Morning journal and courier., 1890-03-15
HOUSE SANITATION.

Dangers From Imperfect Plumbing
 Sec That tho AIT and Water is Pure
 -Dkin Plumbing - The Mechanfcs'
 Course Of Lectures.
 The ninth lecture of the mechanics course was given by Mr. Albert L. Webster of the class '79 8. last evening on the subject of "House Sanitation" He made frequent use of the stereopticon in Illustrating his sub- ject. which proved a wonderful assistance in showing of the various complications of modern plumbing. The tendency of mod ern civilization, he said, is toward an acute concentration of living. The climax of this thronging together has been reached in cer- tain tenement districts of New York '4city. This continually lly'increasing Hooking together is grave fact and urges upon our attention the necessity of guarding against -&he evils that muat as consequence follow. The ef- forts of sanitary science are directed toward the removal of all refuse, filth and whatever impurities affect the health. Or ganic filth is the. nesting place of organic disease. It Is estimated that there are 100,- 900 deaths annually in the United States from preventable causes. Of evey 100 chill dren born, hardly "A survive, and all this due in great measure to imperfect sanitary 0 should be we'll chosen. One with fuctua. ting water level is the most dangerous. The cellar wall ought to be plastered with asphalt and every precaution taken that it may be damp proof. In house there are dangers from certain paper hanging oolored with poisonous dyes, and also from the furnace. Unless the cold air box be perfectly sealed, the supply of fresh air in the room, which is chiefly supplied through the register, will be vitiated with foul gases from the burning coal and from the cellar. It ia of vital im- portance that the cold air box be supplied with the fresh material from outside, and so closed that no gases in the cellar may enter 1t. -- The present style of furnace at the best ie but relic of barbarism. For those who are able to do 1t, the best system of heating is by indirect radiation.
 Other important matters are ventilation, pure water and milk.
 In house sanitation the question of plumb. ing is perhaps the most vital of all and to a defect in that branch of the structure are due the most deadly of ills that flesh is heir to. Lesky joints and escaping gases are the things that the plumber should seek to avoid. The pipes ought to be as far as possible from the sleeping apartments and no more fixtures than needed and every fixture with an indes pendent trap as near as possible.
 Care again should be taken for what is called back ventilation and an arrangement 80 made that there be no gases coming out through the waste pipe or bath tub or wash bowl into the room. Some of the best new houses are greatly deficient in their plumb- ing, fully twenty years behind the times and typhoid levers and other malignant types have been the result.
 Among other illustrations that Mir. Web. ster gave was that of a specimen of what is called skin plumbing, much after the style of Contractor Buddensieck, who now is serving term in state prison. Among other glaring frauds it was shown where in run ming the main pipes along under the ground a rock was struck and the contractor found 1t easier and more economical to merely in- sert the two ends, giving the appearance of e continuous line, but in reality some little dis- tance of no pipe at all, the results from which are easy to imagine. And there are many cases of this kind of workmanship not entirely exclusive to the cheaper buildings.