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standing waste must in no case have any sort of communication
with a drain-pipe. A rubber garden hose-pipe may
be attached to the end of the warning-pipe while the
cistern is being flushed out, and in that way the flushing
water can be discharged over a trapped gulley at a convenient
point. Storage cisterns sufficient for a temporary
supply, in the event of accident to the mains or supplypipe,
should be in every house ; and certificates are not
granted by the Vestry of St. James's unless the house
is provided with adequate storage cisterns.*
TUBERCULAR DISEASE.
The dissemination of tubercular disease through the
medium of milk and cream derived from tuberculous cows
is a danger which, of late, has exercised the public mind.
Taking tuberculous disease of the lungs (phthisis), it will
be seen that during the year 1898 the deaths certified for
St. James's as due to phthisis were 47, as against 53 in
the year 1897. There has been a general and continuous
reduction in the mortality from tubercular diseases—a reduction
due probably to improved sanitary and dietetic
conditions, which have increased the resisting power of
the people. But it is most important to exclude from our
food altogether, if possible, the infection of tubercular
germs. This may be achieved in two ways: one by
exterminating tuberculous cattle, the other by sterilizing the
milk and other cattle products which are used as food.
The extermination of tuberculous cattle is the real
desideratum. But this will be difficult to realise. In 1898
her Majesty ordered the 40 non-pedigree cows which served
the dairy of Windsor to be destroyed, because, on being
* An improved" self-cleansing air-tight cistern" has been devised by
Mr. Hugh Alexander, Chief Sanitary Inspector for Shoreditch. This cistern
is expensive, but it is undoubtedly a valuable improvement in domestic
water cisterns. It has been adopted in the design premiated by the London
County Council for its new model dwellings at Millbank. It is a most
excellent and practical cistern. In filling water-bottles the tap should be
allowed to run for a moment, so as to flush sediment out from the leaden
pipe, before the bottles are filled. Bright water direct from the iron
cistern is then obtained.