quantity so adhering, it is sure to enter into decomposition, and it is well known, or, rather, it is generally believed, that the extent to which such decomposition becomes noxious or innoxious is regulated only by the degree to which fresh air is admitted to it at all times. All waste-pipes and drains must have such a connection with the outer atmosphere as shall insure a supply of oxygen for complete decomposition at all points, and a reasonably rapid dilution and removal of the gaseous products of the process.

Concerning fixtures within the house, it is to be remembered that each additional one constitutes another channel of communication between the air of the house and that of the drain. The possibility of efficient protection at these openings is, at least, so well secured, that we need not hesitate to establish such fixtures as are required for comfort and for reasonable convenience; but there remains just so much question in the matter as to justify the recommendation that a luxurious profusion of plumbing fixtures had better be avoided.

The two vital points still to be settled are: First, an absolutely effective means for maintaining the integrity of traps; and, second, such an arrangement of vessels, traps, and waste-pipes as will insure the complete discharge beyond the house walls of all matters delivered into the waste-pipes without the possibility of their being long retained in traps or elsewhere on their way. Thus far we are at sea as to the first of these requirements. Some endeavor to satisfy it by trap ventilation, and others by the use of mechanical traps, both of which methods, as now carried out, have demonstrable defects. The uncertainty here involved constitutes to-day the chief unsolved problem in the work of house drainage. It is here more than anywhere else that the most skillful and experienced judgment is required in the arrangement of plumbing work.

The water-closet has undergone a transformation since improved drainage began to attract attention in this country, which has brought it within measurable distance of practical perfection. The universal condemnation of the pan-closet by every respectable authority, if we except the Boards of Health of the larger cities, and there are good reasons for their present inaction,-is secured. Just apprehension as to its dangers is widely disseminated and deeply implanted. Its introduction in new work must soon be prohibited, and its retention

in old work cannot last very long. The defects which are most marked in this apparatus exist in a modified degree in some other closets which still meet with favor; but the march of improvement is entirely in the direction of closets which have no moving parts, which require a very copious use of water without waste, and of which the outlet channels are free from enlargements, or recesses not subject in every part to a thorough cleansing every time they are used. The simplest of these, and in many respects one of the best, is the plain "hopper" with a bent trap below it supplied with such a volume of flushing water as to ensure complete washing. Another common fault recognized and appreciated by all authorities is the supplying of closets by valves directly connected with the house supply. The importance of the interposition of a flushing cistern is getting to be well and generally understood. On the whole, we may say that, so far as water-closets are concerned, the interests of the public are taking care of themselves in a most satisfactory manner. Economy and indifference will necessarily retain in use the great mass of improper apparatus until it shall have worn itself out; but new construction and renewal of old work will in time overcome existing difficulties.

The majority of even the best houses are now very badly drained, and are subject to the production of "sewer-gas" at many points between the outer wall of the house and the fixtures within it. Occupants are generally careless or ignorant of this fact, and the verdict of "my plumber" is still considered by the average house-owner a sufficient certificate of good sanitary condition. Large traps, clogged with accumulations of putrefying kitchen-waste, soapy compounds, focal matter, etc., are still the rule rather than the exception. Defective pipes and more defective joints, involving often the escape of drainage drippings, or of drainage exhalations, exist very widely. Most drains still run under the cellar-floor, and such drains are almost invariably very faulty. All of these things, however, are slowly being changed, and the change is, practically, always in the right direction. In some cases where the local sewerage is very bad there is doubtless a certain amount of contamination of houses by the gases resulting from decomposition in the sewer. Few modern sewers, however, are seriously open to this charge, and proper ventilation of soil-pipes is, when accompanied with good plumbing work, a sufficient protection against danger from this VOL. CXXXVII.-NO. 320.

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cause, when the cause exists. The important lesson to be taught is that most of our sewer-gas is home-made. Bacterial growth in sewers is a newly-mooted subject, of which the mooting is thus far the only real progress; but this is real progress.

In the sewerage of towns all will admit that great advances have been made within the period under consideration. The better works referred to on a previous page may be regarded as the models on which construction is generally planned. In execution the best plan often fails of proper carrying out, because of the not yet entirely obsolete ignorance and stupidity of the newlyelected sewerage committees of local governments, and because of the almost universal misconception of the meaning of the word "economy," coupled with a notion that public works are always most cheaply and most honestly executed when let by contract to the lowest bidder. The only economy in works of this character, especially as they are forever hidden from view, is to be sought in absolutely faithful and excellent construction with the best attainable material. The extra cost of building sewers in the best manner is not worth a moment's consideration as compared with the wastefulness and grave sanitary danger which usually attend lowest-bidder construction.

I am a firm believer in the superiority, under most circumstances, of the separate removal of house-drainage through small vitrified pipes; but I believe that large brick sewers properly arranged and constructed are-bacterial growth apart -better and safer, as they are also vastly more costly, than pipe sewers, as these are usually laid. It is true that bricksewers leak and frequently contaminate the soil; but the ooze from their walls is of much less consequence than the direct delivery of a stream of sewage at every joint with improperly laid pipes. I believe, of course, that the system that I have carried out at Memphis and elsewhere, of using very small, tightlyjointed pipes, thoroughly washed out once or twice a day by automatic flush-tanks connected with the water supply, is as much better than other systems as it is cheaper; but I believe, nevertheless, that perfect workmanship is better, from a sanitary point of view, than a perfect plan. The demonstration of the truth of these convictions afforded by good examples of work executed in this country during the past ten years, cannot fail to have its influence on future sewer construction, and we may regard our future in this respect as well assured.

The importance of the removal of the water of saturation from the soil in and about the house, and generally in malarious districts, is becoming better and better understood, and malaria must ere long become practically obsolete in the older settled portions of the United States, as it already has in its old haunts in England.

In studying the difficult questions involved in the ultimate disposal of sewage, the public has yet to appreciate the importance of immediate removal. Of course even the freshest and most recent sewage ought not to be delivered where it can contaminate adjacent streams or bodies of water; but real contamination is very greatly in proportion to the degree to which sewage has been permitted to decompose on the way from the fixtures in the house to the outlet of the main sewer. As in the house, so in the town, complete removal before decomposition should always be the rule. When water-carried waste matters are delivered in this fresh condition, a very large proportion of their organic constituents is consumed by fishes, and the lower order of life and the decomposition of such matters as float in the well aerated upper portion of the water is complete and rapid; but the rule must, in time, prevail, that no sewage shall be delivered into stagnant waters, along shores, into harbors, or into streams, which carry it past other communities which would suffer from its ultimate decay.

GEORGE E. WARING, JR.

CRUELTY TO CHILDREN.

OUR last national Census, in 1880, showed that the number of children in the United States under sixteen years of age was over twenty millions; of whom 10,158,954 were boys, and 9,884,705 were girls. From a political standpoint, the future status of the nation will largely depend on the proper physical and intellectual training of these children, yearly increasing in number, who before long will constitute the sovereign people of the Republic. In a social and moral point of view, the well-being of society imperatively demands that the atmosphere in which they live and the treatment which they receive from those having their custody or intrusted with their care, shall be such as to insure habits of industry, temperance, honesty, and chastity. Cruelty to children produces mental and physical disease, and the prevention of such cruelty is a matter, therefore, of grave public importance.

Cruelty has been legally defined to embrace "every act, omission or neglect whereby physical pain, suffering or death is caused, or permitted;" and it is divisible into those cases which the law reaches, and those which it does not reach. Thus, for instance, among the intelligent and educated, brutality to a child is viewed with horror, and corporal punishment is something almost unknown. The pride of the parent in the offspring frequently amounts almost to idolatry. Many such parents treat their children as though they were rare exotic plants; and while the children are carefully guarded against temptations common to their age, and are clothed, fed, and educated with the utmost care, their nurture in other respects is not always wisely directed. A child of delicate, nervous constitution, with a developement of intellect beyond its years, is too often forced by over-education into a premature growth of its mental faculties to the injury of its bodily health. The