The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-23
HOUSE DRAINAGE.
The Sanitary Importance of the Con-
slant Flush.

The Sanitary Importance of the Con-
slant Flush.
Editor Morning Ne,oS; Gentlemen con-
cerned in the lines of business connected
with transportation and shipping are often
brought into direc6 contiguity with the in
cidental dangers unavoidably associated
with their vehicles of commerce. In
lecture before the American Public Health
Association in Memphis, in November, 1887,
! DR.. Joseph Holt of New Orleans one of the
most progressive sauitsrians of the United
! states, made these fore BILE remarks: THAT
| II an infected vessel shall come into the
quarantine station below New Orleans, aud
| can be made I'm lninfected UeSSeJ IN sic
hours after her arrival, every hour over
! tleSe SIX hours during which she Is permit
| ted to remain infected is an additional hour
/ Of menace to the coast at iChich she has
| dTTtted' propose to apply this wise sug-
gestlon to the machinery of house drainage.
| Take such line of piping for instance,
as may be run down South Broad lane from
West Broad TO Whitaker street. Ga this
line there are perhaps forty or more con-
| trlbntory houses We will suppose the line
fnshed by the emptying of a flush tank
once N twelve or once in twenty-four hours,
the flush starting at West Bread, and taking
ten minutes to travel the distance from West
| Broad to Whitaker street. Now, if a case
| one or more houses on this line, and the
poisonous secret ions or excretions of such
case are emptied into the lane sewer through
the house drain shortly after the flush tank
has emptied itself and the resulting flush
current passed along the line, these secre-
tons or excretlons, imbued with the poison
Gus elements of disease, will remain more
or less sluggish i'll their passage along the
sewer, their discharge being, until the next
twelve or nty-four-hour opening of
the flush tank, totally depend
ent upon the uncertain water
flow from connecting houses. During
this more or less prolonged interval, such
polsons may traverse connecting house or
yard drains, and spread their dangerous
elements throughout connecting habita-
tions. Now, If q constant current of water
were passing down this lire, the moment
| such poisonous secretion or excretion passed
from the house drain into this constant cur
| rent in the lane sewer, it would be taken
away by this current, and all the dangers to
other connecting houses done away with.
A service of this kind is the only true sani-
tary service which ought to be sought from
| house drainage sewers. Why leave our
selves and our connected neighbors ex-
posed to contagious or infectious poisons
ten or eleven hours out of every
twelve, or twenty-three or more
hours out of every twenty-four, when by
entire danger can be averteds | assert
without fear of contradiction that con-
tagiOuS and infectious secretionS and eX-
cretiOns will spread their seeds of disease
with far more rapidity from house to house
| through lulfuShed connecting drains than
where no connected sewer system exists, and
these SecretiOnS and excretions are diSin-
fected and emptied into the old-fashioned
vault or the ash barrel AS commerce has
its dangers by the possible importation of
| disease, which requires the watchfulness of
quarantine. so the comforts of the bath
room and closet have their dangers pequir-
ing the watchfulness of cleanliness on the in
| dividual premises, and a constant flow of
| cleansing water along the receptive sewer
lines. All sanitarians will az ee that the
constant flush is the hig hest attainabls per-
lection of EoUse drainage. The system de-
vised by me attains this highest possible
perfection of sanitary requirements. Why
should not Savannah enjoy its Must she
take something inferior from strangers,
wien one of her own citizens, whose every
prospect of advance in life is dependent
on her prosperity, gives her something bet
ter and at greatly less costa Are strangers
more likely to study our welfare than we
| ourselves who are sharerS of each others
| opportunities and trialsa
I am well aware that the visitor to Mem
phis will be taken to the central receiuing
| mum, anu oHO"II Uutib d tOuSbdLL CuiI6lb ID
flowing along it; but this main is the line
upon which converges the flow from on
hundred flush-,anks and several thousand
| houses Now, pass backward along these
converging laterals, and the farther you
| get from this central main the less perfect is
| the work of flushing, for the very reasons
have above described. For year or more
after Mr.. George f. Waring, Jr., put down
! the Memphis system the results i'll lowering
the average death rate chat from yellow
fever excepted were so unsa isfactory
that a committee of investigation
was appointed to examine into
the causes of the apparent failure of his
system in its effect on the death-rate. Not
to do Mr.. Warning any injustice, l will quote
his own language. After pointing cut
number of collateral dangers which had
their influence on the general unsatisfactory
| result, he says: 81 make the above state
| ments without consultation with my as So
ciates of the committee, and entirely on my
own responsibility. | make them because
the repute of my own work seems likely to
| suffer from the failure to supplement the
portant and from the failure to make even
| the sewerage complete"
From the fact that Mr. Warning struck
| out by himself independent of the commit
tee, we would naturally infer that he was
not satisfied with what he knew the com
| mlttee'S report was likely 10 De- regret
that have not that report at hand tut
from what / have shown of the condition of
a lateral, and | may say of each lateral, de-
| pendent ON the intermittent flush of the
flush tank, and containing along its bed the
slowly dissipating poisons which ,oottld be
at once removed by the constant current,
it is apparent that neither Mr. Warning nor
the committee appreciated the most vital
cause Of the failure Of the sewerage to give
satisfactory results
Before concluding this paper, take the
opportunity of advising plumbers to put
Pinch opening in the bottom of the bath
tubs, and pinch discharge PHO from the
| bath tubs to the house drains. III this way
| the water from the bath tub is rapidly dis
charged, and not only fiushes and cleans the
house drain, but more or less helps to flash
| the lane sewer. LOUIS A. FALLIGANI.
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