Health

Difflcult as is the question of seweragefor cities, there are still more difflculties that occur in towns and villages where no provisión has been made for the delivery of the liquids and varieus solids that form the excretion or the offaling of householá life. In the rural arrangements of a single household the question of old was quite simple. The kitchen slops were fed to the pigs, the dust or general sweepings thrown into the flre, and the dry contents of the privy went into the general compost-heap and upon the fields. Any variation from this waa a negligente, and a filthiness so indefensibie as to bring the family into disrepute as to cleanliness. But in close villages and i larger towns much of this is impracticable. Where water is introduced into houses, the quantity of fouled liquid is so increased that there must be resort to some other form of carriage. The choice is between conveyance into the nearest stream, throwing here and theie upon the ground, or in surface irrigation or subsoil irrigation or a cesspool system. Where there are but few houses, a common brook may anawer f or delivery; but hundreds of villages are illustrating how easily such small streams become fouled and how unsaf e it is to trust to this method of riddance. Many of these streams are nearly dry in Summer. Their flow is not rapid and they have none of the advantages which attach to rivers, of greater breadth, of stronger current, and of varying depths of water. The limit to which these brooks can be used needs to be closely defined and no village should long rely upon them. Surface irrigation has more of an application then is generally accorded to it. If it means that the slops are to be thrown out of the same back window, it means foulness and disgust; but, if it means that slops are conveyed away through some form of gutter to the end of a deep yard, and that at the end of this gutter the soil is so arranged in f rows as that, by the enange oí a uoaiu or the shif ting of a loóse end, the ref use can be made to flow one week in one ehannel and another week in another, it is surprising how much of such ref use a well-drained and well-cultivated plot of ground will take care of. But all depends upon this variation in supply to different furrows and upon such preparation and cultivation of the ground as has ref erence to the eff ective disposal of sewage by one of Nature's method. The third plan, that of subsoil irrigation, is the application of much of the same principie by furrows or tubes a few inches tmder the ground, so that the liquid can flow in various direetions and leak out through the loose joints of the tile, and so supply the growing vegetation. To this plan what is knowh as the flush-tank is generally attached) in order that the flow may not be by dribbles, which would fill up the tubes, but by intermittent gushes, so as to flush the tubes and keep them open. This plan is found to work welltnd has been applied on a large scale at Memphis and at Lennox, to the Seminary at Princeton, and to various private houses, with success. It is sometimes known as the Waring plan, but is much older. The third most common and inost objectionable plan is that of a cesspool. These are pits f or the storage of filth. First of ali, they ignore the fact that, while most excretions and liquid ref use, if gotten clear of in twenty-four hours, are harmless, the storage thereof provides for vile decompositions, which always mean pollution of air and sometimes mean the production of specifio poisons. It is true that, if far distant from houses and wells and ' if kept from that heat which ïs necessary 'for fermentation, they often last long without causing sickness. It is also true that, as a rule, on the top of them should be printed in large black letters: "Extra hazardous." These cesspools are built in two ways. One kind is made tight like a cistern, so as to hold all that come into it, and is then emptied, each year or oftener, by an odorless excavator or some other form of pail or apparatus. This means a good deal to empty, where a watercloset system in houses is in use; yet if a cesspool must be had, this is safest and best But the usual eesspool is made to leak off the liquid matter into the ground, since thus they do aot fill so fast. If the ground is porous, if ita trend or lower strata incline away fram buildings, and if now and then the cesspool is cleansed, such an arrangement often lasts without harm for a long time; but, unfortunately, we are not always able to calcúlate the risks. Filth lodged m little streamlets several f eet below the surface does not quickly loose its foulness;the power of ordinary undrained ground to purify filth is generally overestimated. After a time it will lose its capaéity of change and the ground becomes fllth-sodden, without any evidence thereof upon the surfaee. We have recently had an instance of 30 cases of entenc lever in a wen-Kept rnstitution of 300 inmates, where two large privies and a large cesspool and water-closet system were within a radius of 130 feet. For over seven years there had been no emptying. The theory was that all soakage ran away f rom the building, and, inasmuch as most of the liquid drained off, there was no need of cleansing; but, nevertheless, the soil, became tainted. A hot cellar furnace deep in the ground served as a warmer for the soaked ground as well ás for the sightly buildings. Large hotels, colleges, or close villages cannet afford to have such death-traps. The latest news from the cornet is that the earth will simply be touched with its tail, instead of being all mussed up by a genuino collision. Now if the astronomers will indicate just the locality that will be brushed over by this eaudle appendage in time for people to piek up their traps and move they will conf er an additional favor. If we might be allowed to make a suggestion, Missouri would be a good place, and it would afford the inhabitants of the cornet an idea of civilization if a party of train robbers would get aboard and apply to the passenger for their -'tickeis" and spare change. The circulating medium of Missouri has been increased a quarter of a million dollars or more by the enterprise of the citizens of that State within the past two years, and its capital might be materially increased by a raid on the cornet; although we hope they will Dot be so ill-mannered as to shoot the conductor. On leaving Mentone, Queen Victoria presented to the poor of that place 3,000 francs, and to charitable institutions, 1,500 francs ; whüe as personal mementos of her visit she gave to the Mayor a set of diamond studs, to the English consul portrans of herself and the Princess Beatress, to the consul'a son a diamond pin, to the postmaster a diamond ring, to the depot-master a gold chain, to his assistant a gold pencil-case and pin, and to the chief of pólice a gold ring