The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-04-17
..Tne EscapsnS sower.esas.''

Editors Dispatch: The communication
OF Captain NJ. j. Dimmock Published in
your issue of the 18th instant discusses a
subject Of interest to many OF our citizens,
and which ought to attract more attention
than it does, in view OF the admitted agency
Of sewer-gas in producing or fayoring the
development of some OF the most serious
and fatal diseases. Captain Dimmock, how
ever, has not even limited at the surest
remedy for the evils of escaping sewer
gas-that is, the Avoidance of aU inLets
for its admission into the interior of our
doceltingS. Che rage for "modern con-
yeniences !" beyond all doubt leads in many
instances to the serious risk of health. The
water-closct in many houses communicates
directly through a door with q sleeping
room, without any intervening passage
way, so that every time the closet is en-
tered whatever eff1uyia may exist there are
free to diffuse themselves through the cham
Der. in which members OF the family often
pass not only the night, but good part OF
the day. In very many instances, too, there
is no efficient provision for the thorough
ventilation OF the closet, by establishing q
free current Of air through it; or, if such
provisions exist, they are habitually neg
lecled, especially in cold weather. The air
OF the closet, therefore, instead Of fire.
quently, and constantly escaping into the
outer air, escapes only into the chamber.
In some houses second inlet for sewer
gas is provided within the chamber itself,
in the form Of stationary wash-basin, sup
piled with hot and cold-water, and connect
ed with 4 waste-pipe which empties, like
the soil-pipe from the water-cloSet, into the
house drain, and this in turn emptles into
the city sewer, which is the receptacle OF all
the tilth-not of one house only, but per-
haps Of five hundred. The wash-basin thus
arranged is no doubt very great "conve-
nience," but it is also palpable source Of
danger.
People, however, are content, so long as
there is no strikingIy offensive odor exhaled
from these two kinds OF sewer-openings;
and they rely confidently upon the traps
attached TO the waste-pipes, together with
domestic cleanliness, to prevent any null
sance OF that sort. Now, with reference to
the first point, shall perhaps astonish some
OF your readers when l inform them that
the presence OF sewer-air is not necessarily
indicated by any decidedly offensive smell,
even when in sufficient amount to prove in
furious to health and an exciting cause OF
positive disease. Says a high authority on
this subject (the late DR.. Derby, secretary
OF the State Board Of Health OF Massachu-
setts): "The sensible properties of sewer
air are quite remarkable. 1t iSdyno means
fetid, as many people suppose, neither is iU
pungent or ammoniacal. 1t is rather mega
tive in character, faint in odor, mawkish,
smelling perhaps more like soap than any
other familiar substance. Se,oer-air may
escape Uery freely IN our davetlingS before
its presence aciN be suspected, and that this
happens very often there can be no sort Of
doubt"
A prominent English santarian (Wilson,
Hand6ook of Hygiene, London, 1870,
speaking OF sewer-air and its morbific cf-
fects, says: "It may be inappreciabte to
the senses, but its banefut effects make
themselves felt none the less, and frequently
exhibit themselves in houses which, in other
respects, are replete with every comfort
which wealth can command" Dr.. Blu
chanan, well known in England for his otti-
cial investigations OF the causes OF epide-
mics, also says, in relation to the pernlclous
qualities OF sewer-air: "TheSe harmful
Qualities are popularity measured by smell,
and il there be no sewer-smell, people think
little OF danger from n sewer. The popu-
lar view may be true enough for such minor
harm as may come from ordinary excre-
ment decomposition, but il is certainly not
true OF such greater harm as comes from
the specific infection OF sewer" DR.. i.
insists strongly upon the " "distinctaon De-
t,oeen stink and infectiUeneSS." =.
1t is plain, therefore, il the experience
and opinion OF those who have made
study Of such matters be worth anything,
that people who open inlets for seWer-alr
into their dwellings have no right to con-
slider themselves safe from harm merely be-
cause they are not obliged to hold their
noses when they 60 into the vicinity or
those inlets.
: That the traps are not to be relied on as
g safeguard against the upward escape OF
foul GAS from the soil-pipes, which are SO
many offsets or extensions OF the sewers,
and in which, as Captain Dimmock says,
"there is q constant backing-up OF the foul
gas, seeking some opening for escape" is
easily demonstrated. One conclusive proof
is given by Captain D:mmock himself
viz, thai where (Which is frequently the
case) the water in the so-cailed traps in the
closets has been syphoned out by trash OF
refuse being thrown into them, the opening
is entirely free to the escape OF this poison
Gus gas into the houses" But there are
several other circumstances which tend Sc
riously to neutralize the protection afforded
by these contrivances:
/. The difference Of temperature between
the air of the underground-sewer and the
air of the Water-closet. In hot weather
this difference Of temperature must often
amount to thirty or forty degrees. an up
aoard current of air is an inevitable result
Of this condition OF things--a current whose
force can hardly be counterbalanced by the
resistance OF the small volume OF water
contained in the trap, upon sotich resist
ance the aohole action and vatae of the trap
depend. my
5. When a large volume of water is sud-
denly discharged into the city sewers, as by
one Of those furious rain-storms which del
uge the streets in few minutes, the air in
those sewers, being suddenly subjected to
powerful pressure, will seek escape by
every possible outlet, and the water in the
traps will then offer but feeble reslstanceto
the forcibIe pressure OF the seWer-air from
below. In Richmond AN additional danger
occasionally arises from the fact that in
times Of food-such, for example, as that
OF November iast-the sewers which drain
large part OF the city are obstrncted By
water for a greater or less distance above
their outlets.
3. III closet be left long unused, espe-
cfaIly in warm Weather-as when a family
are absent on q summer tour-the water In
Ithe trap will disappear by eyapo poration, and
then the seWersair will have free vent. A
|Yery few days may suffice for this, IL the
weather be dry .a. III
81. A serious defect OF these Water-traps
arises from the power OF water to absOt1
gasess and tho eopgerse power to gtre or
into the air gases irlsic,s 4 has absorbed Gas