another important matter. As gas-fittings are not always perfectly tight, a very slight escape of coal gas from them into the rooms frequently takes place. Where that is the case it produces a very peculiar smell, which nobody would ever suppose was from coal gas. It would generally be supposed to be from drain-air, and it is a smell which is exceedingly difficult to recognise, unless people know what it is. But it is an important matter, and you should always be on your guard against it. Whenever there is any doubt about where a smell comes from in a room, smell the gas burners and the chandeliers. That is the only way to detect it; it is no use applying a light to it, because it mixes with the air much too rapidly to cause combustion or explosion. But you can always smell slight escapes of gas, and where there is such an escape, it is a very serious matter; because coal gas contains one of the most poisonous of substances, carbonic oxide, which affects the corpuscles of the blood, and the presence of a very small amount of that carbonic oxide in the atmosphere of a room is exceedingly deleterious. It is chiefly due to the presence of this substance in coal gas that people have headache, when they live in rooms where there is a slight escape of coal gas. Foul air from drains not unfrequently passes into the larders in houses through pipes, which are sometimes directly in connection with the street sewer. I know one instance in which there was a bell-trap not connected with the house-drain, but with a separate one going straight into the street sewer. When that trap was examined, it was found to be as dry as this one in my hand is now, and I venture to say that it had been dry for a year. There had been scarlet fever and diphtheria in that house, and I have no doubt that was caused by the foul air getting into the larder from the street sewer, and so of course contaminating the food in the larder. I remember in particular one instance, which I have mentioned several times before, but which, perhaps, I may mention again now, in which there was a bad smell in the larder, and nobody could suggest how it came there, until it was found that the soil-pipe of a closet upstairs came down inside the wall of the larder. On examining it there, it was found that a nail had been driven into the soilpipe, and the dish-cloths and larder-cloths were hanging upon it. There are many other instances of a similar kind, which I might give you. I remember one case in which a water-closet opened directly out of the larder; in fact it formed part of the larder when the door was opened. Of course what I have said of larders applies equally to dairies. It is a very common thing to find sanitary defects in dairies, and in that way the milk gets poisoned and produces diseases, which we know now are caused by the poisonous matters which contaminate the milk, in consequence of those defects. Another thing which is exceedingly dangerous is the disuse of such arrangements as I have mentioned; any sanitary apparatus that is not used is dangerous. I do not care what it is. The traps become dry; the outer air comes in either through dirty pipes or badly made, carelessly placed, or defective apparatus, and you frequently find cases of diseases being caused by foul air coming into houses, simply on account of such pipes and apparatus being disused. I will mention to you one instance of that which occurred in a school, where there was an epidemic of sore-throats. I should tell you that the school-house consisted of two houses, which had been thrown into one large house for the purpose of carrying on the school. Everything had been done that had been advised, and it was supposed that the sanitary arrangements were perfect. But in one of the houses there was a sink, which was never wanted, with a bell-trap and pipe leading down underneath the floor. It had been thought that might be left alone, and that there was no need to do anything with it. The result was that from disuse, foul air came from it, and in fact the current of air that was coming in through the waste pipe of that sink, and through another bell-trap in the floor just under it, would, to use a common expression, have "turned a windmill," and it had as foul a smell as any drain air possibly could have. Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am afraid I have very imperfectly performed my task, but I have endeavoured to do my best, and I have now finished it. I will only add that here is a specimen you might like to see. I have re ferred to the fact that rats sometimes eat holes in lead pipes, and this is an instance of a lead waste-pipe, through which a rat has eaten a hole large enough to enable him to get into the pipe. A vote of thanks was passed to the Lecturer. |