Hygiene and public health / by B. Arthur Whitelegge.

  • Arthur Whitelegge
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hygiene and public health / by B. Arthur Whitelegge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    182/610 (page 170)
    CHAPTER VII. REMOVAL OF REFUSE. The waste matter from households may be classified as 1. Liquid refuse, including water used for washing, and slop-water. 2. Ashes, and vegetable and animal refuse. 3. Excreta. Drainage is necessary for dealing with the first, and some system of dry removal for the second. The excreta may be disposed of in conjunction with the former (water-carriage), or with the latter (privy- middens, ash-closets), or independently (earth-closets, privies, or pail-closets without admixture of ashes). Drainag'e.—We may leave for the moment all consideration of the final disposal of the sewage, for whether the house drain is to discharge into a cess- pool or into a sewer, the arrangement is the same. Drains are intended to remove from the house the liquid and much of the solid filth that is pro- duced within it, and they should be so constructed that in no circumstances can their contents, liquid, solid, or gaseous, escape from them at any but the points specially provided for this purpose. This result is attained by the choice of proper materials for their construction and by sound workmanship, by trap- ping all inlets so as to prevent the egress of drain-gases, and lastly by efficient ventilation at suitable points. The traps that serve the second purpose are of various kinds, dependent upon the particular use to which they are put. A trap in its simplest form is a mere bend in a pipe which retains water and thus prevents air from passing through it. For this purpose it is only necessary that the bend shall be sufficient to place