The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-12-28 00:00:00

"SANITARY REFORM.'

DANGERS TO HEALTH.

Mr. Pridgin Teale, of Leeds, has done a service to
mankind at large by the publication of DANWIRS TO
HEALTH (1). Mr. Teale has long been known as an
ardent sanitary reformer, and as a very practical and
clear-headed critic of the faults which are to be found
in most modern houses. He has already appealed to
the world as the author of an admirable treatise on
the subject of house construction; but his present
work is of a more important and ambitious character
than his former one, and it cannot fail to attract a
large degree of public attention. In the pursuit of
his profession Mr. Teale has had numberless occasions
of observing the terrible evils which are caused by the
insufficient sanitary regulations of our dwelling-
houses. The subject is one which has attracted
much attention ever since the lamented death of the
Prince Consort from drain-poisoning in 1861; and
since the illness of the Prince of Wales, ten years
later, it has hardly been absent from the thoughts of
the more intelligent and far-seeing members of the
medical professior. That thousands of lives are lost
annually through the sheer negligence or ignorance
of builders and landlords, is admitted to be true by
every authority who has touched upon the subject.
Further than this, men like Mr. Teale can vouch for
the fact that the sanitary defects of dwellings are
responsible for an enormous amount of obscure disease
and for that condition of depressed vitality which is so
common in the present generation and which is the
prolific parent of so many ills. The evil, by universal
admission, is one so vast that no private person can
hope to deal with it effectually. It calls for the
elucation of the public, and for the united action of
the Legislature and of a really strong Government.
Fortunately, however, we are not absolutely without
means of remedying many of the worst faults in the
construction of our own dwellings. The chief oh-
stale to the removal of those faults is the general
ignorance, not merely of builders but of householders
garding the practical defects which are most
dangerous to health. It is the purpose of Mr. Teale
in this volume to remove the prevailingiLignorance
and he has adopted a most admirable plan or simpli-
fying the lessons he teaches. Instead of laying down
certain abstract rules and leaving others to apply
them, he appeals to the eye as well as the intellect of
his readers, and in a series of singularly clever and
graphic pictures, presents us with examples of almost
all the commoner faults in the construction of houses.
It follows that his work is a perfect handbook to the
architect, the builder, the house-owner, and the house-
occupier. It shows in the clearest and most practical
manner what absolutely must be avoided if we are to
keep our dwellings free from those dangers which are
now so common, and so terrible in their action. The
plates are fifty-five in number, and they illustrate
almost all the defects to which cases of typhoid fever,
diptheria, scarlatina, and similar diseases, have been
traced in the sanitary arrangements of the dwelling-
house. The first picture shows us a house in which
every sanitary arrangement is faulty, and the next one
in which all the faults are avoided. Then we have a
long series of illustrations teaching us at a glance the
various blunders made by builders and tenants in the
fittings of lavatories, baths, closets, and sinks. Un-
syphoned traps, "putty "joints in leaden soil pipes,
disused traps, fall pipes and ventilating pipes opening
below bedroom windows; soil pipes. passing under
floors, and numberless other sources of mischief, far
too numerous to belrnentioned in detail, are exhibited
here in a clear and striking manner. The value of
the plates, it should be said, is increased by the lucid
explanation of each which is fureished by the author;
who also, in most instances, quotes examples of the
evils which, to his own knowledge, have arisen from
the defects he exposes. When we mention that some
of the plates bear such titles as "Rats, and the tale
they tell," "How we drink sewage," and "Poisoned
by next-door neighbours' drains," it will be seen how
simple and how pr..ctical are the lessons which the
author has striven to teach. He has not, however,
been content to expose merely the blunders of tenant
or landlord. Going still farther back, he lays bare
some of the secrets of the cheap building trade, such
as the economy in excavation which is carried out at
the expense of the drainage, the employment of
damaged drain pipes, and the building of rows of
houses upon heaps of refuse and street-sweepings. All
these evils are unfortunately known to exist, and
though here and there the authorities of parecular
towns have taken some steps to put an end to the
wholesale murder which is thus perpetrated, in too
many cases there is a sublime indifference to this
prulifie source of the waste of human life. We com-
mend the chapters of Mr. Teale's book in which he
deals with these questions to the careful attention of
all public authorities who have anything whatever to
do with the regulations affecting building or the health
of the community. , They can hardly turn away from
the graphic teaching of Mr. Teale with the contempt
which they frequently exhibit when appealed to in
the columns of the press. Such a picture as that
which shows the " Terrace of the future on the refuse
of the Past" can scarcely, for example, be disregarded.
Only one thing is required to add to the impressive-
ness of this plate, and that is the representation of the
coffins which ere long will be employed to carry the
doomed inhabitants to their last home. We earnestly
recommend not merely all sanitary reformers so called
but all who are-interested in the healthiness of their
own dwellings—and who is not ?—to study Mr. Teale's
treatise. It conveys in a simple and easy manner in-
formation which if properly used may be the means of
saving many a life, and of restoring health and strength
to many who are now condemned to chronic weakness
and suffering. As an addition to the literature of
health reform it cannot be too highly praised, and the
author deserves the thanks of the community for the
service he has rendered by its publication —Leeds
Mercury.

chemist.

(1) Dangers to Uealth : a Pictorial Guide to
Domestic Sanitary Defects. By T. Pridgin Teale,
M.A. Price 10s. London: J. & J. Churchil. Leed- :
Charles Goodhall, aud all Booksellers.

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