St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-03-16

sewer emanatlOnS, solution OF sulp1dlc
of iron common cOpperas) has long
been known, and am strongly in
clined To hope that in it, when prop
erly and Systematically applied, we
have an agent capable of making the
surface of waste pipes unfit for vege-
table growth or life, and so rendering
these conduits completely sterile, just
as certain weeds may be killed and
conquered by watering the ground
where they grow with a strong saline
solution. American inventive genius
will probably supply a variety of con-
trivances for applying suitable para
siticides for this purpose as soon as
any demand for them shall arise, but
/ i'm the mean time | would suggest the
use of the following simple apparatus
which has proved quite successful in
my own residence.
Fit a half-gallon bottle with tight,
perforated cork carrying glass tube
about three-siXteenths of an inch III
diameter fill the bottle with solution
of cOpperas of the strength of one
ounce to the pint of water, adapt the
cork and invert the bottle over the
basin flor example) of a stationary
washstand, so that the fluid may slow
" drip down the waste pipe. The APP
paratus may Ice conveniently support
ed on board laid across the basin,
and having near its centre two-Inch
hole into which the neck of the in
verted bottle is inserted. A pint or
so of the same solution should first be
| poured down the holes of the overflow
1 pipe. and the best time to use the
contrivance is on going to bed, so as
to leave the trap full over night of
the mineral solution. Application in
this way twice week has so far
seemed to answer the purpose in my
house, but still more etfectual meth
cd would he to have a stop-cock placed
in the waste pipe foot or two below
the trap, and every night or two clos
ing this, fill the former and the ada
cent portions of pipe with copperas
I solution.
believe we will only eff'ectually
combat these multitudinnus disease
germs, when we fully realize that they
are each struggling to live and repro
duce their kind, just as are the higher
. plants and animals throughout the
whole course of nature.
p The fact that thistles and other
nOXious weeds so soon appear in neg
lected fields or gardens, shows beyond
dispute how widely, and yet how i'm
perceptibly, their seeds are dissent
mated, and how eager these seeds are
to seize every chance for reproducing
f themselves after their kind, whenever
and wherever suitable warmth, air,
moisture, and nOurishment happen to
he afforded them. Even little hand
full of earth in rocky crevice is often
forced to support some wandering
nettle or poison-ivy, and its progeny
of organisms hurtful to man, perhaps
through IA long series of generations.
In like manner, apparently, every
diphtheritic spore and typhoid fever
f germ strives with all its puny might
; to live, and grow, and multiply itself
in the blind hope, as it were, that one
of its iniquitous progeny will succeed
in fastening upon some human being
whose affirmative power of conStltu-
/ ton las Emerson so APPLY called the
f Life Force) is feebler than its own
r and so accomplish its malevOlent des-
: tiny. And whilst millions of such
t germs die for want of moisture
t warmth, air and heterogeneous matter
- and hundreds of millions flourish Use
| lessly, because they cannot gain ac-
cess to mankind, few relatively
1 out of these vast numbers steal past
e air tight traps in the manner | have
pointed out, and, establishing them
p selves on the inner side of such ''safe-
guards may he reproduced luXuri-
antly. and, under favorable circum-
= stances, succeeded i'll sending some
Y of their descendants to intlict upon
a us the well-known disturbances OF
, health which characterize the differ
ent contagious diseases.
| Varied and prolonged courses OF
! experimental inquiry will doubtless
. be requisite for deciding numerous
r minor details, and especially just how
, often waSte-water pipes must bt
bathed with solutions of mineral sub
t stances, in order to secure the beside
rata above indicated. But | am con
fident that the key to this mOmentous
problem, of how to avoid infection
from ''sewer-gas,n or, more correctly,
l sewer air, entering our dwellings, is
to be found in the principle of so Steri-
. lizing the whole interior of all pipes
: communicating with sewers, and, il
possible, of the sewers themselves (by
frequently irrigating them with fluids
containing metallic compounds poi
: sonous to plant life, that no vegeta-
2 BILE organisms can propagate within
e them. Under such circumstances, dis
ease germs, even if they penetrate
for short distances through imperfect
traps, will he powerless for evil, be
: cause "A noXiouS element being intro
] duced into their environment, the har-
moniously favorable conditions neces-
Sary for their development and repro
duction are disturbed DR.. Joseph
: c. Richardson in The Sanitarian.
GleaningS.