Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-11-09
GOOD SANITATION.
VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS FOR LOCAL
 BOARDS OF HEATH.
Health Hints for Those Who Live in Vil- lages-Dangers of the Cesspool-A Mat ter to Be Looked After-Aids of House Cleanliness.

Cleanliness.
 The writer leaves to the intelligent and ob- serving reader the application of Dr. Simons remarks in regard to English usages to the conditions prevailing in towns and country places in America. The recognition of the truthfulness of the description given as ap- plicable to our own shortcomings in this re- spect, and the realization of the dangers at tendant upon such a condition of things ought to arouse not only individuals, but communities, to proper sense of the duties which they owe to themselves, as we'll to their.neighbors in the matter of proper sani- tation of dwellings and their surroundings. To quote Dr. Simon again: "In order to re- duce that vast quantity of preventable dis ease which has it's type in enteric fever, and in relation to which each individual case of enter!c fever which occurs ought to be re garded as having an important local signifi- canoe, the one essential condition is cleanli- ness. That local sanitary authorities, pro ceeding to act upon this principle, with clear intelligence of what cleanliness really means, and with sincere resolution to enforce it in their respective districts can within a few years reduce by some tens of thousands the annual mortality of England is, think, at least so certain as that such ought to be the aim of their existence"
 In certain districts cesSpoolS should either be abolished altogether or so reconstructed and guarded as to be as little of a nuisance as possible either to the users or their neigh bors. Privies with unclosed vaults should be abolished and pail system, or something of nature approximating to it, adopted. The local authorities should undertake, through their boards of health, the removal of excre- mental and cesspool matters. It would be cheaper to employ two or more men and carts to do this than to pursue the present method of hiring a to do the work at excessive rates. Then the matters, frequently removed and compOsted under the system suggested, would have 0 manurial value which the contents of privy vaults, as now allowed to remain through stages of fermen- tation, cannot have.
 SOMETHING TO BE LOOKED AFTER. While in Medford, the writer encountered a gang of men who were engaged ill cleaning out a cesspool vault. He asked one of them where they disposed of the matter they carted away. "Oh," he replied, i've take it away up ill the woods in Winchester, and dump it there" Noting the look of surprise on the face of his questioner he added 'There is a place there where we dump it, and a man there takes care of it.n This re- minded the writer of his own experience in Revere, where for two seasons he was annoyed by the foul calculations coming from refuse privy matters which were dumped not far from his house on some vacant land near the public highway, until one night he caught the parties ill the act, and so frightened them with the prospect of fine land other con- siderations' that they did not again repeat the nuisance. Now the board of health of Medford have duly authorized man to | clean out the cesspools and privies of their town. Do they follow him in the disposal of the fifth he removes2 It is safe to say they i do not.
 But in the neighborhood whero this offal 1 is disposed of there are watersheds or supply | basins for several large communities, and such matter emptied on any of them must, ill it's soluble parts at least, which would in clude the germs of disease if they wero pres ! ent, find it's way eventually into the water 1 supply, with the attendant results of such pollution on the health of the users. This is another strong argument ill favor of the | town authorities undertaking the removal as well as the proper disposition of excrement l and cesspool matter. Then O strict system 1 of privy construction or adaptation should | be enforced. People should not be permitted | to be nuisance to themselves or their neigh | bOrs They should be made to bear the ex- | pense of such alterations construc- tions, and they might thus be taught to value them more. Frequent removal, espe- 1 cially in the warm season, should be enforced 1 No man or householder should be allowed to do his own scavenging or to clean out his vaults or cesspools and spread their contents over his grass or garden land If cesspools are permitted, tho kitchen drain should ter minate in separate cesspool from the soil pipe of the water closet. In thickly settled districts no wells, except those driven through the clay and receiving their supply of water | beyond the possibility of surface contamina- | chOI1l5 ba allowed to aviSf md oil isting old fashioned wells should be filled in House traps should be inspected from time to time, and every outlet for fluids from houses should be trapped. No cesspool or vault should be ventilated into a house chimney.
 AIDS OF HOUSE CLEANLINESS.
 House sanitation is most largely within the control of its occupants. One of the most important aids of house cleanliness is thor eugh ventilation. As this cannot usually be se- cured by ordinary methods, it can at least be aided by giving all the rooms in the house every fine day thorough air bath. Sun shine should be invited rather than excluded | Who has not been disagreeably affected by going into certain houses and being met with a rank, filthy atmosphere, loaded with the exhalations from human bodies and lungs | which have become so persistent by lack of proper ventilation as to lmpregnate not only the air, but the carpets, furniture, curtains duu DeoIluS ol UAo hOuSS' tiHA ofSA Cuo C1OUu- ing of the occupants, which gives public notice of the fact every time they board a horse car or steam car! Many people go into the country or down to the seashore in the summer months, shutting up their houses closing them against light and ventilation. In a short time the water remaining in the kitchen and water closet trap dries up. leav- ing free passage for the foul odors from sewers or cesspools. Then the microbes take possession, and revel in tho humid atmos- | phere of the August days
 By the 1st of September the family return from the country and occupy their houses. They have not, as rule, taken the pre- caution to have their house thoroughly aerated for few days before their return. Perhaps not window Is raised. Can it be wondered at that, with such unhealthy sur roundings, one or more of the children or the adults fall sick in day or two, and that-not realizing the dangers of home-the cases of typhoid fever thus developed are said to have been brought home from the country? There is no manner of doubt that cases of typhoid have been imported from summer stopping places, but how many are produced in the way mentioned are rarely or never suspected
 Milk is another fruitful source of typhoid