The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-04-14
TIE PACIFIC
GomntertialANbtrtlse
SATURDAY. APRIL Il.
Filth Diseases and Their Prevention.

Such is the title or a work by John Simon, II
D., F. r. c. S, Chief Medical Officer of the
Privy Council aud Of the Local Government!
Board of Great Britain. First American edi-
ton " of this book was printed under the direc-S
ton of the State Board Of Health Of Massachusetts,.
and published in 1876, at Boston. From this
edition we propose to make some extracts
.. Ii must be assumed that, even in large towns,
authorities, exercising their discretion on skilled
advice given 10 them, will sometimes pronounce
against the local adoption of a system of water
closets; and even if it be assumed that the NUM-
Der Of such cases will eventually be small, yet, at
least for the present, great Importance attaches
to the question of other means by which privy
.nuisances in large towns can be prevented. And
liz is the more necessary that all such means
should be we'll understood and as far as POSSIBLE
because permanently it must at any
rate be the lot of many small towns and Of most
villages to depend on them rather than on water
closets.
u In a former action of these observations l
at SOME length the extremely filthy and
dangerous arrangements which frequently. or |
fear | should say. generally, exist in places where
water closets are lot in use. Modern experience,
however, has shown, and the fact is Of the high
est sanitary importance, that such arrangements
orc not tho necessary alternative to a system of
water closets; but that, failing a water system, /
DUH IilEC HIN chhAA EOBAA@tASAo a ODItil
under other and am,nded systems of privy man
agement a complete or comparatively completed
freedom from excrenental nuisance and injury.
: - Evidence to thIt effect was given FIVE years
ago in two most valuable papers which / had the
honor of submitting to my Lords of the Council
as appendices to mn Twelfth Annual Report: one
by DR.. Buchanan n the earthcloset system, the
other conformity byhim and Mr.. Netten Radcliffe
on the privy-systens of various northern towns;I
and from that time till the present the informal
] ton collected in tese two reports has been the
basis of all adyic, which have given in the
matter to which hey relate. Recently, under
the Local Government Board, the present state of
experience in the same Importance branch of
nuisance-preventio has been made matter of
new and large investigation by Mr.. Netten Rad
cliffe; and l have he honor of submitting to you
{ (App. No. y his comprehensive and thoroughly
practical report onthe subject.
: 50 The improved systems which Mr. NettenI
Radcliffe describe start universally with abol-
ishing all such filthy neutrality-suspicious. as L
/, have referred to, AID then, in order to meet the
sanitary requirements provide more or less as
follows =
z - Pail Priyies having as their aim that excre-
mental matter, umltered, shall be removed from
the priyies at so slort intervals as not to have be-
] come offensive; AID adopting as means to this
end the use of movable receptacles, which sys-
! tematically at short intervals are to be changed,
clean for dirty blythe scavenger; and which, for
the prevention OF nuisance in this process have
1 close-ftting alright lids to be applied to the
! foul pals under rsmoval.
s "Ash-Privies wherein the professed purpose
of the north-coultry hidden Ito deodorize ex-
crement by covering it with dry house-refuse) is,
under strict precautionary conditions, accepted /;
the intention being, that the space beneath the
privy-seat (but no farther space) should be con-
verted by careful masonry into a non-porous
: atchment-chamter planned in slope and other
> uisa with 0artiular reference To ease and fire.
I quency of systematic scavenging, and necessarily
! of but small sic and that into this chamber,
and direct upon he e~xcrement, the ashes of the
I house should be brown, either down the hole of
the seat, or with the seat hinged and lifting for
! the purpose, or Otherwise.
:" Earth-Privie as introduced by the Rev. II.
Moule purportiag to effect under strictly de-
fined conditions such applications of earth to ex-
: crement as shall render the latter inoffensive,
forming with it l manure which not only can
s without offence be stored where it is produced
: but can also, after being stored and dried, be used
in the privy again and again with the same effect
as new earth, ard with some progressive increase
of manurial valle.
80 Charcoal -Pnvies intended to utilize, on the
! general plan Of earthquakes, the still higher
disinfectant powers OF charcoal, and thus to re-
! duce to a minimum the quantity of disinfectant
! required and parporting to have the further
advantage that the excrements themselves can be
: made contributor to the supply of the charcoal.
!! '' With genera reference to the duty of filth
! prevention in inhibited areas, it is necessary to
I observe that the actual management of privies
! tends to become afunction of Local Authorities,
) first, in proportion as dry priyies of any kind are
in use in their districts, and, secondly, in proper
! ton as the districs contain dense settlements of
ignorant and dirty population.
) a. The dry ystems, if they are to be gen
! orally available il any populous district, must
always be v~igilanty superintended, or in most
. LkLz T1zI -.
and must be managed with forethought and COM,
petent skill. The Authority must in the first
place decide as to the type of construction toI
! which it will acquie househOlders to conform inI
5 regard of the placing of privies, and in regard
of the plan of theirprivy-fxtures not allowing
privies to be so placed that the use of them will
! be n nuisance to hdses or will make the privy-I
! scavenage n~eedlesAy difficult or offensive, and
carefully regulating the plan of the privy-fxtures'
5 (whether for eartEprivy, charcoal rivy, pail
{ privy or ash-privy) IN the ways best calculated
to prevent nuisane and facilitate scavenging. |
If the earth-systen be adopted the Authority
must prepare and supply the earth if the pail
system be adopted the Authority must SUPPLY
Z the pals and WHITTIER earth-system, cbarcoal-l
! system, pail-system, or ash-system be adopted, /
Z the Authority must Except in individual cases)
{ scavenge the priyie and dispose of the refuseI
I which is removed, Pail-privics and ash -priviesI
in towns should be e~avenged as far as practical
] BILE daily, and even where the population is least
! dense, at interval not exceeding a week.
! Whether the Authority in acting as above shall
! act througfrS its own officers and servants orl
] through contractor will be a matter of local.
] discretion but, so far as it acts through con-
: tractors, it must of course see strictly to the ex-
I ecution of the contract, and in all cases it will
! have to make such bye-laws as are wanted t9I
) give effect to its system.
. (B) - Sometimes even in country districts, but
Z with more and more frequency in proportion as|
districts are urbahand populous, particular poor
sneighborhoods require that their privy-accom-I
{ mediation, whatever be its sort, should bel
specially cared for. and sometimes (Which must
sAuthority.
: (c.) Though ordinary water-closets (and|
particularly within doors) are not proper fOrl
the use of dirty ant ignorant populations, water
closets, specially constructed with regard to SUCH
classes of population, and managed or constantly