Connecticut western news., 1872-05-17
Hints Ou House. Building.

The great object of sanitary legislation is to secure for each individual the great est amount of fresh air, pure water, sum- shine, and dryness of soil. Pubic sani tation in towns should provide for width of streets, paving, the removal of fluid and solid nuisances, open places for the circulation of air, and recreatiee resorts for the inhabitants. The width of streets is important in relation to the height of the houses, The width should never be less than the height. The healthiest sites for dwelling houses are known to be those on trap, granite, and metamor- phic rocks, where water readily escapes, and the soil, and consequently the air, is dry. Cholera is rare in houses on such sites. Permeable sandstone, gravel, and chalk, if unmixed with clay, are also healthy. Sands which contain organic matter, clay, and alluvial soils, are al- ways to be suspected. Thorough drain ing, both subsoil and surface, is ne- cessary preliminary to building. Damp ness of ground necessitates dampness of air and of the wall. This causes chemi- cal alteration in the organic materials in the houses, with absorption of oxygen and discharge of other gases it favors, too, the growth of low animal and vege- table organisms, which poison the air of the dwellings, and produce disease. IT. e decomposition of the organic contents of the soil is hastened by it's dampness, and especially by rapid alterations of it's l hygrometric state. Calcareous stone is best some sandstone is so porous that, though dry to-day, it may be soaked with damp tomorrow. Houses should pever be built on ground filled up with ashes and other debris. The large amount of organic matter contained in it, which is freely exposed to the action Of the air and moisture, becoming de- composed, must cause poisonous emana- tions, destructive to those who, living above, must breathe it. The drainage and other pipes laid in this soil are ex- tremely liable to be entered by these poisons, and thus they are conducted in to houses directly. Frequent sweeping and washing are necessary in every house. Dust is not alone unpleasant, but it is fruitful source of disease perhaps the most so. The dust of cur tains, carpets, papers, and other colored substances, consisting of organic and colored matter, being swallowed with the food and inhaled, causes many doc tors visit. Every house should have 9 kitchen and wash-room distinct from the dwelling-rooms. The latter should be large enough to allow of each inhabitant obtaining 101 cubic feet of fresh air per hour, when doors and windows are shut. Each house should have abundance of good water for drinking, cooking, and washing, including bathing five to six pints per day should be allowed for drinking, at least IS gallons for wash Ing, and to 10 should be used daily to flush the sewers. Sick people require more from 40 to 50 gallons daily. Wa ter-closets consume various quantities, according to their construction. The nature of the closet and the method of removing the contents have become one of the most important questions which advancing civilization has created. The dry-earth system is quite inapplicable to large towns it suits private houses of the rich or jails we'll. The Goux system is equally unsuitable. The water sys- tenn, where there is plentiful supply of water, is infinitely the best and the cheapest. A sufficient fall of ground can nearly always be obtained. The inn provement of the dwelling-house and the establishment of comfortable homes, worthy of human beings, is 8 necessary duty of the state, and noble work for the philanthropist. These necessary conditions may be advantageously sup plemented by little comfort and ele
 gance. A little garden is 8 civilizer of great power.-IHe Builder.