot, 74. 
 
 Asphalt in walls, 34, 66, 
 
 Bacilli, II, 14, 
 
 Bacteria, i|. 
 
 !gad odors, sources of, 52. 
 Bakers* chemicals, 74. 
 Baking-powders, 75. 
 
 Ball-cock, 48. 
 
 Bands, 60, 100. 
 
 Basins, 32, 102. 
 
 Bath-tubs, 30. 
 
 Bedclothing, disinfection of, 69. 
 Beer, 75. 
 
 Bends, 42, 100. 
 
 Blow-offs, 33.^ 
 
 Board of Health, plumbing 
 rules of, 25. 
 
 Boilers, sediment-pipe of, 32. 
 Boiling, disinfection by, 94. 
 Brandy, 76. 
 
 Bread, 76. 
 
 Brimstone, 67, 96. 
 Bromo-chloralum, 97. 
 
 Burnett’s Fluid, 97. 
 
 Butter, 76. 
 
 Caldwell, G. C., Ph. D., 78, 82. 
 Calking of joints, 45. 
 Calx-powder, 94. 
 
 Candy, 77. 
 
 Canned fruits and vegetables, 
 
 77 - 
 
 Canned meats, 78. 
 
 Caramel, 76. 
 
 Carbolate of lime, 97. 
 
 Carbolic acid, 72, 91, 
 powders, 92. 
 
 Carbonic acid, 7-9, 13, 15. 
 Carbureted hydrogen, 12. 
 
104 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Carmichael, 46. 
 
 Carpene, 85. 
 
 Cast-iron pipes, 44, loi. 
 Cellars, 34, 66. 
 
 Cemented joints, 52. 
 
 Cement, tempered-up, 26, 39. 
 Cereals, 78. 
 
 Cesspools, 12, 34, 35. 
 
 Chandler, C. F., Professor, 67, 
 82, 83. 
 
 Charcoal, 94. 
 
 Cheese, 78. 
 
 Check-valves, 47. 
 
 Chester, A. H., Ph. D., 79,80. 
 Chiccory, 79. 
 
 Chicken-pox, 12. 
 
 Chimneys as pipe-vents, 44. 
 Chimneys, smoky, 20. 
 Chloralum, 97. 
 
 Chloride of aluminum, 93. 
 of lime, 71, 93, 97. 
 mercuric, 94. 
 of sodium, 89. 
 of zinc, 70, 96. 
 
 Chlorine, method of obtaining, 
 92. 
 
 properties of, 96. 
 test for, 88. 
 
 Chocolate, 78. 
 
 Cholera, precautions vs.^ 72. 
 
 propagation of, 14. 
 Chromate of lead in candy, 77. 
 Cisterns for water-closets, 32, 
 47 - 
 
 City houses, drainage of, 65. 
 Closet, earth, 23. 
 
 Closets, water, 39, 102. 
 Clothing, disinfection of, 69. 
 Cocoa, 78. 
 
 Coffee, 78. 
 
 extract of, 79. 
 
 Coffins, air-tight, 70. 
 
 Cognac, 76. 
 
 Colby, A. L., Ph. B., 83. 
 
 Combustion, 9. 
 
 Condensers, 33. 
 
 Condy’s fluid, 97. 
 Confectionery', 77. 
 
 Connections, pipe, 30, 52. 
 Construction, faulty, 52. 
 Consumption, precautions vs.y 
 72. 
 
 propagation of, 12, 72. 
 Contagious diseases, propaga- 
 tion of, II. 
 
 Copperas, 70, 93. 
 
 solution of, 67, 70. 
 
 Copper, sulphate of, 77. 
 Corpses, disinfection of, 69, 71. 
 Corrosive sublimate, 94. 
 Country houses, drainage of, 
 50, 65. 
 
 Cream of tartar, 74. 
 Cushioning, 42, 44, 56. 
 how determined, 61. 
 
 Damp soil, danger of, 15. 
 Dampers, position of, 19. 
 Darby’s Prophylactic Fluid, 98. 
 Dead bodies, disinfection of, 
 69,71. 
 
 Dead oil, 92. 
 
 Deodorizers, 67. 
 
 Diphtheria, precautions vs.^ 72. 
 
 propagation of, 12, 72. 
 Discharges, disinfection of, 68. 
 Diseases, contagious, ii. 
 Disinfectant, Egyptian, 98. 
 Excelsior, 98. 
 
 Girondin, 98. 
 Metropolitan, 99. 
 
 Phenix, 99. 
 
 Disinfectants, 91. 
 
 how to use, 67. 
 Disinfection, 66.‘ 
 
 National Board of Health 
 rules for, 67. 
 
 of bedclothing, 69. 
 
 •" « — ■ 
 
INDEX. 
 
 105 
 
 Disinfection of clothing, 69, 91. 
 of corpses, 69, 71. 
 of furniture, 69. 
 of premises, 68, 92,’ 94. 
 of privies, 71, 91. 
 
 •of water-closets, 71, 91. 
 of woolen stuffs, etc., 69. 
 
 Double windows, 20. 
 
 Drain, fall of, 27. 
 house, 35. 
 house, trap in, 42. 
 location of, 27. ' 
 
 pipes, 59. 
 size of, 27. 
 
 Drainage, 21. 
 
 diagram of, 49. 
 essentials of, 24. 
 examination of, 61. 
 of city houses, 6y. 
 of country houses, 50, 65. 
 of farm-houses, 65. 
 of sea-side houses, 65. 
 New York City Board of 
 Health, 25, 
 subsoil, 50. 
 
 Drains, defective, 52, 59. 
 
 Draughts, how produced, 17, 20. 
 how to avoid, 20. 
 when perceived, 17. 
 
 Drinking-water, tanks for, 33, 
 
 86 . 
 
 tests of, 89. 
 
 Durand-Claye, 13. 
 
 Durham house-drainage sys- 
 tem, 44. 
 
 Dysentery, precautions vs.^ 72. 
 propagation of, 14. 
 
 Earth as a disinfectant, 23. 
 closet, 23. 
 
 Earthenware pipes, 26, 59, 100. 
 
 Egyptian Disinfectant, 98. 
 
 Engelhardt, F. E., Ph. D., 76, 
 79, 82, 84, 85. 
 
 Erysipelas, propagation of, 14. 
 Evaporation from traps, 60. 
 Excelsior Disinfectant, 98. 
 Excreta, contamination of air 
 by, 14, 21. 
 
 dangers from, 14, 21. 
 removal of, 24. 
 
 Exhaust-steam in soil-pipes, 33, 
 
 50. 
 
 Farm-houses, drainage of, 65. 
 Faulty construction of drains, 
 
 52. 
 
 Ferrules, 30, 45, 52. 
 
 Fever, malarial, 14. 
 puerperal, 14. 
 scarlet, ii, 72. 
 typhoid, 14, 72. 
 typhus, II, 73. 
 yellow, 14, 72. 
 
 Field’s flush-tank, 50. 
 
 Filters, 87. 
 
 Fireplace, Gallon’s, 18, 19. 
 Fireplaces, 18. 
 
 Flanges, lead, 53. 
 
 Flues for ventilation, 20. 
 Flush-tank, 50. 
 
 Fomites, 71, 73. 
 
 Food, 73. 
 
 Fresh-air inlet, 28, 43. 
 
 Fruits, canned, 77. 
 
 Fumigation, methods of, 68, 69. 
 precautions during, 70. 
 treatment of rooms after, 
 70. 
 
 Funerals, 71. 
 
 Furniture, disinfection of, 69. 
 
 of sick-room, 68. 
 
 Fusel-oil, 76, 84. 
 
 Gallon’s fireplace, 18, 19. 
 
 Gas, sewer, composition of, 12. 
 Gasket, 45. 
 
 General debility, ii, 13. 
 
io6 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 German measles, 12. 
 Germicide, 98. 
 
 Gin, 79. 
 
 Girondin Disinfectant, 98. 
 Glucose, 75, 79, 82. 
 
 Grains, cereal, 78. 
 
 Green vitriol, 70, 93. 
 
 Ground air, danger of, 15. 
 air, exclusion of, 66. 
 water, high and low, 15. 
 Gum-drops, 77. 
 
 Gypsum, 74, 79, 94. 
 
 Hand-holes, 59. 
 
 Heat, disinfection by, 94. 
 Honey, 79. 
 
 Hops, 75. 
 
 Horizontal pipes, 28. 
 Horse-radish, 79. - 
 Hospital gangrene, 14. 
 House-drain, 35. 
 
 drain, trap in, 27, 42. 
 drainage, Durham system 
 44 * 
 
 drainage, essentials of, 24. 
 sewer, material of, 26. 
 Hydrant-sinks, 35. 
 Hydrochloric acid, 93. 
 
 Impurity of air, measure of, 9. 
 Inlet, fresh-air, 28, 43. 
 
 Iodide of potassium, 89. 
 
 Iron, sulphate of, 93. 
 
 Iron pipes, weight of, 29. 
 Isinglass, 79. 
 
 Jellies, 79. 
 
 Joints, calking of, 45, 52. 
 cement, 52, 59. 
 imperfect, 59. 
 lead, 45, 52. 
 putty, 52, 59. 
 
 Joints, rust, 30, 45. 
 wiped, 46. 
 
 Labarraque’s Solution, 99. 
 
 Labor, plumber’s, 102. 
 
 Lactometer, method of using, 
 
 81. 
 
 Lard, 80. 
 
 Lattimore, S. A., Ph. D., 77- 
 
 79, 82-84. 
 
 Lead, chromate of, 77. 
 
 dissolving of, in water, 86. 
 flanges, 53. 
 nitrate of, 95. 
 
 Leaders, bad odors from, 53. 
 as soil-pipes, 33, 49. 
 trapping of, 33, 53. - 
 
 Lead pipes, weight of, lOl. 
 
 Letheby, 13. 
 
 Lime, 94. 
 
 chloride of, 93. 
 sulphate of, 94. 
 
 Louvered sky-light, 39. 
 
 Love, E. G., Ph. D., 74-76, 78. 
 
 Malarial fevers, 14. 
 
 Manganese, oxide of, 93. 
 
 Marsh-gas, 13. 
 
 Measles, precautions vs.^ 72. 
 propagation of, li. 
 
 M^at, 80. 
 
 Meats, canned, 78. 
 
 preserved, poisoning by, 
 
 80. 
 
 Mercuric chloride, 94. 
 
 Mercury seal for traps, 39. 
 
 Metropolitan Disinfectant, 99. 
 
 Microscopic organisms, ii, 43. 
 
 Milk, composition of, 81. 
 
 Mines, air of, 7. 
 
 Morin, estimate by, 19. 
 
 Movable tanks for excreta, 22. 
 
 Mumps, 12. 
 
 Munsell, C. E., Ph. D., 81. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 National Board of Health, 
 rules, etc., 67. 
 
 Nichols, Professor W. R., 8, 12, 
 
 87. 
 
 Nitrate of lead, 95. 
 
 'of silver, 88. 
 
 Nitrates, tests for, 89. 
 
 Nitric acid, 88. 
 
 Nitrites, test for, 89. 
 
 Nitrogen, 7. 
 
 in sewers, 12, 13. 
 
 Nitrous acid, 95. 
 
 New York City Board of 
 Health, rules, etc., 25. 
 New York State Board of 
 Health, rules, etc., 74. 
 
 Oakum, 45. 
 
 Odors, offensive, 52. 
 
 Offsets, 35, 100. 
 
 Oil, dead, 92. 
 fusel, 76, 84. 
 of cognac, 76. 
 of peppermint, 63. 
 olive, 81. 
 
 Oleomargarine, 76. 
 
 One trap, etc., how determined, 
 58, 62. 
 
 Organic matter of respired air, 
 9 - 
 
 matters, test for, 89. 
 Organisms, microscopic, ii, 43. 
 Overflow-pipes, 32, 33, 46, 54, 
 58. 
 
 Oxidation, 15, 43. 
 
 Oxide of manganese, 93. 
 Oxygen, 7, 8, 13. 
 
 Ozone, 95. 
 
 Pails for excreta, 22. 
 
 Paris, plaster-of-, 94. 
 Peppermint test, 63. 
 Permanganate of potash, 95. 
 
 107 
 
 Pettenkofer's test for carbonic 
 acid, 9. 
 
 Phenix Disinfectant, 99. 
 
 Phenol Sodique, 99. 
 
 Phosphorus,- 95. 
 
 Pickles, 82. 
 
 Pipe connections, 30, 52. 
 
 Pipes, air, 31. 
 
 air-bound, 57. 
 cast-iron, 27, 28, 44, loi. 
 corrosion of, 50, 59. 
 drain, 27, 59. 
 earthenware, 26,^ 100. 
 galvanized iron, 59, 86. 
 hub-end of, 44. 
 iron, weight of, 29. 
 lead, weight of, loi. 
 obstruction of, 61. 
 overflow, 32, 33, 46, 54, 58. 
 rat-holes in, 59. 
 service, 86. 
 spigot-end of, 44. 
 tarring of, 44, loi. 
 traps on vertical, 29, 44. 
 ventilating, size of, 31. 
 waste, 28. 
 wrought-iron, 44. 
 
 Pitt, W. H., M. D., 77, 79. 
 
 Plants, action of air on, 15 - 
 
 Plaster-of-Paris, 94. 
 
 Platt’s chlorides, 99. 
 
 Plumber’s labor, 102. 
 materials, loi, 102. 
 
 Pork, 80. 
 
 Potash, permanganate of, 95. 
 
 Potassium, iodide of, 89. 
 
 Powders, calx, 94. 
 carbolic, 92. 
 
 Premises, disinfection of, 68, 
 92, 94. 
 
 Privies, disinfection of, 71. 
 
 Privy-sinks, 42, 102. 
 
 Privy-vaults, construction of, 
 22, 34, 35. 
 
io8 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Privy-vaults, contents of, 12. 
 
 dangers of, 22. 
 
 Pumpelly, 46. 
 
 Purification of water, 87, 90. 
 Putty-joints, 52, 54. 
 
 Rat-holes in pipes, 59. 
 Refrigerator w’astes, 32. 
 Respiration, organic matter of, 
 9 - 
 
 Return bend, 43. 
 
 Rum, 82. 
 
 Saddle-hubs, 60, 102. 
 
 Safes, 32, 46. 
 
 draining of, 32, 54. 
 Safe-wastes, 32, 54. 
 
 Saleratus, 74. 
 
 Salt, 67, 70, 89. 
 
 “ Sanitary Engineer,” 51. . 
 Scarlet fever, precautions vs.^ 
 
 72. 
 
 propagation of, ii. 
 School-sinks, 34, 42, 102. 
 
 Seal of trap, 36. 
 
 Sea-side houses, drainage of, 65. 
 Seine, mud of, 13. 
 Service-pipes, 86. 
 
 Sewer-air, effects attributed to, 
 
 13. 
 
 Sewer-gas, composition of, 12. 
 Sewer, house, material of, 26. 
 Sewer-water, 13. 
 
 Sewers, contents of, 12. 
 private, 26. 
 
 Sherringham valve, 17. 
 Sick-room, care of, 67, 70. 
 
 precautions on entering, 
 73 - 
 
 Sinks, 30. 
 
 Siphonage, 58. 
 
 how determined, 62. 
 prevention of, 31, 58. 
 
 Sirups, 82. 
 
 Sky-light, louvered, 39. 
 Sleeves, 30, 45. 
 
 Slops, dangers from, 21. 
 Small-pox, precautions vs,^ 71. 
 
 propagation of, ii. 
 
 Smoky chimneys, 20. 
 
 Smith, Angus, 8. 
 
 Soil, damp, danger of, 15. 
 Soil-pipe, 35. 
 
 material and size of, 28. 
 Spices, 82. 
 
 Stables, disinfection of, 94. 
 Starch, 75, 89. 
 
 Squibb’s carbolic acid, 92. 
 Steam in soil-pipes, 33, 50. 
 Steam-coils, heating by, 19. 
 Subsoil drainage, 50. 
 
 Sugar, 82. 
 
 Sulphate of copper, 77. 
 of iron, 89, 93. 
 of lime, 94. 
 of zinc, 67, 96. 
 
 Sulphide of ammonium, 12. 
 Sulphur, 67, 96. 
 
 use of, in disinfection, 
 
 68 . 
 
 Sulphureted hydrogen, 12, 13. 
 Sulphuric acid, 89, 95. 
 Sulphurous acid, 70, 96. 
 
 Syrups (see Sirups). 
 
 Tanks for drinking-water, 33, 
 
 86 . 
 
 lining of, 33. 
 movable, for excreta, 22. 
 Tarring of pipes, 44, loi. 
 Teas, 83. 
 
 Terra alba, 74, 75, 77.^ 
 
 Test, Carpene’s, lor wine, 85. 
 for carbonic acid, 9. 
 for chlorine, 88. 
 for nitrates, 89. 
 for nitrites, 89. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 loo 
 
 Test for organic matters in 
 water, 89. 
 peppermint, 63. 
 water, 45. 
 
 Thymol, 72, 92, 98. 
 
 Tin in canned fruits, 77. 
 
 in sirups, 82. 
 
 Traps, 35, 102. 
 
 cleaning of, 60. 
 efficiency of, 46. 
 empty, how to determine, 
 62. 
 
 in house-drains, 27, 42. 
 on vertical pipes, 29, 44. 
 position of, 30. 
 unsealing of, by cushion- 
 ing, 56. 
 
 unsealing of, by evapora- 
 tion, 60. 
 
 unsealing of, by siphoning, 
 
 5 ^- 
 
 various kinds of, 36, 102. 
 ventilation of, 31. 
 Trap-screws, 59. 
 
 Trichinae, 80. 
 
 Typhoid fever caused by water, 
 
 88 . 
 
 precautions w., 72. 
 propagation of, 14. 
 
 Typhus fever, precautions vs.^ 
 73 * 
 
 propagation of, ii. 
 
 Urinals, 30, 102. 
 
 Valve-closets, dangers of, 47. 
 Valves, check, 47. 
 
 Vegetables, canned, 77. 
 Ventilating shaft, 25. 
 Ventilation, 15. 
 
 different methods of, 17- 
 19. 
 
 flues for, 20. 
 
 Ventilation of pipes, 31, 54, 
 
 . 58. 
 
 Ventilators, whirling, 20. 
 Vent-pipes, 54. 
 
 Vertical pipes, traps on, 29, 
 
 44 - 
 
 Vinegar, 84. 
 
 Waller, Elwyn, Ph. D., 83, 97. 
 Walls, damp-proof courses in, 
 66 . 
 
 Wash-trays and tubs, 30. 
 Waste-pipes, 35. 
 material of, 28. 
 trapping of, 30. 
 
 Water, 86. 
 
 drinking, tanks for, 33, 86. 
 drinking, tests of, 89. 
 impure, disorders due to, 
 88 . 
 
 in lead pipes, 86. 
 iron pipes for, 86. 
 of sewers, 13. 
 pollution of, 87. 
 precautions regarding, 90. 
 purification of, 90. 
 typhoid fever caused by, 
 88 . 
 
 Water-carriage, 24. 
 Water-closets, 39, 102. 
 
 cisterns for, 32, 47, loo. 
 disinfection of, 71, 91. 
 valve, dangers of, 47. 
 Water-seal, 36, 46. 
 
 Water test, the, 45. 
 
 Weight of iron pipe, 29. 
 
 of lead pipe, loi. 
 Wernich, 46. 
 
 Whirling ventilators, 20. 
 Whisky, 76, 84. 
 Whooping-cough, propagation 
 of, 12. 
 
 Windows, double, 20. 
 
1 lO 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Wine, how to tell good, 84. 
 
 tests of, 85. 
 
 Wiped joints, 46. 
 
 Woolen stuffs, disinfection of, 
 69. 
 
 Wrought-iron pipes, 44. 
 
 Y-branches, 42. 
 
 Yards, drainage of, 34. 
 Yellow fever, 14, 72. 
 
 Zinc, chloride of, 70, 96. 
 sulphate of, 67, 96. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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