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84
notices served, during the year (104) was also greater than
we have yet had to record, and shows that the inspections
out of which they arose were not unwarranted. The other
items of the table do not call for special notice. A
new sewer was laid in Lower Park Fields, a pipe being
substituted for a very imperfect and offensive brick drain.
In those days of the universal application of an air and
water-tight channel for the conveyance of sewage, it is a
part of the duty of the sanitary authorities to protect the
public from the dangers incidental to such a system,
otherwise the very pei-fection of our drainage works
menaces the lives and health of the people in a manner
which makes them almost look back with regret upon the
decease of the old cesspool system. It is evident that the
gases evolved from the contents of the sewer must find
exit somewhere, and, when a sudden increase takes place
in the fluid contents of the sewer, that exit is accomplished
with great force. The ventilation of the sewer by
openings in our streets is one vast improvement, and the
inappreciable amount of mischief which has arisen from
these useful albeit oft-stinking apertures is evidence that
our fears of the open system of drainage were highly
exaggerated when we sealed up the sewers into what
were practically elongated cesspools. But experience
proves that we cannot depend entirely upon this amount
of sewer ventilation, and that gases are still forced
through ordinary traps into our houses. I cannot, therefore,
too strongly urge local ventilation of each house trap,
so that a break in the gaseous continuity between the
sewer and the house may be introduced. A ventilating
pipe from the sewer-side of the trap, of sufficient size
(4 inches) not to oppose more force (from the wellknown
effects of friction) against the sewer gas than the
seal of the trap does, is the most effectual plan. But
besides the pipe, or in ordinary dwelling-houses without
it, there should also be a space over the house-side of
the trap freely open to the air, and into this chamber
the soil pipe should open not at or under the surface
of the water, but some distance above it, so that the