Cast-iron house drainage : with especial reference to the drainage of town houses / by Gerard J. G. Jensen.

  • Jensen, Gerard J. G.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Cast-iron house drainage : with especial reference to the drainage of town houses / by Gerard J. G. Jensen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lay it into the channel, under pain of three shillings and fourpence. And if he do cast it upon any person’s head, the party to have a lawful recompense, if he be injured thereby.” This state of affairs had at least the advantage that dangers and inconvenience could be seen and to some extent avoided, and that the person injured could, in certain cases, obtain a “ lawful recompense,” which in the other case he can not. Nowadays, happily, the evils of either system are apparent, and it is therefore hardly necessary to bring forward arguments at this stage, in proof of the value and necessity of sanitation as we now understand it. Sanitation has long since ceased to be regarded as a “fad” by reasonable people, and even the most super- ficial observer must admit that to it mainly is due the marked and sustained decrease in the general death-rates and the absence of the appalling epidemics of diseases experienced in former years, lhe intimate connection which exists between the sanitary condition of the house drainage and the physical well-being of those who reside within its immediate sphere of influence, more especially in the case of town houses, is also acknowledged by all who have given the subject a thought. Formerly, so long as the drains were out of sight they were also out of mind, and no thought was given to their condition or suitability for the proper fulfilment of their duties, until the appearance of drain-begotten disease. Now it is recognised by all thinking people that, to ensure a healthy habitation, it is essential that not only the principles but also the details and next to-nothings connected with the construction of the house-drains demand the most careful consideration.
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