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THE OUTLINE OF A SANITARY CODE.

rivers, especially at their deltas and mouths; the drainage of low lands, marshes, and swamps in the vicinity of towns and navigable rivers, and the removal of all impediments, whether natural or artificial, to the course of streams, are duties imperative on all communities.

Where, in obedience to general and inevitable laws for the welfare of society, man is compelled to inhabit unhealthy districts and small areas of local poison,—and where all possible means have been adopted for the removal of natural defects; certain palliative measures, to be described hereafter, should be brought into full action.

§ 2. Construction of Buildings.-The construction of houses and the choice of dwelling-places, whether in towns or villages, cannot be safely left either to mere caprice or to the commercial theory of supply and demand.

It has been truly said that, in crowded districts, where the lower orders are neglected and life is cheaply estimated, if tubs were ticketed "to be let," they would soon be tenanted by the most wretched.

Legal interference is therefore necessary on the following points:

(a) The occupation of such cottages, huts, cellars, or parts of houses, as are ruinous or otherwise unsafe to the inmates or neighbours, or as are incompatible with habits of common decency, should be absolutely prohibited.

With reference to the external form and position of dwellinghouses:

(b) Builders should be required to take precautions against exhalations of the soil, by providing for the removal of its natural moisture and for the circulation of air through the foundations of the structure built upon it.

(c) The height of houses should be limited with relation to the width of the thoroughfares which they face.

(d) On no pretext whatever should houses be permitted to join on more than two of their sides.

BUILDING REGULATIONS.

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(e) Regulations are necessary with regard to the materials of which houses are built; such only being permitted, in towns especially, as are not easily destructible, or hazardous to the inmates or neighbours.

With reference to the internal arrangements of buildings:

(f) The law should prescribe a certain thickness of walls, according to their height, material, and contiguity with other property; a hard and level surface of cottage ground-floors, and their thorough under-drainage; a safe construction of fire-places, chimneys, and flues; a minimum of cubic space proportioned to the number of families or persons to be accommodated, and a minimum of height for dwelling-rooms.

(g) Plans for securing good ventilation, water supply, closet accommodation, and drainage should also be enforced in the erection of all new houses.

(h) The regulations named under heads ƒ and g, are specially necessary in the case of cellars, or underground dwellings; which, indeed, should be prohibited in ground not at present built upon; and which should be permitted in existing towns and buildings, only on condition that a surrounding area of proper dimensions should be sunk below the under-ground floor.

As regards streets and open places :-(i) a minimum width should be invariably required for all new streets, together with a minimum extent of open space within blocks of houses, proportioned to the number, size, and height of the buildings enclosing it.

(k) The law should facilitate the opening of thoroughfares through closed courts and alleys; the clearing away of buildings in ill-contrived, neglected, and filthy neighbourhoods; and the removal of all impediments to street-ventilation.

(1) Open spots in or near to towns should be preserved free from the intrusion of building speculators, and should be set apart for the growth of vegetation, and as spaces for exercise.

(m) In all old towns, provisions should be made for distributing the population more widely.

(n) Special regulations, varying according to the nature and

C

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THE OUTLINE OF A SANITARY CODE.

objects of each establishment, require to be enforced in the construction of all buildings intended to be inhabited by communities, whether for the gain of a proprietor or for objects of public utility.

Careful structural arrangements are especially demanded in lodging-houses, whether for vagrants and poor travellers, or for bodies of resident artisans; in asylums, almshouses, workhouses, prisons, and schools.

§3. Purification of Buildings and Towns.-The chief features of a permanent and legalized system of local purification are as follows:

(a) Removal of Nuisances.-The law should interfere to secure the speedy removal, from towns and houses, of all animal and vegetable refuse-all that we understand by the expressive term "nuisances."

It may be often important to decide whether a particular matter of complaint be really a "nuisance." For this decision, in doubtful cases, official medical inspection and certificate are necessary; but in ordinary cases, the information of intelligent surveyors or policemen would suffice.

In removing nuisances, and in abolishing or clearing out ancient receptacles of animal remains, or any kind of refuse, the law should enforce provisions for safety, by regulating the times and modes of conducting such operations, and the scientific application of deodorizers and disinfectants.

Some specific "nuisances" would come under the head of insalubrious occupations.*

The powers vested in local authorities, with respect to removal of nuisances, should be ample, and their execution prompt. The cost should be speedily recoverable from either the occupier or the owner of the premises on which the nuisance exists; but where this proceeding would be oppressive, the charge should be made on the public fund of the place or district.

(b) Water-supply.-Provision should be made for a constant See p. 25, II. A. 7, ƒ.

MEASURES OF PURIFICATION.

19

supply of fresh and pure water, to be derived from the least objectionable source in the neighbourhood,—careful scientific analysis being required in all cases before the selection of a

source.

When their purity can be scrupulously preserved, rivers will generally be found the best sources of water-supply.*

The current of water through aqueducts and service-pipes, should be always flowing at a pressure sufficiently high to raise it above the tops of the houses to be supplied.

The house-supply of water should not be permitted to be retained in cisterns, nor to run to waste so as to sop and drench the soil by a worse than useless profusion.

The town-supply should also be sufficient for other public purposes, as the cleansing of pavements, the extinction of fires, and the demands of industrial enterprize.

(c) Drainage and Sewerage.—A well-ordered system of houseclosets and sinks should be instituted for connecting the purewater house-pipes with the foul-water house-drains; in analogy with the structure of the human body, where the capillaries connect the arteries with the veins.†

The main sewerage of towns, in connexion with the drainage of houses, should be planned and conducted by skilful and experienced civil engineers, on the principle of combining strength and impermeability of structure with a scientific adaptation of the capacity, shape, and fall of drains and sewers to the volume of fluid, which they are intended to convey, in a rapid and equable current.

The law should enforce such a prolongation of main sewers, as

* The English Board of Health has, however, adduced excellent reasons for "gathering grounds" in proper soils, of sufficient extent for the formation of reservoirs large enough to hold the required amount of water.

+ In some communities, especially on the continent, there exist different plans and regulations for accomplishing the objects of town and house drainage. I have been struck with the advantage of some arrangements of this kind, including the application of town refuse to agricultural purposes, which exist in a few of the larger towns of Belgium. I have, however, recommended in the text that system only, which, in this country, has met with most approval.

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THE OUTLINE OF A SANITARY CODE.

would carry their contents to depôts at a safe distance from human habitations, without contaminating rivers and watercourses. No system of town purification should be sanctioned by law, which does not admit of the products of sewerage being ultimately applied to agriculture.

(d) Pavements.-Uniform regulations for securing the smooth and hard pavement of all foot-ways and alleys, and for maintaining an even and durable surface in all carriage-ways and streets, are indispensable to an efficient system of town-cleansing.

All surface water should be directed into subterranean channels large enough to carry off the most copious and sudden rain-falls. These channels, wherever possible, should be carefully separated from the system of drains connected with the houses.

(e) Smoke Nuisance.-Defilement of the atmosphere by smoke should be prevented in towns where coal is the staple fuel. Such prohibition should at once apply to all public, commercial, and industrial establishments;* and scientific invention may soon justify legal interference with regard to the products of coal consumption, even in private houses.

Many of the public improvements and sanitary arrangements, mentioned in the preceding sections, are of a permanent character, and require for their completion a large outlay of capital.

When the beneficial effects of any such improvements are not confined to the owners of the property improved, the cost should be borne by national or public funds. And where the benefits of such improvements are strictly local, the cost should be distributed over many years.

For the most durable and expensive works of this classaqueducts and water-works especially+-a century is probably not too long a period to be allowed to proprietors of land and inhabitants of towns, for the ultimate repayment of the original

*This subject will again be mentioned under the head of "occupations." The term of thirty years, allowed by the English Public Health Act, is by no means sufficient. It has doubtless tended greatly to impede the execution of the

law.

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