Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-07-21
Dangerous NuiSances.

The following from the Sanitary Engineer
may serve to enGghten those who have
sneered at the Sacramento ordinance re-
quiring vents from cesspools to lead into
upper air. The article points out also the
popular error regarding overflow pipes,
and also fortiies the argument made in
this journal in favor of frequently clean
ing out or emptying cesspools. The En-
gi1eer says:
cesspool is in old English a "soss-
pool that is, a soakpooF'-a place into
which liquid Stops and offscourings may
be run, and from which, as usually con-
structed, it is hoped that the liquid portion
will soak or drain away, thus sparing the
proprietor the trouble OF emptyingit. The
term is most generally applied, at present
TO receptaclcS or clsterns constructed under
ground in the vicinity of the house to re-
ceiye the kitchen Stops and sink wastes, as
distinguished from privy vaults, or recep-
tacles intended only, or chiefly, for the re-
ception of excreta, but it is also used by
some writers as including the latter, and
as matter of fact, a large number of cess
pools receive both kinds of waste. The
cesspools to which we especially refer at
present are those into which excreta are
not allowed to enter, but which are de-
voted chiefly, if not exclusively, to the re-
ceptiOn of kitchen waste. From time to
time inquiries are received by the Sanitary
Engineer which indicate that the writers
suppose that the only dangers in house
drainage are connected with the disposal of
eXcreta, with privy vaults or water-closet
wastes and that if these are prop
erly arranged the sink Stops need lit
tie attention. This is mistaken
opinion, and it is time that people
learned to recognize it as such. No doubt
it is true that water-closet waste is more
dangerous to health than kitchen Stops. 1t
is more likely to contain specific contagia,
and is more offensive, but considered
merely as furnishing material in which
may be developed dangerous organisms, as
deCaying organic matter or filth, there is
not SO much difference between these two
forms of waste product after all, nor is
cesspooi less offensive than privy vault.
Neither of them are satisfactory append
ages to house, but where their employ
ment becomes necessity, the same pre-
cautions as to location, construction, etc,
should be applied to one as the other. The
essential points are TO prevent leakage by
making them water-tight, to provide free
outlet for the gases which will be gener-
ated in them, and to locate this outlet at
such a hight that there shall be no danger
that the gases escaping from it shall blow
into the house. Such cesspools should be
small, and emptied regularly and fire.
quently.
The most unwise disposition which can
be made of cesspool is to connect the
upper part of it with a sewer. When a
street is severed the cesspools on that street
should be cleaned out and filled up with
fresh, clean earth. and the house drainage
be connected directly with the sewer. To
retain the cesspool under such circum-
stances is to insure that all the house waste
shall be in putrefying condition before it
enters the sewer, and hence make it i'm
possible to keep the air in the sewer inof