(^mm cu.e. |A :z>^Q- CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ENGINEERING RA 77i.03°4"*"""'™™"y Library Rural hygiene, 3 1924 003 935 172 DATE : DUE WwITT^ "*196'^ nPT 3 i 1979 Ubl CAYLORD PniNTED IN U S A Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003935172 Ube IRural Science Series Edited by L. H. BAILEY RURAL HYGIENE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON ■ BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO RURAL HYGIENE .BY HENRY N. OGDEN, C.E. PEOFESSOB OF SANITARY ENGINEEEING IN COLLEGE OP CIVIL ENGINEERINO, CORNELL UNIVERSITY SPECIAL ASSISTANT ENGINEER, NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OP HEALTH TStia garfe THE MACMILLAK COMPANY 1913 All rights reserved A 1 ro -J ^ Copyright, 1011, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published January, igii. Reprinted September, T913. (/ J. S. Gushing- Co. — Berwick &, Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. PREFACE The following pages represent an attempt to put before the rural population a systematic treatment of those special subjects included in what is popularly known as Hygiene as well as those broader subjects that concern the general health of the community at large. Usually the term " hygiene " has been limited in its application to a study of the health of the individual, and treatises on hygiene have concerned themselves almost entirely with discussing such topics as food, clothing, exer- cise, and other questions relating to the daily life of a person. Of late years, however, it has become more and more evident that it is not possible for man to live to himself alone, but that his actions must react on those living in his vicinity and that the methods of living of his neighbors must react on his own well-being. This inter- dependence of individuals being once appreciated, it follows that a book on hygiene must deal, not only with the ques- tion of individual living, but also with those broader ques- tions having to do with the cause and spread of disease, with the transmission of bacteria from one community to another, and with those natural influences which, more or less under the control of man, may affect a large area if their natural destructive tendencies are allowed to develop. Being written by an engineer, the following pages deal rather with the structural side of public hygiene than with vi Preface the medical side, and in the chapters dealing with contar gious diseases emphasis is attached to quarantine, disinfec- tion, and prevention, rather than to etiology and treatment. The book is not, therefore, a medical treatise in any sense, and is not intended to eliminate the physician or to give professional advice, although the suggestions, if followed out, undoubtedly will have the effect of lessening the need of a physician, since the contagious diseases referred to may then be confined to single individuals or to single houses. It has not been possible, within the limits of this one book, to describe at length the various engineering methods, and while it is hoped that enough has been said to point the way towards a proper selection of methods and to a right choice between processes, the details of construction will have to be worked out in all cases, either by the inge- nuity of the householder or by the aid of some mechanic or engineer. Finally, it may be said that two distinct purposes have been in mind throughout, — to promote the comfort and convenience of those living in the rural part of the com- munity who, unfortunately, while most happily situated from the standpoint of health in many ways, have failed to give themselves those comforts that might so easily be added to their life ; and in the second place, to emphasize the interdependence of the rural community and the urban community in the matter of food products and contagious diseases, an interdependence growing daily as interurban communications by trolley and automobile become easy. Cities are learning to protect themselves against the selfishness of the individual, and city Boards of Health have large powers for the purpose of guarding the health Preface vii of the individuals within their boundaries. The scattered populations of the open country are not yet educated to the point ^t which self-protection has made such authority seem to be necessary, and it is left largely to an exalted sense of duty towards their fellow-men so to move members of a rural community as to order their lives and ways to avoid sinning against public hygiene. In order to develop such a sense of honor, it is primarily necessary that the relation of cause and effect in matters of health shall be plainly understood and that the dangers to others of the neglect of preventive measures be appreciated. As a single example, the transmission of disease at school may be cited. Measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, and diphtheria are all children's diseases, easily carried and transmitted, and held in check only by preventing a sick child from coming in contact with children not sick. No law is sufB.cient. The matter must be left to the mother, who will retain children at home at the least suspicion of sickness and keep them there until after all traces of the disease have passed away. The health conditions in the open country, judged by the standard of statistics, are quite as good as those of the city. The comforts of country life are as yet inferior, and it is hoped that this book may do something to advance the standard of living in the families into which it may enter. H. N. OGDEN. Ithaca, New York, November 1, 1910. CONTENTS CHAPTER I Vital Statistics or Rural Life PAGES Death-rate. Ideal death-rates. Death-rates in New York State. Accuracy of records. Effect of children. Death-rates of children. Small cities. Tuberculosis. Diphtheria. Influ- enza. Pneumonia. Old age 1-24 CHAPTER II Location of a House — Soil and SuRRonNDiNGS Damp soils. Location of house. Objections to trees. Space between houses. Composition of soils. Cancer and soil conditions. Topography. Effects of cultivation. Made ground. Water in soil. Drainage. Ground water . 25-48 CHAPTER III Construction of Houses and Barns with Eefeeence to Healthfulness Shutting out soil air. Position of outfall for drains. Dampness of cellar walls. Use of tar or asphalt. Dry masonry for cellar walls. Damp courses. The cellar floor. Cellar ven- tilation. The old-fashioned privy. Cow stables. Use of concrete 49-67 CHAPTER IV X Contents PAGES Organic matter in air. Fresh-air inlet. Position of inlet. Foul-air outlet. Size of openings. Ventilation of stables. Cost of ventilation. Relation of heating to ventilation 68-89 CHAPTER V QUANTITT OF WaTEB KEQUIRBD FOR DOMESTIC USE Modern tendencies. Quantity of water needed per person. Quantity used in stables. Maximum rate of consumption. Variation in maximum rate. Fire stream requirements. Eain-water supply. Computation for rain-water storage. Computation for storage reservoir on brook. Deficiency from well supplies . 90-107 CHAPTER VI Sources of Water-supply Underground waters. Ordinary dug well. Construction of dug wells. Deep wells. Springs. Extensions of springs. Sup- ply from broolfs. Storage reservoirs. Ponds or lakes. Pressure or head 108-130 CHAPTER VII Quality of Water Mineral matter. Loss of soap. Vegetable pollution. Animal pollution. Well water. Danger of polluted water . 131-152 CHAPTER VIII Water-works Construction Methods of collection. Spring reservoirs. Stream supplies. Dams. Waste weirs. Gate house. Pipe lines. Pump- ing. Windmills. Hydraulic rams. Hot-air engines. Gas engines. Steam pumps. Air lifts. Tanks. Pressure tanks 158-188 Contents xi CHAPTER IX Plumbing PAGES Installation. Supply tank. Main supply pipe. Hot-water cir- culation. Kitchen sinks. Laundry tubs. Hot-water boiler. Water-back, wash-basin, bath-tub. Cost of plumbing in- stallation. House drainage. Trap-vents. Water-closets 189-207 CHAPTER X Sewage Disposal Definition of sewage. Stream pollution. Treatment of sewage on land. Surface application. Artificial sewage beds. Sub- surface tile disposal. Automatic syphon. Sedimentation. Underdrains ... 208-232 CHAPTER XI Preparation and Care of Milk and Meat Bacteria in milk. Effects of bacteria. Diseases caused by milk. Methods of obtaining clean milk. City milk. Dangers of diseased meat. The slaughter-house .... 233-256 CHAPTER XII Foods and Beverages The human mechanism. Digestive processes. Teachings of the digestive operations. Balanced rations. Human appetite. Effect of individual habits. Cooking. Muscular and psychic reactions. Consumption of water. Condiments and drinks. Tobacco. The drug habit 257-277 CHAPTER XIII Personal Hygiene Exercise. Clothing. Bathing. Mouth breathing. Eyes. Teeth. Sleep 278-294 xii Contents CHAPTER XIV Theories of Disease Effects of dirt. Blood resistance. Cell disintegration. Heredity. Age and sex. Occupation. Direct cause of disease. Para- sites. Bacterial agencies. Antitoxins. Natural immunity. Chemical poisons. External causes .... 295-313 CHAPTER XV Disinfection Disinfecting agents. Antiseptics. Deodorizers. Patented dis- infectants. Disinfecting gases. Sulfur. Pormaldehyde. Liquid disinfectants. Carbolic acid. Coal-tar products. Mercury. Lime. Soap. Heat. Dry heat. Boiling water. Steam. Drying, light, and soil ..... 314-331 CHAPTER XVI TuBEECULOSIS AND PNEUMONIA Tuheroulosis. Individual resistance. Precautions by the con- sumptive. Cure of consumption. Pneumonia — the germ. Weather not the cause of pneumonia. Preventives in pneu- monia. Infection of pneumonia 382-348 CHAPTER XVII Typhoid Pever Cause of the disease. The bacillus. Methods of transmission of typhoid. Construction of wells in reference to typhoid. Milk infection by typhoid. Infection by flies. Other sources of typhoid fever. Treatment of typhoid fever . . 349-363 CHAPTER XVIII Children's Diseases After effects. Preliminary symptoms. Contagiousness. Quar- antine for scarlet fever. Measles. Characteristic eruption Contents xiii PAGES of measles. Whooping cough. Precautions against spread of whooping cough. Chicken pox .... 364-376 CHAPTER XIX Parasitica^, Diseases Malaria. Mosquitoes and malaria. Elimination of mosquitoes. Limitation of mosquito infection. Yellow fever. Charac- teristics of the disease. Hookworm disease. Pellagra. Bu- bonic plague 377-395 CHAPTER XX Diseases controlled by Antitoxins Smallpox. Value of vaccination. Characteristics of smallpox. Treatment of smallpox. Diphtheria. Cause of the disease. Production of diphtheria antitoxin. Symptoms of diphtheria. Rabies. Tetanus 396-409 CHAPTER XXI Hygiene and Law .Principle of laws of hygiene. Self-interest, the real basis of law. Quality of water. Regulations governing foods. Basis of pure food laws. Protection of milk. Laws governing quar- antine 410-425 LIST OF FIGURES FIG. PAGE 1. Map of New York State 5 2. Bad conditions about a dwelling . . . . . . 28 3. Grading that turns water away from tlie house ... 42 4. Modes of laying out drains 46 5. Exterior waU-drains 50 6. Interior cellar-drains 51 7. Wall modes of making air-space 53 8. Water-tight wall ... 54 9. Rough-backed wall 56 10. Even-backed wall 56 11. Modes of making water-proof cellar walls . . . . 57 12. Water-proofing of cellar walls 58 13. Cellar-wall forms . . 65 14. Letting in fresh air 78 15. Ventilating device . . 79 16. Ventilating device . 80 17. Ventilation by means of coal stove 82 18. Coal-stove ventilation 83 19. Coal-stove ventilation 84 20. Outlets into walls 86 21. Cow-barn ventilation 88 22. How a pump works 105 23. Air-lift pump 106 24. Diagram of a spring . 109 25. Water finding its way from a hillside 110 26. The sinking of wells 110 27. Mode of sinking a well 114 28. A well that will catch surface water 115 29. A well properly protected 116 2V XVI List of Figures 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 3C. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64, 65. A properly protected well Well-drilling apparatus . Sinking a well by means of a water-jet An enclosed spring A spring extension A reservoir for home use Stream draining a privy Contamination of a creamery from the water A protected spring-chamber . Concrete core in a dam . Section of a flood dam . Section of a flood dam A joint in tile pipe Windmill and water tank Installation of a ram Means of securing fall for hydraulic ram A hot-air engine .... A gas engine . Pump operated by belt . Duplex pump operated directly by steam Raising water by means of compressed air Wooden tank ..... Iron tank Hand pump applied to air-tank Engine applied to air-tank . Windmill connection with tank Construction of a wooden tank Hot-water attachment to the kitchen stove Enameled iron sink Enameled iron laundry tubs Leveling the drain Water-supply installation A trap .... Washout water-closet . Washdown water-closet Syphonic closet Syphon-jet closet . supply List of Figures xvu 67. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. Sewage beds .... Plan of sewage beds Plan of subsurface irrigation field Section of "Miller" syphon . Plan and section of a septic tank Section of a septic tank with syphon chamber Plan of sewage disposal for a single house School girl with adenoids Outdoor sleeping porch for tuberculous patients Mortality from pulmonary tuberculosis . Spring infected by polluted ditch . PAGE 217 220 224 226 227 229 231 289 343 344 356 RURAL HYGIEI^E CHAPTER I VITAL- STATISTICS OF RURAL LIFE It is commonly supposed that good health is the invari- able accompaniment of country life; that children who are brought up in the country are always rosy-cheeked, chubby, and, except for occasional colds, free from disease ; that adults, both men and women, are strong to labor, like the oxen of the Psalmist, and that grandfathers and grandmothers are so common and so able-bodied that in practically every farmhouse the daily chores are assigned to these aged exponents of strong constitutions and healthy hves. If, however, we are honest in our observations, or have hved on a farm in our younger days, or have kept our eyes open when visiting in the country, we will remember, one by one, certain facts which will persistently suggest that, after all, life on the farm may not be such a spring of health as we have been led to believe. We will remember the frequency of funerals, especially in the winter, and the few families in which all the children have reached maturity. We will remember the worn-out bodies of men and women, bent and aged while yet in middle hfe. B 1 2 Rural Hygiene It is worth while, then, at the beginning, to find out, if we can, just what are the conditions of health in rural communities, in order to justify any book dealing with rural hygiene ; for it is plain that if health conditions are already perfect, or nearly so, no book dealing with im- proved methods of living is needed, and the wisdom of the grandparents may be depended on to continue such methods into the next generation. Death-rate. The usual method of measuring the health conditions of any community, such as a city, town, county, state, or country, is to compute the general death-rate, as it is called; that is, the number of deaths occurring per 1000 population. For example, in 1908, with its estimated population of 8,546,356, there occurred in New York State 138,441 deaths, or 16.2 deaths for every 1000 population. Sixteen and two-tenths is, then, the general death-rate for the state for that year. This method of determining the health of a community is crude and should pot be too strictly relied upon for proving the healthfulness imphed. The rate is at best only an average, and takes no account of anything but death, one death being a greater calamity, apparently, than a dozen persons incapacitated from dis- ease. Then, too, this death-rate is greatly affected by pecuUarities of the community in age, sex, nationahty, and occupation, and by local conditions of chmate, alti- tude, and soil. The effect of these local conditions can best be explained after a consideration of the general death- rate and its definite values in different places. In the United States, as a whole, or, more exactly, in that part of the United States which keeps such records of Death-rates of Different Countries 3 deaths as to be reliable (about one half), the annual average death-rate for the five-year period 1901-1905 was 16.3, and this may be compared with the death-rate in other countries shown in the following table for the same period: — Table I . Death-hate Australia 11.7 Austria . 24.2 Belgium 17.0 Denmark 14.8 England . 16.0 France . 19.6 Germany 19.9 Italy . . 21.9 Japan 20.9 Netherlands .... 16.0 New York State . . . 17.1 Norway 14.5 Spain 26.1 Sweden 15.5 United States .... 16.3 Ideal death-rates. There are special reasons why the Austrahan death- rate should be low, but, neglecting this one country entirely, it will be seen that Norway, Denmark, and Sweden have rates of 14.5, 14.8, and 15.5, respectively; rates which may be considered as good as any country can attain at the present time. But the United States, as a whole, has about one more death per 1000 than these countries, and New York State two more per 1000 population. This means that in New York State there are 16,000 more deaths each year than if the population were Uving in Sweden under Swedish conditions and laws. Or, expressed in another way, it means that in Sweden one out of every sixty-five persons dies each year, and in New York one out of every fifty-eight persons. The rate in New York State is high because the state 4 Rural Hygiene contains a' large number of cities, and concentration of population generally implies all kinds of bad and unsani- tary conditions. As a rule, a higher death-rate may be expected in a densely populated community than m a sparsely settled one, and we should therefore expect a rural community to show a lower death-rate than a city or urban community. It is not a fair estimate of the health of any rural locality, such as a county where no large cities exist, to compare its death-rate with the aver- age of the state, or with the average rate of some other county which contains a large city. This fact is plainly brought out by the statistics in Table II, from the several sanitary districts into which the state of New York is divided, as shown on the map. Fig. 1 : — Table II. Showing Varying Death-rates Parts of New York State IN Different Death Rate in Sanitabt Districts 1901-5 1906 1907 New York State Maritime Hudson Valley .... Mohawk Valley .... West Central . . Lake Ontario and Western . East Central . . Southern Tier . . . Adirondack and Northern . 17.1 19.0 17.2 15.5 15.0 14.9 14.9 14.4 13.9 17.1 18.2 17.0 16.3 15.6 15.5 15.4 14.7 15.1 17.5 18.4 18.2 16.6 16.6 15.9 15.9 15.6 15.3 Death-rates in New York State 5 Death-rates in New York State. The Maritime District includes the four counties of New York City and comprises about half the population <^'^ oX ^^-.-^ / T K \ i - t- ■ 1 ( -a r \. J , - ui- ) 2 Ct . Lj - ar t- •^ \ - o «5 a fR O K £> 5 <° S I- CO ^ UJ 6 Rural Hygiene of the state. Its population is almost entirely quartered under distinctly urban conditions, in some parts with a congestion not equaled in any other city of the country. It would naturally, therefore, have a high death-rate, and that it is no higher than it is makes it a matter for con- gratulation. And yet the rate in New York City is higher than in the other principal large cities of the world. For example, the rates for the five-year period 1900-1904 in Berhn averaged 18.3, in Paris 18.2, and in London 16.9, New York being 19.4 for the corresponding period. The excess in New York is due in part to local conditions and in part to a less active oversight in matters of pubHc health. Similarly, the Hudson Valley District, which embraces the large cities along the Hudson, has a higher death-rate than the state average, whereas the other six districts have low rates, chiefly because of the large pro- portion of agricultural land and small towns. The last district should be noted particularly, since its rate is remarkably low and its number of cities very small, com- pared with the area included. The conclusion may be properly drawn, therefore, that statistics confirm the general impression that hfe in the country is healthier than life in the city. Accuracy of death-rate records. One factor must be considered, however, since it plays an important part in drawing conclusions from these kinds of statistics, and that is, the accuracy of the records. In a city in which every one must be buried in a public cemetery, and when the physician, the undertaker, and the sexton all have to keep records which must agree, it is not easy for any burial to occur without the fact being Accuracy of Death-rate records 7 recorded and later registered in the Census Office at Wasfi- ington. But in the country, a person may be killed by accident, for example, and buried in a private lot without the undertaker recording it at all. The result is that the total number of deaths seems fewer and the death-rate seems smaller than the facts warrant, so that a false idea of the healthfulness of the community obtains. That errors of this sort have existed in the past can be seen by examining the death-rates for New York City and those for regions outside that city for the past ten years : — Table III. Death-rates in New York City and Elsewhere m New York State, 1898-1908 New York Outside Difference 1898 20.4 14.5 5.9 1899. 19.6 14.9 4.7 1900. 20.6 15.0 5.6 1901. 19.9 15.1 4.8 1902. 18.6 14.1 4.5 1903. 17.9 15.2 2.7 1904. 18.5 17.3 1.2 1905. 18.3 15.8 2.5 1906. 18.4 15.7 2.7 1907. 18.5 16.4 2.1 1908. 16.8 15.5 1.3 The decrease in the city rate is to be expected, since with greater knowledge of sanitary matters, more pre- cautions against disease would naturally be taken. But it is not hkely that the country is becoming more careless, 8 Rural Hygiene although the tendency to concentrate population even in rural hamlets may have an effect. It is rather more likely that the reports are made more carefully and that the records are more complete now than formerly. The apparent increase in the number of deaths in rural com- munities is, therefore, due to greater attention in report- ing deaths rather than to any real increase in the number. If the difference between the rural cominunity death-rate and the rate in all the cities of more than 8000 population in New York State be shown, the difference between the city rate and the country rate is even less than that shown in the table, being only 0.7 deaths in 1000 for 1908. This shows that the boasted superiority of the country ov6r cities is not very great; that it is marked only in the case of a very large city hke New York; that, as the size of the city decreases, the difference disappears, and that the country rate in the United States is high when com- pared with the general rate of other countries like Den- mark or even England, where the general rate includes the large cities. Effect of children on death-rate. An interesting sidehght on the apparent tendency of the country to have an increasing death-rate, year by year, is shown by the meager figures which are available on the subject of the number of small children in the different towns. The Chief Clerk in the Census Office, Mr. William S. Rossi ter, has investigated the proportion of children in two rural counties of New York State, Otsego and Putnam, and has discovered the startling fact that while the population in those counties has hardly Death-rates of Children 9 changed since 1860, the proportion of young children has decreased almost one third in the forty years ending with 1900, as shown by the following table : — Table IV. Table showing Pekcentage of Children in Otsego and Putnam Counties, 1860-1900 1900 I860 CotTNTT Total White Population Under 10 Years Per Cent Total White Population Under 10 Years Per Cent Otsego Putnam 48,793 13,669 62,462 7,121 2,332 - 14.5 16.9 49,950 13,819 10,988 3,333 14,321 22.0 24.1 Total 9,453 15.0 63,769 22.5 This shows that while in 1860, when the total popula- tion was about 64,000, the number of children was about 14,000 or 22.5 per cent, in 1900, when the total population was 62,462 or nearly the same, the number of children was only 9453, or a reduction in numbers of nearly 5000 children. In many of the small cities of New York State, the fact that there is a constantly decreasing number of children in the community is well recognized, the greater proportion of the population being past middle life. The death-rate, therefore, is lower, from this very fact. Death-rates of children. That the general death-rate is directly affected by the number of children Hving in a community is shown by the following table : — 10 Rural Hygiene Table V. Showing Deaths from all Causes in the United States for the Years 1901-1905, at Various Age Periods No. AT Each Age Peh Cent of Total Population Aggregate . . Under 1 year. Under 5 years 5-9 years . . 10-19 years . 20-29 years . 30-39 years . 40^9 years . 50-59 years . 60-69 years . 70-79 years . 80-89 years . 90 and over . 529,630 100,268 143,684 13,679 23,234 46,685 49,501 48,811 51,787 59,856 56,544 29,408 6,441 18.93 27.13 2.58 4.38 8.81 9.34 9.21 9.77 11.31 10.68 5.55 1.21 This table shows two things: first, that children have a hard time reaching five years, as nearly one third of all the children born in any year die under five years, and second, that from five to twenty years is the healthiest — that is, safest — time of a person's life, since after twenty the constitutional diseases make themselves felt so that death becomes almost uniformly distributed from twenty to eighty. It is plain, then, that in any community a change in the relative proportion of children born in any year would change the death-rate, since with a smaller number of infants there could not be so many to die. No statistics are available to determine the number of small children in the country as compared with that in the city, but it is probable that they are in excess in the Death-Rate of Country Children 1} latter, since the highest birth-rates are found in the con- gested districts of cities where foreigners congregate. If this is so, it will account for and justify a higher rate of death in the city because of the larger number of chil- dren, as has been explained above, and the lower rate in the country may be due, not to better sanitary surround- ings, but solely to fewer children. According to statistics, the death-rate of children is almost 50 per cent higher in cities than in rural districts, and it is a general impression that most deaths in the country are from old age. Enghsh statistics show, how- ever, and those of the United States would probably show the same thing, that while a baby born in the city is more hkely to die before its first birthday than a baby born in the country, they have equal chances to finish a month of life and that the city child has better chances to live out the first week. The advantages of the country, therefore, do not begin to operate until after the first month of the baby's life, and there is a decidedly greater chance of the child's living in the city the first week on account, probably, of better and quicker medical attendance. Typhoid fever and the death-rate. Turning now to special diseases and comparing the number of deaths caused by special diseases in the country and in the city, it is to be noted, first of all, that a greater difference exists in the case of certain special diseases in the country and in the city than was found in the general death-rate. In the case of typhoid fever, basing the com- parison on the statistics of the Census Office of the United States, we find, first, that, at present, the difference in the death-rates from typhoid fever in cities and in rural dis- 12 Rural Hygiene tricts is very small. It is also to be seen (from the follow- ing table) that in both city and in rural districts, the rate is steadily decreasing, although in neither has the rate yet fallen to what would, in other countries, be considered a reasonable and proper death-rate. The first line of the table is the actual death-rate from typhoid fever per 100,000 population, based on the total population resident in all the United States where vital statistics are kept; the second hne gives the same data for cities not included in registration states j^ the third line is based on figures for cities in registration states;^ and the fourth line is based on the statistics for rural districts and villages of less than 8000 population: — Table VI. Showing Death-rates per 100,000 Population PROM Typhoid Fever in Places Indicated Yeab 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 The registration. area .... 35.9 32.4 34.5 34.4 32.0 28.1 32.1 30.3 25.3 Registration cities .... 36.5 33.9 37.5 38.2 35.2 30.1 34.2 32.9 25.8 Cities in registra- tion states . . 28.5 26.5 25.9 24.6 24.0 22.0 34.2 31.7 24.5 Rural part of registration states . . . 34.6 28.8 27.0 24.7 23.8 23.0 28.6 26.0 24.3 This table shows that, taking the United States as a whole, the typhoid-rate in rural districts is generally less 1 States in whioli full credit is given by U. S. Census Of&ce for Vital Statistics collected from all parts of the state. Typhoid Fever in Country 13 than in cities and that in cities the rate is excessively high. When it is remembered that by filtration of pubhc water-supplies the typhoid-rate may be brought down to about 15 per 100,000, and that cities with pure water- supplies will not exceed that rate, it is plain how serious is the danger from typhoid in such cities as Cohoes or Oswego. The following table from statistics taken in New York State shows the same conditions as Table VI. — Table VII. Showing Death-rates prom Typhoid Fever per 100,000 Population in New York State as Indicated Yeah 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 Cities average . 25.4 23.9 23.4 22.6 21.6 19.1 19.0 20.7 20.1 Rural districts . 32.0 27.3 23.4 22.1 21.8 21.8 20.2 19.3 20.8 Average of city population . . — 38.9 33.9 43.0 40.3 32.2 30.5 32.1 32.4 Average of rural population . . — 20.3 24.1 23.2 21.3 22.3 21.3 19.9 20.8 The first hne is the death-rate in cities, found by taking the ratio of all the deaths from typhoid in cities to the population in those cities, and the second line is a similar ratio for rural districts. If the actual rates of the several cities be averaged, a method which has the effect of giving the rate found for a city of 10,000 equal value in the average with one of 1,000,000, the third line of the table is obtained ; and in the same way, by averaging the death- rates of the counties of the state, excluding cities, the fourth line is obtained. These last two Unes show that the aver- 14 Rural Hygiene age of the city rates is noticeably higher than the average of the rural rates, and that, while since 1900 the average of the rural districts has remained uniform, the death-rate in cities has been continually decreasing. It is, then, not fair to say, despite frequent but careless statements by writers on typhoid fever, that this disease is a country disease, and that it is transmitted to the city by the vacationist who finds the disease lurking in the waters of the farm well. Some years ago it was pointed out that the period of maximum development of typhoid fever is in the fall, and the conclusion was drawn that the disease was particularly prevalent then because that season is the end of the vacation period. That this is not true, or at any rate not entirely true, may be seen from the con- sideration of two facts, viz. first, that the death-rate in the country districts is low compared with the rates in cities, and second, that those stricken with the disease on their return to the city are quite as apt to have traveled through other cities and to have taken water from other places than farm wells. Typhoid in small cities. As a matter of fact, the greatest danger from typhoid fever is neither in the country nor the large city, but in the village or small city. Here the growth and congestion of population has made necessary the introduction of a water-supply, and in many cases this has not been supple- mented by the construction of a sewerage system. The ground becomes saturated with filth, percolating, in many cases, into wells not yet abandoned, and the introduction of the typhoid germ brought in from outside is all that is needed to start a widespread epidemic. Typhoid Fever Death-rates 15 o •z ^ o a ^ m m < 02 < M ii n o >H o m 8 1-H 'A « b H o p< n (H H o El H Q « H g < « « M ti l> ?> H fa fe fe « Q O W O M H S o S H o b « >- b H rfl n W -< R o M ^ J H J n -.i-Hqoq(N-*q NOI>Tt5cDC^'cDiO CDCD00iO(NCOlMO3 g rl q 00 ■* CD r-i lO I> 7-1 iMrHOIM^OOO CD O CI rt TJH O cq ^ •# ■-H ro cq oqqiococoqcqq t^i>Ti >0 Oi (N rt M CO O300-*COi-l.-IC0CO l>.-J-*cocOT)5(Nid iO>O00C0iO00-*lM s 28.8 41.3 42.0 qqcoiMqcoiOTi; co'j'ioooocq-^od OCOCOCOCDCDIMCO CO s 00 o ^ "o oi ci (M (M lO cot>0'-;i>ioqq rtiO^'^'HCOOOCD 03t>'-i'*CDiO'-<(N o i> lo q oi CO oi IM •* rH iq CO lO C0-*-*"^C0C0{Mt-Hi-h i-H i lO CD qqcoqioqio-* cooocoT-Hoiiocdco ^ rt (N i-H CO ■* T-i T— I 1— ( m CO ■* lO CJ CO t> oi IM rt ■* COi— iOt-HOOOi-JIO o6o6cocot>(NcDco O0.-ii-i-H oo-*cocom' w o H o o ( 1 « H w W s ^; H W i-i fe is M o w H > d. w !" ta H Q r^ o n « n. H >< H o B n ^ "i » Q k> < o o o o' o « % as o; c^j t> lO p o r-j O LO O -^ O 05 >-H >-( i-H CO CO CO CO "^ (N 05 lO -^ "-"i "^ p 00 t> cj d gi t-^ d t^ -^ (N 1-H i-H o o iM p p CO .-; Ti; O 00 00 (N 00 t-^ o cq .-1 (M rH lo CO iM O CD p d -* c d 00 00 T-H I— 1 CD O CO .-1 t> Tt( CD O l> d o ^ oi 00 d i> (M 'J' CO .-1 lO Tt< rf i> lO oq p 00 00 CO CO d d d CO i> ■* lo cq CO i-H o CO O 00 CO CO CD O: p p p i> d d c p d d Ti5 t> d (N (N T|H CO (N cq CO cq CO o t> r-; p (N 00 p q d d d TfH ^ ^ lo ^ 00 ^ CO o lO o cq p CO ^ lO CO t> d 'J< CO 03 lo CO cq CO 00 s en ca fh i>. CO cq t> CO CO (M CO C^l 03 CD CD 03 -H 00 CO t^ "-I o Tt5 d ^ i> d M* d cq r-( i-H CO lo CO ^ i> T^ -^ TjH ^ OS O t- (rq cq Th CO lO CO CD lo CO cq lo d d 3* Tt< I-H CO •*■ a> 00 p lO p 1-; CO t> t-. t> to CO i6 t>^ lo lo CO 00 p 00 p lO CO t> LO lo i> -H d CO cq lO (N lO Tt( cq cq t>; lo p p d d CO ■-! d 00 rH ■* cq CO >o 1-1 cq CO c 3 -a CO ■pi river water: Albany . . Binghamton . Elmira Poughkeepsie . . Rensselaer . . . Watertown . . . WatervHet . . . Cities using well or spring water: Corning .... Cortland .... Pulton Ithaca Olean Jamestown . . . Schenectady . . . Typhoid Fever Death-rates 17 05 fo >-; T)H o c5 t^ 1-3 CO q6 CO CO (N CO (N ■* o CO (N lO 05 (M T-l OC>00'-lt^O'-iOOCD'-iI> I^OOCJOTtici'HCNOcot-; ■*N'-icocoeaiM <— I T— I OS T-H tM C^ CD -* 00 ci N i> 00 oi 1-^ -H (M Tt< © OJ CO CO o o ^ (N TtH (N CD 00 05 q 1> lO to i-H (N (N 1-1 lO 00 00 lO ■* q 00 i> 00 03 1> oi 1> 00 t^ CO >-< IM rt CO o ■* CD IN •* CO T h CO 00 lo 00 OJ 00 CO CO 1— 1 1— 1 ^H ^ 2S rH IM C H CO 1-1 (M 00 lO (N Oi CO OJ oi CO m o (N lO CO CO O 00 CO O 00 i-i i-i d T)H rH CO •* CO ■* IM IM q >o (N LO 44.4 17.8 72.6 ■* ^ CO t>; t^ 00 q q 00 oj t^ t^ rH CO d d >o •ID -^ IM lO rH T-H q q q 00 lo q IM lo d d CO 00 d ■* lO CO ^ rH IM T-H ^ 03 CO o o CO O 00 CO lO lO O rH CO o rH 00 >o CO 00 •* ^H ^H ^ O i-< t> CD 00 lO 03 00 CO »-H 00 CO CO 03 ??s lO ?5 00 CO CO s lO I— 1 CO ^ S cq CO rH (N CO rH CO CO ifl CO CO o -I 1— I 00 t- IN rH 03 IN CO rH TlH rH t> 03 OS rH rH Tt< ^ 5^ CO CO cq 1— 1 O 1—i rH CO lO IN 1— 1 CO rH 00 03 Tt< rH IM CO i-H % 5^ t> ^ lO CO CD rH o I-H 03 ^ IN oo cq Tt< lO CO OS OS ■H CO o (M a 3 03 ^ CO 7-i IM c^ O: t> g CD CO 85 03 lO O! IN l> OS CO •fe E streams and res Amsterdam n Glens Falls Gloversville Johnstown Newburgh . New Rochelle Plattsburg Troy . . Utica . . Port Jervis Little Falls Oneida . . ^ o 5 f ^ rt a » ■^ 3 a o 3 .3 a vS a 5 18 Rural Hygiene Another reason for the prevalence of this disease in small cities is that the organization of their health boards is much less effective than that of larger cities. Individ- uals have not yet learned to sacrifice their own wishes for the sake of the community, and the local health officer, however much he may desire to do his duty, is not upheld by public opinion, and is therefore powerless. In order to show the condition existing in the small cities of the state of New York, the preceding table has been prepared, showing the average death-rate for the cities of the state for the past ten years, excluding, however, the cities of New York, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, all of which have well-organized health boards, and where no epidemic of typhoid fever may be expected. Remem- bering that a rate of 15 per 100,000 is a normal rate, it Table IX. Showing Deaths prom Tubbbculosis per 100,000 Population in the United States 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 The regis- tration area 180.5 175.1 163.6 165.7 177.3 168.2 159.4 158.9 149.6 Registration ■ cities 198.8 192.1 180.7 183.6 195.5 184.4 181.5 179.4 170.1 Cities in registra- tion states 204.1 194.9 177.7 179.7 189.4 178.5 184.0 181.5 169.1 Rural part of registra- tion states 138.0 133.8 121.1 120.7 131.4 126.2 121.9 123.8 117.3 Tuberculosis and Influenza 19' will be easily seen how excessive is the amount of typhoid fever in most of the cities of New York State. Tuberculosis death-rate. Turning now to tuberculosis, the death-rate in cities is very markedly higher than in rural districts, and the superiority of the country as a place to live is hereby plainly demonstrated. The preceding table shows the death rate from tuberculosis in cities for the yearsl903-1907, the data being taken from the United States Census Reports. The death-rate in the cities is evidently about 60 per 100,000 greater than in the rural districts, due, of course, to the crowding in city tenements. This is true for nearly all cities, although the difference is more marked in some parts of the country than in others. In Massachusetts, for example, the death-rate in rural districts is slightly higher than the death-rate in cities, but tuberculosis is much more prevalent in that state than in any other part of the country. In New York State the rate in cities is about 70 per 100,000 greater than in rural districts, due, presumably, to the larger number of manufacturing centers in this state. In New York City the rate is constantly more than 200, and in 1908 in the borough of the Bronx it was nearly 500. Diphtheria as affecting the rate. Diphtheria is another disease that exacts heavier toll from the cities than from the country, about three times as many deaths occurring in the former as in the latter. Influenza, and its effect on death-rate. Influenza is, on the other hand, markedly severe on people in rural districts, the death-rate there bekig more than twice as high as in the cities. It is easy to see why 20 Rural Hygiene this is. Lack of sidewalks, lack of protection, lack of uniform temperature in the houses, and the lack of care in the first stages of illness, all tend to increase the death-rate from this disease. Pnewnonia. The death-rate from pneumonia, on the other hand, is higher in the city, the vitality and power of resistance of victims probably being reduced under average city con- ditions. Other diseases. Diseases that are induced by water, all referred to under typhoid fever, but extending into such complaints as diarrhoea and enteritis, are much more severe in cities than in the country. Such an excess of general intestinal diseases shows again that a polluted water-supply is not peculiar to the country, but is responsible for an excessive death-rate in the city. Most of the constitutional dis- eases also have higher death-rates in the city than in the country. Bright's disease, for example, for the five years 1903-1907, had an average rate in cities of 107.3 per 100,000, while for the same five years in the rural dis- tricts the rate was only 68.6. Old age and the death-rate. Further showing the advantage of country life, it is to be noted that the number of deaths from old age in rural districts is nearly double that in cities. For example, in the same period already referred to the death-rate in cities of persons over sixty was 27.6, while in the rural dis- tricts, for the same period, it was 49.3, — nearly double. The need for attention to rural hygiene. One must conclude, therefore, that the chances of liv- Vital Efficiency in Country 21 ing are increased through residence in the country or in rural districts, and one is therefore led to ask why, if con- ditions there are superior to those in the city, is it neces- sary to deal with the question of rural hygiene, and why attempt to improve conditions which are already evi- dently superior to those in cities. The answer to this must lie in the statement that the death-rate does not tell the whole story of public health. So far as the real welfare of a community is concerned, the standard should be that of the efficiency of the lives in the different age periods rather than the length of those periods. By efficiency in such a connection is meant not merely a life that is free enough from disease to permit the full number of working days in the year, and the full number of years in the man's life usually devoted to toil, or all together a life that contributes something of value to the world, whether produce from the farm or books evolved from the brain ; but efficiency here means that composite development of the whole man — body, mind, and spirit — which we believe must have been intended when man was created with this threefold nature. It is in this composite development that those living in the country are sadly lacking in efficiency. Not to the same extent as twenty-five years ago, but stiU too often is the farmer so exhausted by bodily toil that he has left no strength for the cultivation of either mind or spirit. For the brief period of spring and summer, the good farmer in the Eastern States works himself harder than any slave of old. Up with the sun, or earlier, he follows through the long day the hardest kind of manual labor. When the end of the day comes, after fifteen hours' physical strain, his weary body demands sleep, and no 22 Rural Hygiene vitality is left for mental improvement. In the winter, on the other hand, a lack of exercise is enforced, and the resulting interference with normal functions is so great that he lives the winter through in a sort of hibernation. He is nearly poisoned by lack of ventilation in the small living room, where ' the one stove makes living possible; he gets fat and indolent, and then -with relaxed muscles plunges into furious labor again when spring comes round. "No wonder," says Woods Hutchinson, "that by forty- five he has had a sunstroke and 'can't stand the heat' or has a 'weak back' or his 'heart gives out' or a chill 'makes him rheumatic.'" Such a hfe is not efficient any more than a steam engine is efficient when half the time it is run at such high speed that it tends to shake itself to pieces and the other half of the time it stands idle. Nor are the conditions under which farmers' wives live any better. Statistics show that the highest percentage of insanity in any class of persons in the United States (due chiefly to overwork, overworry, and lack of proper amusements and recreation) is to be found among farmers' wives. An ideal hfe is not one which merely rounds out the allotted span, but one which, during that span, is meas- urably free from ailments and disabilities and in a condi- tion to claim a share in the joy of living which belongs to every human being by reason of his existence. Such hves, to be sure, are seldom found, and no system of sta- tistics yet devised has been able to take account of those ailments. Insurance companies, which make good losses for inability to work and which return the cost of medi- cines and doctors' bills, give the only information on the subject. From these, it has been shown that for each True Ideals of Living 23 death in a community tliere are a little more than two years of illness. Or, expressed differently, for every death occurring in a village, there are two persons constantly ill during the year. Or, still differently, there are, on the average, thirteen days' sickness per year for every person in a community. It is the aim of all hygienic efforts to prevent not merely premature death, but also the inefficiency of unhealthy hving, and it is the latter condition rather than the former which generally prevails in rural communities. As we have ?3en, the death-rates in the country, except for pneumonia, are not noticeably higher than in the city. But by minor ailments, with the resulting loss of daily efficiency, the rural communities are sadly overburdened. As Irving Fisher says in his Report on National Vitality : — "But prevention is merely the first step in increasing the breadth of hfe. Life is to be broadened not only negatively by diminishing those disabilities which narrow it, but also positively by increasing the cultivation of vitality. Here we leave the realm of medicine and enter the realm of physical training. . . . Beyond athletic sports in turn comes mental, moral, and spiritual culture, the highest product of health cultivation. It is an encour- aging sign of the times that the ecclesiastical view of the Middle Ages, which associated sainthness with sickness, has given way to modern 'muscular Christianity.' . . . This is but one evidence of the tendency toward the 'religion of healthymindedness ' described by Professor James. Epictetus taught that no one could be the highest type of philosopher unless in exuberant health. Expres- sions of Emerson's and Walt Whitman's show how much 24 Rural Hygiene their spiritual exaltation was bound up with health ideals. 'Give me health and a day,' said Emerson, 'and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.' It is only when these health ideals take a deep hold that a nation can achieve its highest development. Any country which adopts such ideals as an integral part of its practical life philosophy may be expected to reach or even excel the development of the health-loving Greeks." CHAPTER II LOCATION OF A HOUSE ~ SOIL AND SUR- ROUNDINGS In attempting to develop a system of rural hygiene, by means of which the full value of the advantages of pure air and sunhght, of healthful exercise and sound sleep, may be reaUzed, the first step should be a proper location of the house. For, while it is possible to have good health in houses not advantageously located, and while the influ- ence of unsanitary surroundings is not as great as was formerly supposed, yet there can be no question but that some influences, whether they be great or small, must result directly from the situation of a dwelhng. For example, it has been noticed that a house whose cellar was damp was an unhealthy house to live in, and early text- books on hygiene quote statistics at length to prove this fact. The early theories connecting ill-health with condi- tions in and around the house have been handed down, and to-day some are accepted as true, although by the modern science of bacteriology most of the early notions have been upset. For example, it was considered danger- ous to breathe night air in the vicinity of swamps, and in one of the Rollo Books, so much read by the children of 25 26 Rural Hygiene the last generation, Uncle George requires RoUo, on a night journey through the Italian marshes, to stay inside the coach with the windows closed in order not to breathe the night air and so contract malarial fever. We know to-day that malarial fever comes only from mosquitoes, that night air has nothing to do with disease, and we hear the general advice of doctors that, except where it means the admis- sion of mosquitoes, we should always , sleep with our windows open in order to breathe as much night air as possible, because the night air is purer than any other air. These early traditions have not only concerned themselves with damp cellars and night air, but they have insisted that even the vicinity of a swamp or pond might lead to disease, and the State Department of Health of New York is in constant receipt of complaints because of alleged danger to health on account of some pond or swamp in the vicinity of houses. Again, one tradition says that a house should not be located in the midst of a dense growth of trees, because the shade of the trees, however welcome in summer, will generate and maintain a condition of dampness in the house and, therefore, be injurious to the health of the inmates. Another tradition is that a house ought not to be located in a valley, but that a hilltop, or at least a sidehill eleva- tion, is preferable, the possible dampness of the valley being alleged again as the reason. To-day, so far as is known, there is no direct evidence of dampness being primarily responsible for any disease, although, heretofore, such diseases as typhoid fever, yellow fever, bilious fever, malarial fever, cholera, and Dampness and Ill-health 27 dysentery have all been attributed to miasms springing from damp soil. To-day we are assured by experts that none of these diseases are induced by dampness alone. One could spend his days immersed in water up to his chin and never contract any sickness of the types mentioned merely through that act. Later on, we shall show how the presence of swamps in the vicinity of a house is objec- tionable because of their providing breeding places for insects, but the dampness itself never has and never will cause disease. As a concrete example, it may be noted that the country of Holland, in large part lying below the level of the sea, with drainage canals and ditches every- where in evidence, is, in spite of such manifest possibili- ties of dampness, one of the most healthy countries in the world, as already pointed out in Chapter I. This fact not only emphasizes the small effect of surface waters and damp soils in promoting disease, but also magnifies the value of cleanhness for which the Dutch people are so famous. Damp soils. Why is it, then, that damp soils and damp cellars are objected to? Chiefly, because of the inconvenience and discomfort they occasion. A damp cellar means condi- tions favorable to the development of mildew and rot ; prevents vegetables from keeping a normal length of time ; accounts for moldy, decaying odors throughout the house, and is generally disagreeable. One is tempted to say that such a condition is also unhealthy, and it is quite possible that a person living over a damp cellar which contains accumulations of decaying vegetables, and breathing air loaded with organic compounds, may gradually lose his 28 Rural Hygiene normal vitality, and become thereby more readily suscep- tible to specific diseases, but the diseases themselves will not come from the dampness alone. The discomfort and inconvenience, however, are quite sufficient reasons to make it eminently desirable to have the house and the cellar dry. With this in mind, the selection of the house site should be carefully made. Instinctively, and with reason, the immediate neighbor- hood of low, swampy, marshy ground, of stagnant ponds, or of sluggish streams should be avoided. It should not be necessary to warn prospective builders that low land, subject to inundation, even though this may happen only occasionally, is not a wise choice of a build- FiG. 2. — Bad conditions about a dwelling. ing site. Figure 2 shows an inundation in a small village of New York State in 1889. Floods are expected each spring and counted on as a part of the year's experience. Location of a House 29 The resulting exposure and the inevitable effluvia follow- ing the receding waters are both objectionable factors in hygienic living. Similarly, the vicinity of a stream carry- ing organic matter, such as sewage from a town above, should undoubtedly be avoided on account of possible odors in summer. Not long ago, the writer was told by the owner of a productive farm, situated below a small city in New York State, that in the summer time the windows of his house had all to be kept tightly shut at night, because of the effluvia from a stream a thousand feet distant, which carried the sewage from the city above. Location of house. A deep and narrow valley should be avoided, not so much because of the possible dampness in the valley, but because of the noticeably lessened amount of sunhght which such a location involves. For such a house, the morning sun comes up much later, and the afternoon sun disappears much earher, and, since sunlight is the best foe to disease, the more sunlight enters a house, the healthier are those who Uve in it. On the other hand, the top of a hill exposes a house to strong and cold winds, not desirable on any account, and involving a large expense for heating in winter. Sloping ground, therefore, facing the south if possible, or better, some knoll which rises above the general surface of a southern slope, affords an ideal location. If the slope is toward the south, north winds are kept off, and every ray of the hfe-giving winter's sun is captured. If the house itself faces due south, the windows on the north have no sunhght. If, on the other hand, the house faces southeast or southwest, then all sides of the house will receive direct sunlight at some time of the day. 30 Rural Hygiene Objections to trees. The vicinity of trees is not to be regarded as altogether evil, since they provide both shade in summer and a screen against winds in the winter. No disease comes from dampness because of their presence, and the worst thing which may be charged against a thick growth is that it keeps out the sun. Practically two points may, however, be urged against trees growing too close to a house. If near enough for leaves to drop on the roof, rain troughs and leaders become stopped up and cause trouble. A thick growth directly over a shingle roof allows organic matter to accumulate on the shingles, so that vegetation develops and the roof decays more rapidly than if exposed to sun and wind. Again, and it is no trivial matter, a house whose roof is easily accessible from trees is apt to become infested with squirrels, who get into the attic, run through the walls, and become a great nuisance. For these reasons, then, trees should be far enough away from the house to allow the sun to enter the windows freely and to keep away from the roof objectionable animals, large and small. Space between houses. It is a law or custom as ancient as the Romans that requires a proprietor to build his house so that the eaves should not overhang on the land of his neighbor. Our grandfathers, with the same idea, used to say that a man should be able to drive his team around his house on his own land. In our day it is highly desirable that a house should be built so as to leave as much land under control between the buildings and the lot line as possible. This, of course, does not apj)ly to houses built on a farm of a Space Between Houses 31 hundred acres or more, but rather to the house in a small village where a few hundred people live closely together, under rural conditions. In such a village the water-supply usually comes from wells, and the wastes of the household are discharged into privies and cesspools. There is no law, unfortunately, which restricts the location of either of these two essential structures, and it is quite possible for a well, built within a few feet of a property hne, to be ruined in quahty by a cesspool, built later, on the other side of the Une. It seems very luijust that, after the trouble and expense of building a well, a neighbor may render it worthless by the location of his cesspool, and yet, unless one can prove a direct underground connection between well and cesspool, no law is apphcable to prevent the construction of the latter. Besides such a menace to health, there are other objec- tions to the immediate vicinity of neighbors which can be avoided by a judicious interposition of space. For exam- ple, the writer hstened through a long evening, recently, to a hearing before a City Commissioner of Health, where one householder and a crowd of witnesses complained of the noise made by a kicking horse in an adjacent stable. The one witness who was not disturbed by the noise, and who hved in the vicinity, was unexpectedly found to be deaf. It is wisdom also to have a reasonable space between a house and the highway, chiefly because the dust of the road is thereby kept from the house. There are people who find much enjoyment in watching passers-by on the road, and with them front windows would be as close to the road as possible, but it is wiser to have a front yard of at least fifty feet depth when possible. 32 Rural Hygiene Finally, the location on a sidehill, even when other- wise advantageous, is to be regarded with suspicion if the subsoil strata are horizontal and neighbors up the slope have cesspools in use. The writer knows of several cess- pools, built in rock, which, so far as their owners were concerned, have worked successfully for many years, but the water leeching away through the rock was finally discovered to be the cause of continual dampness in neigh- boring cellars, on lower ground, to the manifest discomfort of those occupying the houses. Composition of soils. Having thus discussed the location of the house with reference to its surroundings, let us now more carefully examine the character of the soil or earth foundation on which the house shall be built. All soil is made up of varying proportions of mineral and vegetable matter in the interstices of which there are usually to be found more or less air, water, and watery vapor. The mineral sub- stances of soil include almost all of the known minerals, although many of them are found in exceedingly small quantities. The most common and the most important mineral elements of the soil of New York State are carbon, siUcon, aluminum, and calcium, which combine in various ways to make either sand, sandstone, clay, shale, limestone, or other rock. The particular form which these mineral elements assume is of interest in choosing a location for a house, for two reasons: — In the first place, it has been asserted that the mineral constituents of a soil directly affect the health of persons hving on that material. For instance, the earlier writers on hygiene gravely pointed out that very hard granite Effect of Soils on Health 33 rocks, when weathered and disintegrated, became per- meated by a fungus and caused malaria. We are, however, now so sure of the cause of malaria that we only laugh at a theory upheld by scientists of only twenty years ago. Some constitutional diseases, including goiter and cancer, have been supposed to flourish in locahties where an excess of calcium exists in the soil, and it is true that these diseases do have an unusual prevalence in certain limited districts ; but no modem scientist ventures to say whether the boundaries of those districts are determined by the character of the soil constituents or by some other pre- disposing factor. The truth is that, in matters not abso- lutely determined by science, many theories usually have to be evolved and proved worthless before the real cause is found. In the matter of appendicitis, for instance, it was for- merly asserted that the seed of grapes was responsible for the local inflammation, and that one could never have appendicitis if such seeds wore not swallowed. This theory is to-day almost forgotten, and one eminent surgeon has asserted that the prevalence of this disease in a dis- trict depends on the calcium in the soil, since it is to that mineral that hard water is due, although this has not been substantiated. No information is to-day available by which the fitness of a soil for securing sanitary condi- tions of building can be determined. Cancer and soil conditions. In the case of cancer, however, while no final conclusions can be drawn, there is some definite indication that the soil conditions have connection with the occurrence and continued appearance of cancer. It is known that this 34 Rural Hygiene dread disease is abnormally prevalent in certain districts of the world where topography and climate are fairly alike. For example, the entire region between the Danube and the Alps from Vienna westward and between the Jura and Alps to Geneva furnishes the highest mortaUty from cancer in all Europe. The subsoil is clay with a thin covering of surface soil, the hillsides draining on to level valleys with meandering watercourses that frequently inundate and supersaturate the already moist soil. This condition seems to prevail wherever cancer is abnormally prevalent. In England, in northwestern France, and in Spain the topography described in every case accompanies a high death-rate from cancer. It is of great interest to find that in New York State the two districts that are conspicuously affected by this disease have the same topography. The Unadilla Valley and some parts of the Allegheny V3,lley are noted for their cancer houses, and in both localities we find the same kinds of hillsides and water-soaked valleys as in Germany and France. It has also been noted that the older geo- logical formations are free from the disease and that an occasional inundation does not seem to be a factor. Alto- gether there seems to be some ground for assuming a connection between cancer and soil conditions, at any rate until scientists have determined the real cause of the disease in those localities where it is now so markedly prevalent. Topography. The soil, however, with its mineral characteristics, does indirectly affect the health of the householder because different kinds of rock form themselves naturally into Advantages of Gravel Subsoil 35 different surface formations, some healthy and some unhealthy. For example, localities where granite rock abounds and comes near the surface are usually healthy because the surface slope is great enough to carry off all drainage water rapidly. The air therefore is dry and not influenced by the immediate vicinity of swamps. The drinking water is soft, and malarial breeding places are usually absent. Limestone rock, on the other hand, is commonly laid down in horizontal strata, and while a succession of strata may frequently give rapid slopes, marshes are very com- mon, existing even on the tops of the hills. The drinking water is always to be suspected as to quality because, in the first place, it is hard from absorption of lime, and in the next place, cavities and seams in the rock allow pollut- ing material to travel for long distances. Sandstone, being porous, may be considered a healthy foundation, and sands and gravels of all sorts are usually free from marshy land. Gravel has always been assumed to be the healthiest soil on which a house could be built, provided the ground water reaches its highest stage three or four feet below the cellar bottom. Sand is equally desirable except in the cases where vegetable matter has been mixed with the sand, rendering decay imminent. Water drawn from such sands in the form of springs will contain large quantities of nitrates which may lead to excessive development of vegetable life and may have on the human system the same laxative effect as comes from drinking swamp water. Clays and heavy alluvial soils are not usually considered 36 Rural Hygiene desirable soils on which to build. Water does not run from such soils ; they hold moisture, and hence are always damp, and marshes are very apt to exist in the vicinity. Effects of cultivation. It was formerly thought that extensive cultivation was objectionable from the standpoint of health, that manured fields in the vicinity of a house were undesirable, and that the turning up of a well-manured field with a plow in the spring was a very likely source of fever. It is a very common belief to-day that when water pipes are to be laid in city streets, thereby disturbing the soil and bringing fresh earth to the surface, typhoid or other fevers may be expected. There is, however, no ground for this belief, and the fact that laborers and their families live healthily in the midst of the thousands of acres of sewage-irrigated fields near Berlin, where the heavily manured fields are constantly being plowed, is a sure proof of this. The earlier textbooks on hygiene all assert, however, the contrary; Parkes, for instance, says that irrigated lands, especially rice fields, which give a great surface for evapora- tion and also exhale organic matter into the air, are hurtful, and in northern Italy the rice grounds are required to be three quarters of a mile from the small towns to protect the village inhabitants against fevers. There is no ground, however, for such a requirement. No evidence can be found that men who work in sewers and who breathe sewer air all the time are especially un- healthy. Statistics show that the laborers on the sewage fields of Paris and Berlin are actually healthier than the average person living within those cities. No reason can be assigned, based on our present knowl- Disadvantages of Made Ground 37 edge of bacteriology, why upturned earth or manured fields should be unhealthy except as the breeding of insects may be encouraged thereby. The two essentials, however, which should be considered are: first, the topography or the formation of the soil in order that the surface water may run off freely, and second, the character of the soil so that ground water may not remain too near the surface. Whether the soil is rock or gravel makes very little dif- ference. Made ground. One kind of soil, however, is distinctly objectionable, although, fortunately, in the country such a soil is un- usual: That is, a soil made up of refuse, whether it be garbage, street sweepings from a near-by city, or factory refuse. The writer has in mind one enterprising landowner and farmer who offered a near-by city the free privilege of dumping the city garbage on his land. This was done for several years, and the low-ljdng districts of his farm were all filled to a more advantageous level. This gar- bage was then covered with about a foot of dirt and the land sold in building lots to enterprising laborers deter- mined to own their own homes. According to the old theories of hygiene, the occupants of such houses should have died like rats, but no particular excess of sickness in the one hundred houses so located could be observed. One must, however, believe, as we shall see later, that the repeated breathing of air drawn from such polluted soil must be unhealthy, even though the mortaHty records fail to show it. It is interesting in this connection to note that the 38 Rural Hygiene organic matter in soil gradually disappears, just as a body- buried in a grave will finally decompose. Experiments show that such organic matter as wheat straw or cloth in small pieces rots and decays in about three years. But this depends very largely on an excess of air. If the soil is open and the organic matter loose, oxidation takes place rapidly; but if a large pile of organic matter is buried in clay soil, it will take decades for it to disappear. The vegetable matter in soil is usually produced by the decay of plants which have either grown on the soil or have been washed down into its voids. A great deal was formerly written on the relation between this organic matter and the prevalence of malaria, and some earlier writers believed that the amount of malaria in a district was dependent upon the amount of vegetable debris in the soil. Since we have learned that malaria is carried by mosquitoes, we are less interested in the amount of organic matter in the soil. Its mere presence is not likely to be injurious. Water in the soil. Only the hardest rocks are entirely solid, the others containing a certain percentage of voids or interstices. These voids are filled with air or water, as the case may be, and we may stop for a moment to inquire the effect of the presence of this air and water. In loose sands the amount of voids is 40 to 50 per cent of the total volume, in sandstone about 20 per cent, and in other rock reduced amounts. The volume of air, therefore, in the soil under a cellar to a depth of four or five feet, amounts to a good many cubic feet and would not be worth inquiring into except for the fact that it is continually in a state of motion. When the ground water, perhaps normally five feet below Water in the Soil 39 the cellar bottom, rises in the spring, this ground air is forced out, and in a cellar without a concrete foundation it rises into the cellar and penetrates into the house. A house artifiGially warmed by stoves is continually dis- charging heated air from the tops of the rooms and colder air is being brought in from below to take its place. This air comes from the ground below, and in open soil may come from a great depth. A case has been noted where gas escaping from a main in a city street twenty feet from a cellar wall was, by the suction due to heat, drawn into the cellar and thence into the rooms of the house. It is possible that air from cesspools and broken drains in the vicinity of a house may, in this same way, contribute to the atmosphere breathed within the walls of the house. Gravelly and sandy soils, therefore, in order to maintain the superiority which they furnish for building construc- tion, should not be polluted, since any polution in the vicinity influences the quality of air which may get into the house. The method of preventing such ingress is plainly to waterproof the outside walls of the cellar and provide an air-tight floor over the cellar bottom. Methods of doing this will be discussed in the next chapter. Moisture in soils. The presence of water in the soil has usually been con- sidered to be unhealthy because of the impression that it led to certain fevers. The writer has heard, for instance, of an attack of malaria being caused by a short visit to a damp vegetable cellar; and it is one of the triumphs of the century that the malarial parasite has been discovered, and the old theory of the dangers of moisture been done away with. A damp cellar has always been considered to 40 Rural Hygiene be undesirable, but just why nobody knows. A damp cellar causes molds to form rapidly, thus destroying vege- tables and other material which might naturally be stored there, but that the presence of moisture in a cellar in itself produces any organic emanation leading to disease is not true, although dampness is essential to the growth of certain organisms. In the latter part of the nineteenth century. Dr. Bow- ditch, of Boston, showed that consumption developed most where the surrounding soil was moist, and generally it is the impression that dry air is the only proper air for a consumptive person to breathe. This theory, however, is being rapidly exploded, and patients now remain out- doors in any weather, and no kind of air is objected to by physicians, provided it is outdoor air. Some httle time ago the writer was called by a Board of Health to inves- tigate a certain swamp which had some odor, was con- sidered a blot on the landscape in an unusually picturesque village, and was said to be responsible for a long list of contagious diseases. A house-to-house inquiry in the vicinity showed that among some dozen families, only one illness in the last few years could be remembered, and that was an old lady who had been on the verge of the grave for forty years. It is curious to note the many examples which are cited by the eariier sanitarians to prove the dangerous effect of damp soil. For example, Pettenkofer, a very prominent German hygienist, says that in two royal stables near Munich, with the same arrangements as to stalls, feed, and attendance, and the same class of horses, fever affected the horses very unequally. In one stable, fever was Necessity of a Good Drainage 41 continually prevalent; in the other, no fever was found. Horses sent from the unhealthful to the healthful stables did not communicate the disease. The difference between the two places, says Pettenkofer, was that in the healthful stables the ground water was five to six feet below the sur- face, while in the unhealthful ones it was only two and a half feet from the surface. A system of drainage by which the ground water was brought to the same level under both stables made them equally healthful. The writer cannot help but feel that some other factor was involved, and while he has no doubt that excessive dampness in stables or cellars is undesirable, he does not believe that such dampness can be directly the cause of fevers of any sort. It is not desirable, however, to live over a wet cellar nor to maintain a house in a constant condition of damp- ness, partly on account of its bad effect oii the house and partly because such dampness may, by reducing the vitahty of the household, become a predisposing factor in disease. Drainage. From whatever source dampness may come, it can be guarded against by giving to the surface of the ground in the vicinity of the house, on all sides, sufficient slope away from the walls so that there will be no tendency for water to accumulate against the cellar walls. On the top of a hill this is very easy to do, and the natural surface grade takes care of the surface water without difficulty. On a sidehill or in a valley artificial grading has to be resorted to, except on one side. Too much emphasis cannot be laid on the necessity for 42 Rural Hygiene grading the ground surface away from the house. In some cases it may be sufficient to dig a broad shallow trench protected from wash by sods (Fig. 3). In other Fig. 3. — A grading that turns water away from the house. cases it may be desirable to pave the ditch with cobble stones or to build a cement gutter. In constructing such a surface drain, proper allowance must be made for the Gutters for Surface Drainage 43 accumulation of snow and the resulting amount of water in the spring, so that the distance in which the ground slopes away from the house ought to be, if possible, at least ten feet, so that there can be no standing water to penetrate the house walls. The slope necessary to carry surface water away need not be great. A fall of one foot in one hundred will be ample, even on grassy areas, and if the surface is that of a macadam road or the gutters of a drive, this grade may be cut in two. A slope of more than one foot in one hundred is permissible up to a maxi- mum of seven or eight feet per hundred, more than this bsing aesthetically objectionable and tending to make the house appear too high. Whenever gutters are built in driveways or ditches to intercept water coming down the slopes, a suitable outlet must be provided to carry the water thus collected either into underground pipes, by which the water is led to some stream or gulley, or directly into some well-marked surface depression. Ground water. The soil always contains water at a greater or less depth, and the elevation of this "ground water," as it is called, varies throughout the year partly with the rainfall and partly with the elevation of the water level in the near-by streams. It is not at all unusual for this ground water to rise and fall six feet or more within the year, high levels coming usually in the spring and fall, and low levels in the late summer and winter. It is easily possible, then, that a house cellar may seem dry at the time of construction in summer and may develop water to a foot or more in depth after occupancy. The presence of such an amount of 44 Rural Hygiene water in a cellar, whether injurious to health or not, is objectionable, and a subsoil trench should be provided in order to Umit the height to which ground water may rise. If a system of drainpipes is led around a house extend- ing outward to include the surrounding yard, then the ground water will always be maintained at the level of those pipes, provided the system has a free outlet. In- deed, the question of an outlet for a drainage system is a most important factor, and no system of underdrains can be effective unless a stream or gulley or depression of some kind is available into which the drains may dis- charge. It is for this reason, quite as much as for any other, that the location of a house on a perfectly level bottom land is objectionable, since the ground there may be normally full of water with no existing depression into which it may be drained. In the next chapter the proper method of laying drains close to the cellar wall, for the purpose of taking away the dampness from those walls, is described, but another system of drains is desirable, covering more area and more thoroughly drying the ground, provided the ground water needs attention at all. These drains should be laid like all agricultural drainage; and while substitution of broken stone, bundles of twigs, wooden boxes, or flat stone may be made, the only proper material to be used is burnt clay in the form of tile. These tiles are made in a variety of patterns, but the most common in use to-day is one which is octagonal outside and circular inside. They are about one foot in length and may be had from two to six inches inside diameter. The ordinary size for ■■•<4^^ Drain Tiles around House 45 laterals is four-inch diameter, while the mains into which these laterals discharge are generally of six-inch diameter. These tiles are laid in trenches about fifteen feet apart, although in porous soil, such as coarse sand or gravel, this distance may be increased to twenty feet. If the tiles are laid more than four feet below the surface, this distance may be increased, and if the tiles are five feet deep, the distance apart of the several lines may be fifty feet. The grade of the line must be carefully taken care of, and while it is possible to lay a line of tile with a carpen- ter's level and a sixteen-foot straightedge, it is much safer to have an engineer's or architect's level and set grade stakes, as in regular sewer work. A fall of one fourth of an inch to the foot is a proper grade, although a greater slope is not objectionable. It is sometimes desirable in soft ground to lay down a board six inches wide in the bottom of a trench on which to rest the tile, but, unless the ground is very soft, this is not necessary. Care must be taken, however, if the board is not used, to have the bottom of the trench very carefully smoothed so that a perfectly even grade in the tile is maintained. There are three ways of laying out a line of trench as shown in the following sketches (Fig. 4). It is usually sufficient to run parallel lines of tile from fifteen to fifty feet apart over the area which it is desired to drain, and let the ends of these lines enter a cross line which shall carry off the water led into it. This cross fine should be six inches in diameter as a general rule, unless there is more than a mile of small drains, in which case the size of the cross pipe ought to be increased to eight inches. This cross line then becomes Fig. 4. — Modes of laying out drains. 46 Drainage for Cellars in Rock 47 the main outlet, and great care must be taken to see that it has a perfectly free dehvery at all times of the year. In cities and sometimes in small villages it is possible to discharge this outlet pipe into a regular public sewer, pro- vided the sewer is deep enough, and provided the munici- pal ordinances allow such a connection. Otherwise, the outfall must be carried to a natural depression. In level ground, the problem of finding a suitable out- let is a serious one, and in many cases impossible of solu- tion, so that the householder, being unable to find an outlet, must put up with the ground water and be as patient as possible during its prevalence. It does not do to trust one's eye to find a practicable outlet, since even a trained eye is easily deceived. An engineer with a level can tell in a few moments where a proper point of discharge may be found, and it is absurd to begrudge the small amount which it will cost, in view of the large expense involved in digging a long trench to no purpose. Some years ago the writer was able to note the condi- tions in a house where the cellar excavation went three feet into hmestone rock. The strata were perfectly level and the cellar floor of natural rock was apparently all that could be desired, smooth and flat, without involving any expense for concrete. One wall came where a vertical seam in the rock existed, and since this natural rock face was smooth and vertical and just where the cellar wall should go, it seemed unnecessary to dig it out and lay up masonry in its place. So it was left and the house built. When the spring rains came, however, the cellar was turned into a pond, water dripping everywhere from the vertical rock face, and coming up through the cellar bottom like 48 Rural Hygiene springs. It cost a great deal more then to make the changes and improvements necessary in order to secure a dry cellar than it would have done at the outset. This serves as an illustration of the need of taking every pre- caution at the beginning to insure a dry and well-drained soil around and below the cellar walls. CHAPTER III CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSES AND BARNS WITH REFERENCE TO HEALTHFULNESS Any liability to disease that may come from faulty construction of habitations is likely to spring from a polluted subsoil. Such pollution vitiates the air drawn from that soil and is a source of danger on account of the resulting impurity of the whole atmosphere within the house. Shutting out soil air. We have already seen (Chapter II) how it is possible for soil charged with organic matter to deliver, either through suction from a heated house or on account of a rising ground water, soil air into the cellar, and also that moist air may enter the house in the same way. In order to prevent this, it is plainly necessary to interpose some air- tight or water-tight layer between the house and the soil, and also, since perfection in this layer is impossible, to make provision for draining away any water which may accumulate against the walls. Ordinary builders do not lay much emphasis on the importance of either of these precautions, and while one may often see cellar walls roughly and carelessly coated on the outside, with tar or asphalt, a thoroughly water-tight coating is not a common E 49 50 Rural Hygiene practice. Similarly, while draintile are often laid around a house, they are either laid so near the surface as to be useless or else they have no porous filling. To prevent moisture from entering the cellar, the first provision should be a tile drain (not less than four inches in diameter) laid completely around the house (see Fig. 5) on a grade of not less than six inches in one hun- < — zy7/4//v ■< — i ^^^^^^ C£LLAR \NALLS ^ TTTX. ^ \ \ i I 1 I ' II DRA/N ^^ TO BROO/< OR GULLY Fig. 5. — Exterior wall-drains. dred feet. This drain at its highest point ought to be one foot below the bottom of the concrete floor of the cellar, and more than this, of course, at the lower end. This should be laid before ■ or at the time the foundations for Cellar Drains 51 the house are being built, although it is possible to dig the necessary trenches and lay the tile after the house is built. If the available grade is small, this drain may be laid in two lines directly under the cellar floor as shown in Fig. 6. ro BROOK OR GULLY Fig. 6. — Interior cellar-draina. At the points A the bottom of the tile should be at least a foot below the dirt on which the cellar floor will be laid, and at the point B, about two feet. This drainpipe is best laid with regular sewer pipe and without cement in the joints. Then coarse gravel should be filled in around this tile so as to allow water to enter the pipe without carrying soil that later might settle in the pipe. 52 Rural Hygiene Position of outfall. There is always a question of where this drain shall end and into what it shall discharge, for in some soils this drain- pipe may discharge continually. To allow the drain to empty on the ground means that its outer end will be broken; that if discharge takes place just before freezing weather, the drain will fill with ice and be broken, so that some other method must be devised. If the outer end can be laid into a brook where the velocity prevents the water from freezing, or where the outer end can be kept below water, a satisfactory disposal is found. Otherwise, it is better to discharge into a small covered cesspool, provided the soil is sufficiently porous to take care of the water, and provided the level of the ground water allows the construc- tion of such a cesspool. In any case, it should be at some distance from the house, so that if it overflows, the water will not seep back to the cellar walls. By waterproofing the main wall and then backfilling against the wall with coarse gravel or broken stone, the same results as with open areaways are obtained and at a much smaller cost. Dampness of masonry walls. One fact peculiar to all kinds of masonry and known to all careful observers is that stone work, brick work, and concrete will allow dampness to permeate, whether it comes from water-bearing soil or a driving rain. One objection to concrete-block houses has been that a hard rain would cause moisture to form on the inside. Brick buildings have the same defect when the walls are built solid. An air-space in the cellar walls is the only way of insur- ing a dry cellar, if the bottom of the cellar is below the Air-spaces in Cellar Walls 53 level of the ground water. A four-inch course of hollow brick may be used on the inside, or the wall may be actually divided into two walls with a space between. Figure 7 (after Warth) shows three different ways by which an air-space is secured and the two component parts of the wall held together. In the top view, the two walls, one eight-inch and one four- inch, are held together by wire ties, leaving an air-space of about four inches. In the middle drawing the walls are tied together by making the air-space three inches wide and then lapping the brick laid as headers over both walls. In the bottom view special terra-cotta blocks are used which pass through both walls. There can be no question of the value of such construction in ehminating dampness from the inside wall, but, it must be ad- mitted, the cost of the walls is increased somewhat. Use of tar or asphalt on the wall. Instead of an open space, nowadays, it is more custom- ary to thoroughly plaster the outside of the cellar wall, Fig. 7. — Wall modea of making air-space. 54 Rural Hygiene and then paint it with a tar paint put on hot, which will ad- here fairly well to the cement or masonry. Asphalt can- not be very readily used for this purpose unless it is an asphalt oil with but little bitumen paste. A paving asphalt, for example, even applied hot, does not adhere to the masonry, but shdes dovm the walls as fast as it is apphed. A successful method, however, of using such asphalt is to build the cellar wall in two parts, separated about half an inch, and filling in the intervening space with liquid asphalt. In this way, the asphalt is held in position, and is an absolute prevention of dampness. Another method used successfully in the construction of one of the large railroad stations in Boston consists in painting the outside of the wall with tar and then pressing into the hot tar several layers of tar paper, the separate sheets overlapping in a special coating of tar. These sheets are thus made continuous around the building and under the basement so that no water can enter the building. A cross-section of one of the depressed tracks entering the Boston Station is shown in Fig. 8. The heavy black —Exfreme Hig/i—dX ^^y-Wafer Mark.— Fig. 8. — Water-tight wall. hne represents ten thicknesses of tar paper, each one thoroughly painted with a thick paint of hot tar. It should be noticed that this water-tight coating is inclosed between masonry walls, so that the coating cannot be injured. Waterproofing Cellar Walls 55 It is possible tlieoretically by these methods to build an underground cellar so truly water-tight that it could be set down in, a lake, where it might float Uke a boat and not leak a drop, and there may be some locations that require such construction, such as a low river valley or an old salt marsh or a city flat, where no adequate drainage is pro- vided. But practically such construction will always be found expensive, and is, in most cases, unnecessary and ineffective, as already indicated, and where the percolating water cannot be tolerated, involves the installation of some kind of pump to throw out the water that will inevitably, in larger or small quantities, pass through the best waterproofing. It is, therefore, the part of wisdom to place reliance on draining the water away from the house rather than on waterproofing the cellar wall. Dry masonry for cellar walls. It may not be out of place to add a word of caution against the practice of building cellar walls of loose stone, without mortar. They make no pretense of being water- tight, they offer no resistance to the entrance of rats, and they soon yield to the pressure of the earth and present that wobbly, uncertain appearance of cellar walls seen in rural districts. Nor should the idea that the interior is to be visible and the exterior invisible blind the builder to the fact that it is far more important to have the outside smooth. If smooth, there are no projecting surfaces for water to collect in, no edges for the frozen earth to cling to and by expansion tear off from the wall. If smooth, the joints in the masonry can be pointed or filled with mortar, and thus a suitable surface for the tar or asphalt is provided. 56 RuroJ. Hygiene Fig. 9. — Rough-backed wall. In Fig. 9 (after Brown) is shown a cellar wall with rough, irregular back, and it is easy to see how water would read- ily find its way down to one of the projecting stones and then along such a stone, through the wall into the cellar. With such a wall the action of the frost is more severe than with a wall with a smooth back, so that the wall in Fig. 9 is gradually pulled apart by alternate freezings and thawings. Figure 10 (after Brown), on the other hand, shows the cellar wall as it should be with smooth, even exterior, along which the water passes easily, with gravel backing, through which the water escapee to the drainpipe. Damp courses in walls. Another important means of keeping mois- ture from the cellar walls is to provide what is called a damp course at about a level with Tig. lO. — Even-backed wall. Damp Courses in House Walls 57 the top of the cellar floor. Where the soil is naturally damp, and where the cellar walls are not adequately 0///M Fig. 11. — Four modes of making water-proof cellar walls. 58 Rural Hygiene waterproof, a second damp course should be provided at the level of the ground so that moisture from the damp cellar walls may not pass up into the above ground por- tion, which is naturally dry. These damp courses, in their 6WO UNO L EVEL t rLOOP LEVEL !£<_(■ 3-PLr WATER PROOriNQ -^CONCRETE FOR STOME WALL eROUNO LEVEL 3-PL.Y WATER PROOFING CONCRETE FOR BPICK WALL FiQ. 12. — Water-proofing of cellar walls. simplest form, consist in bringing the masonry level around the building, and painting the top surface with hquid coal tar. Construction of Cellar Floor 59 Another method is to paint the masonry with hquid asphalt, and then imbed in this paint a thickness of asphalt- covered building paper which is again painted with asphalt. This may be done in the horizontal layer where it could not conveniently be done vertically. Four different ways used in France for securing dry cellar walls are shown in Fig. 11. The heavy black line represents the damp course, which, when added to the effect of the interwall space, which is shown in all the drawings but the first, and there replaced by a deep drain, insures absolute freedom from all moisture within the cellar. Figure 12 shows sections recommended by Dr. George M. Price, and indicates clearly the location of the damp course. The cellar floor. The floor of the cellar, in the same way, must be kept from dampness, and this is best done by covering the cellar floor with a layer of concrete, one part cement, three parts sand, and six parts broken stone ; or, one part cement and eight parts gravel may be used. Care should be taken, however, that the gravel does not contain an excess of sand, and it is always well in using gravel for concrete to check the proportion of these two materials. This may be done as follows: Sift the gravel through an ash sieve so that it is free from sand ; fill a ten-quart pail even full with the gravel and then pour in water to the top of the pail, keeping account of the amount of water poured in. This volume of water gives the proper amount of sand to use with the gravel for concrete, and if more sand than this was present in the original gravel, it should be sifted out until the proper proportion is reached. 60 Rural Hygiene Concrete is not water-tight, and the concrete floor of the cellar must be treated in some way to prevent water or moisture rising through this floor. One method is to cover the concrete thus laid with a denser mixture of ce- ment and sand, put on three fourths of an inch thick, and made by mixing equal parts of sand and cement ; or the asphalt layer already referred to in the cellar walls may be carried across the cellar, putting, as before, a paint layer on the concrete, then paper, then another paint layer, making it continuous and without a break from outside to outside. On top of this, to prevent wear and tear, a floor of brick, laid flat, or a two-inch layer of concrete may be laid. Cellar ventilation. The great importance of the cellar as that part of the house where, if anywhere, unhealthy conditions exist, justifies this prolonged discussion, and before leaving the subject, ventilation in the cellar should receive a word of encouragement. Too many cellars are damper than need be, are musty and close, full of odors of decaying vege- tables and rotting wood, entirely from lack of ventilation. The cellar windows are small and always closed. The cellar door is seldom opsned, and never with the idea of admitting air. The impression on entering such a cellar is of a tomb. The cellar, even in that part devoted to storing vege- tables, needs ventilation as much as the house does, for the cellar air finds its way up into the house, and an unven- tilated cellar means a house with air deficient in oxygen and overloaded with carbonic acid, a condition which causes pale faces and anaemic bodies. Far better and The Old-fashioned Privy 61 healthier is it to open all the cellar windows, covering them with coarse netting to keep out animals and with fine netting to keep out insects, and let the disease-killing oxygen and sunlight in. Malaria comes from the cellar, whenever the malarial mosquito can find there a breeding place. The writer has seen many cellars in which mos- quitoes were hving the year through in entire comfort, utihzing the moisture and warmth of the cellar to enjoy the winter months and up and ready for their mission at the first sign of spring. A cistern in the cellar is objec- tionable on this account, and if one exists, it should be covered with mosquito netting. Tlie old-fashioned privy. Another source of ill-health as well as of temporary discomfort is the typical construction and continued use of an outside closet or privy. The physical shrinldng from the use of the ordinary building is most reasonable. As generally constructed, great draughts of air (pre- sumably for ventilation) are continually passing through the small building, and when the temperature of the out- side air is at zero, or thereabouts, only the strongest physique can withstand the exposure involved without serious danger of consumption, influenza, and pneumonia, or at least inviting those diseases by reducing the vitality of the body. Two improvements suggest themselves and should be put into effect wherever this primitive construc- tion must continue to be used. In the first place, the building itself should not be fifty or a hundred feet away from the house, so that every one is exposed to rain, snow, slush, and ice in making the journey thither. But some corner of the woodshed or 62 Rural Hygiene bam should be utilized or the small building should be moved up by the back door and connected therewith by a roofed passage. The barn location is objectionable if it involves outdoor exposure in going from the house to the barn. A liberal use of earth in the privy vault will ehmi- nate odors, and a water-tight box or bucket makes a frequent removal of the night soil practicable. In the second place, a small stove ought to be provided to warm the closet in the coldest weather. Then the dishke to suffer from the cold, which leads so many to postpone nature's call, will be avoided, and the consequent digestive disorders which come from constipation and intestinal fermentations prevented. Cow stables. In matters of health, aside from ventilation, which is discussed in the next chapter, there is httle to be said con- cerning the other bmldings on the farm. Bams for hay are not involved. A few words may profitably be de- voted to barns for stock, involving, as they do, by their construction, the health of the stock. One enthusiastic farmer writes that it is possible for farmers to keep their stock at all times under conditions which are an improve- ment upon the month of June. He beheves that the cow stable should be as comfortable for the cows as the house is for the owner, subject to no fluctuations of tem- perature, and that, in this way, the health as well as the comfort and milk production of the cows would be main- tained. Light should be listed as the first essential of healthy stables, light to kill disease-producing bacteria, to make dirty comers and holes impossible, and to react on the Size of Cow Stables 63 vitality of the animals. Compare this with some stables, where fifteen, twenty, or thirty head are stabled in an underground dugout with two or three small windows not giving more than four square feet in all. Stable windows should be set, like house windows, in two sashes and capable of being raised or lowered at will. In winter a large sash may be screwed over the regular window to keep out frost and moisture, provided there is some independent method of ventilation. For good healthy conditions, a cow needs about 500 cubic feet of space, with active ventilation. In old stables, with poor construction, as httle as 200 cubic feet per cow was allowed, and when stables were made tight with matched boards and building paper, 200 cubic feet was found to be too small, and it was recommended that one cubic foot be allowed for each pound of cow. But when tried by wealthy amateurs, it was found that this was too large; the stables were damp and cold in winter and became a predisposing factor in the development of tuberculosis. Between the two extremes, 200 and 1000, is the practical average named above, namely, 500 cubic feet of air space for each cow. For the health of the cow as well as for the good quahty of the milk the stable should be built with special refer- ence to being kept clean. The ceiling should be dust-tight, so that if hay is stored above, it will not sift through. The part of the bam where the cows are kept should be separated from the rest of the barn by tight partitions and a door into the cow stable. Nothing dusty or dirty should accumulate. The floor of all stables for cows, horses, hens, and pigs should be of concrete to insure the most 64 Rural Hygiene sanitary construction. Planks absorb liquids and wear out rapidly under the feet of the stock. Concrete can be kept clean, is nonabsorptive, and if covered with some nonconducting material, like sawdust, shavings, or straw, is a perfectly comfortable floor for the animals. Use of concrete. No development of recent times has tended more toward the improvement and greater comfort of house building than the use of concrete. In the earlier houses, the cellar walls were so badly built and the connection between the top of the cellar wall and the timber sill of the house was so poor that the Avinter's wind blew through above to the manifest discomfort of those in the house. The writer remembers sitting in the best room of a well-to-do farmer, and watching, with great interest, the carpet rise and fall with the gusts of wind outside. To avoid such unhappy consequences, farmers have been accustomed to bank up the house outdoors in the fall mth dry leaves, spruce- boughs, or manure, usually to a point on the woodwork. This, of course, closes the cellar windows for the winter for the sake of keeping out the wind. A concrete wall, at the present price of cement, using gravel for the mixture instead of stone, need cost but little more than the price of the cement and the labor involved, and a tight cellar wall may thereby be obtained. If the soil in which the cellar is dug is firm enough, the outside of the excavation can be made so that no form on that side will be required, but it is always better to make the excavation about two feet more than necessary, to put forms inside and outside, and, after their removal, plaster or wash the wall with a thick cream of cement Use of Concrete on Farms 65 and water. In carrying the wall above the ground, forms must be used with great care to secure a smooth surface, and Fig. 13 shows two methods suggested by the Atlas Cement Company. Fig. 13. — Cellar-wall forms. There are so many forms of construction where con- crete is not merely a convenience but a great advantage in the matter of health around the house, and particu- larly a house in the country, that there would be no end if one once began enumerating and describing the various methods and processes involved. Besides the cellar walls and cellar floor, there are outside the house, silos, manure bins, walks, curbing, steps, horse-blocks, hitchirg and other posts, watering troughs, and drainpipe, all success- 66 Rural Hygiene fully made of this useful material. In the bam, the bam floor, the gutters, the manger and watering troughs, cooling tanks, and sinks are also made of cement. While it is possi- ble to differentiate between the methods and the mixtures for these various purposes, it will not be greatly in error if the construction always follows the following principle. Use enough cement to fill the voids in the gravel or in the sand and stone mixture employed, and have enough sand in the gravel or with the stone to fill the voids in the stone. This is readily determined, as already suggested, by the use of water. The water, which will occupy the voids in the stone, represents the necessary sand. When this amount of sand and stone is well mixed, the water then permeating the interstices represents the necessary cement, though it is a good plan to add about 10 per cent extra to allow for imperfect mixtures. The mixing should always be done so thoroughly that when put together dry, no variation can be seen in the color of the mixture. It is surprising to see how readily a streak of unmixed dirt or of unmixed cement can be detected in a pile by the difference in the color which it presents. Such mixtures should always be made dry first and then the water added and again mixed until the result is of a perfectly firm consistency. Such a mixture can be applied to any of the purposes mentioned, and, in general, it is better to have too much water than not enough. The only difficulty with a very wet mixture is that the forms require to be made nearly water-tight, whereas with dry mixtures the same attention to the forms is not necessary. If the concrete is to be used in thin layers, as in pipe or watering trough, where a smooth surface is wanted, better Method of Mixing Concrete 67 results are usually obtained by using a dry mixture and fine gravel and tamping the mixture with unusual thor- oughness. It is always unsafe to smooth up or re-surface a piece of concrete. The difference in texture of the sur- face coat causes it to expand and contract differently from the mass of concrete underneath, and inevitably a separation occurs. If it is desired to put on a sidewalk, for instance, a smooth top coat, the consistency of the two kinds of concrete should be ahke, and the top coat should be applied almost immediately after the bottom layer is put in place. Where concrete is used to hold water, a coat of neat cement should always be put on with a broom or a whitewash brush, mixing the neat cement with water in a pail, and it does no harm to go over the surface three or four times, the object being to thoroughly close the pores in the concrete. For floors of cellars or barns, the dirt should be evened off and tamped and then the cement concrete should be spread evenly over it, and tamped just enough to bring the water to the surface. When partially dry, a better finish is obtained by hghtly trowehng the concrete. In a cellar or barn, it is not necessary to divide up the area into squares or blocks as is done with sidewalk work, but the entire area may be laid in one piece. In order to keep the surface level, however, it may be found convenient to lay down pieces of 2"X 4" scanthng, the tops of which shall be on the desired level of the finished floor. By filling in behind these scantlings, which can be moved ahead as the filling progresses, the exact level desired can be obtained. Usually four inches thick will be a proper depth of con- crete for this purpose. CHAPTER IV VENTILATION The average individual breathes in and out about eigh- teen times a minute, taking into his lungs the air sur- rounding him at the time and expelhng air so modified as to contain large amounts of carbonic acid, organic vapor, and other waste products of the lungs. The volume of air taken in is about the same quantity as that expelled and amounts to eighteen cubic feet per hour. Fortunately, the air expired at a breath is at once rapidly diffused throughout the surrounding atmosphere, so that, even if no fresh air were introduced, the second breath inhaled would not be very different from the first. But after a certain length of time the air becomes so saturated with the waste products of the lungs that it is no longer fit to breathe, and it is evident that in order to keep the air in a room so that it can be taken into the lungs with any reasonable degree of comfort, there must be a continual supply of fresh air admitted with a proper provision for discharging polluted air. If this is not done, there is, so far as the lungs are concerned, a process established similar to that which is occasionally found when a village takes its water-supply from a pond and discharges its sewage into the same pond. 68 Effects of Breathing Bad Air 69 Not long ago, the writer found in the Adirondacks a hotel built on the side of a small lake which pumped its water-supply from the lake, and discharged its sewage into the same lake only a few feet away from the water intake. That the hotel had a reputation of being unhealthy, and that it had difficulty in filling its guest rooms, is not to be wondered at, and yet individuals will treat their lungs exactly as the hotel treated its patrons. Effects of had air. In order to establish a proper relation between the amount of impurities diffused through the air and the physiological effect on individuals breathing that air, certain observations have been noted and certain experi- ments have been made which prove without question the injurious effect of vitiated air. Professor Jacob, late Professor of Pathology, York- shire College, Leeds, gives the following example on a large scale, to show the results of insufficient ventilation: "A great pohtician was expected to make an important speech. As there was no room of sufficient dimensions available in the town, a large courtyard, surrounded with buildings, was temporarily roofed over, some space being left under the eaves for ventilation. Long before the appointed time several thousand people assembled, and in due course the meeting began ; but before the speaker got well into his subject, there arose from the vast multitude a cry for air, numbers of people were fainting, and every one felt oppressed and well-nigh stifled. It was only after some active persons had climbed on the roof and forcibly torn off the boards for a space about twenty feet square that the business of the meeting could be resumed." 70 Rural Hygiene Remembering that the process of breathing is for the purpose of supplying oxgyen to the blood and that the absorption of oxygen in the lungs is the same process which goes on when a candle burns, the following experi- ments were made by Professor King of the University of Wisconsin, to show the effect of expired air on a candle flame. He took a two-quart mason jar and lowered a lighted candle to the bottom, noting that the candle burned with scarcely diminished intensity. Through a rubber tube, he breathed gently into the bottom of the jar, with the result that the candle gradually had a reduced flame and was finally, extinguished. He observed also that if the candle were raised as the flame showed signs of going out, the brilliancy of the flame was restored, while lowering the candle tended to extinguish the flame. Even when the candle was raised to the top of the jar, the flame was ex- tirguished after sufficient air had been breathed into the jar. Clearly, then, he argued, air once breathed is not suitable for respiration, unless much diluted with pure air. He argued from this that if a candle using oxygen for com- bustion could not burn in expired air, therefore an indi- vidual using oxygen for the renewal of the blood could not be properly supplied in a room partially saturated with the expired products of the lungs. Professor King also experimented with a candle burning in a jar on which the cover had been placed, and found that the candle was extinguished in thirty seconds, and he argued that if a candle was thus extinguished on account of the carbonic acid given off, so a person shut up in an air-tight chamber would similarly be extinguished in the course of time. Experiment on Cows 71 To prove that expired air is poisonous to animal life, Professor King experimented on a hen, placing the same in a cylindrical metal air-tight chamber eighteen inches in diameter and twenty inches deep. The hen became severely distressed for want of ventilation and died at the end of four hours and seventeen minutes. In the Wisconsin Agricultural Experimental Station, an experiment was conducted for fourteen days on the effect of ample and deficient ventilation on a herd of cows. The stable was chiefly underground and had two large ventilators which could be opened or closed at will. The food eaten, the water drunk, the milk produced, and weight of the cows were recorded each day. For a part of the time the cows were kept continuously in the stable with all openings closed, and then the ventilators were opened, the alternate conditions being repeated at intervals of four days. The amount of food consumed was prac- tically the same under both conditions. The quantity of milk given was greater with good ventilation. The chief difference was in the amount of water consumed, since with the insufficient ventilation the cows drank on the average 11.4 pounds more water each, daily, and yet lost in weight 10.7 pounds at the end of each two-day period. Examination of the animals themselves also showed that a rash had developed on their bodies which could be felt by the hand and which was apparently very irritating, since it was so rubbed by the animals as to cause the surface to bleed. The evident teaching of the experi- ment is that under conditions of poor ventilation, it was impossible for the lungs to remove waste products to as great an extent as usual, and, therefore, the demand for 72 Rural Hygiene additional water was felt in order to stimulate greater action on the part of the kidneys to care for these waste products. That this was not a successful substitute was shown by the loss of weight in the animals, and by the irritation of the skin which evidently was trying to elimi- nate some of the remaining impurities through its surface. Modifying circumstances. Fortunately for mankind, it has not been customary, nor even possible, to build dwellings or stables approach- ing the air-tightness of a fruit jar. Air has great power of penetration, particularly when in motion, and a wind will blow air through wooden walls, and even through brick walls, in considerable quantity. It is practically impos- sible to build window casings and door frames so that cracks do not exist, through which air may find its way. When, however, in the wintertime, storm windows have been put on, or when, as occasionally happens, to keep out drafts, strips of paper are pasted carefully around all win- dow casings, or when rubber weather strips are nailed tight against the windows and doors, conditions are obtained which resemble the mason fruit j ar, and under those condi- tions, a person living continuously in such a room is experi- menting on himself as Professor King did with the candle. Another reason why it is difficult to make a room an air-tight chamber is that if a stove or fire-place be in the room, a strong suction is produced through the flame, and such suction requires the entrance of outside air. It is a common experience that a fire-place in a room otherwise tight will refuse to draw and will smoke persistently until a door or window is opened, when, a supply of air being provided, the fire is made bright and active. Experiments on Human Beings 73 Fortunately, the vitiation of the air in a room is never so severe as that in an experimental chamber, and there are few examples which can be cited of men or women dying from lack of ventilation in an ordinary room. But the serious aspect of inadequate ventilation is not that it actually induces death, but that it decreases the powers and activities of the various organs of the body; that it interferes with their normal processes, that it loads up in the body an accumulation of organic matter which is normally oxidized by fresh air and which, if not oxidized, obstructs the activities of other organs of the body. Danger of polluted air. Unfortunately, it is not possible to detect by the physi- cal senses that point at which the human organism suffers from insufficient ventilation. Some years ago. Dr. Angus Smith built an air-tight chamber or box in which he al- lowed himself to be shut up for various lengths of time in order to analyze his own sensations on breathing vitiated air. He found that, far from being disagreeable, the sensa- tion was pleasurable, and he says, "There was unusual delight in the mere act of breathing," although he had remained in the chamber nearly two hours. On another occasion he stayed in more than two hours without appar- ent discomfort, although after opening the door, persons entering from the outside found the atmosphere intolerable. He placed candles in the box, which were extinguished in a hundred and fifty minutes, and a young lady, who was interested in the experiment, going into the box as the candles went out, breathed it for five minutes easily; she then became white, and could not come out without help. 74 Rural Hygiene Nor is it possible to conclude from the experiments and observations cited that the body remains indifferent to polluted air until the latter has reached a certain definite saturated condition. There can be little doubt but that a degree of pollution far short of that necessary to produce death has a weakening effect on the human organism, and that by means of the increased functipnal activity of other organs doing work intended for the lungs the resist- ance to disease is much impaired. Life is a continual struggle of the bodily tissues against the attacks of the ■micro-organisms and their tendencies to destroy hfe,- hence inadequate ventilation or any other condition which interferes with the normal action of the organs of the body causes weakness and affords opportunity for the attack of some disease-producing germ. It stands to reason that an individual whose lung tissues have become soft and incapacitated must be more liable to succumb to disease than another whose lung capacity is large and whose blood has been continually and sufficiently oxygenated. Perhaps no more impressive proof of this is seen than in the ravages of consumption, which is so prone to attack those whose vitality is diminished by living in unhealthy and unventilated cellars or in crowded tenements. Sta- tistics are very definite on the subject of tuberculosis among Indians, who rarely suffer from the disease when living in tents or on the open prairie, but when they become semi-civilized and crowd together in houses heated through the winter months by stoves, the germs of tuberculosis take firm hold, and the deaths from this disease are greater in proportion to population among this race than any- where else. Composition of Air 75 Effect of change in air. This discussion illustrates another law of diseasa which makes the necessity for ventilation particularly great among rural communities where for nine months in the year outdoor hfe is freely enjoyed, namely, that when either an individual or people are brought under changed conditions, perhaps not unwholesome to those accustomed to them, those unaccustomed will suffer severely. So a lack of ventilation during the winter months in a farmhouse is very serious in its consequences to those who have had the full enjoyment of fresh air through the rest of the year. Reference has already been made (in Chapter I) to the prevalence of influenza in rural communities, and it is quite probable that this would be largely eliminated if the lungs were not deprived of their oxygen as they are in most houses on the farm/ Composition- of air. Ordinary air contains about 0.04 per cent of carbon dioxid; that is, four parts in ten thousand parts of air, the other nine thousand nine hundred ninety-six being made up of oxygen and nitrogen. Of course, it is not possible to express any definite value for the amount of carbon dioxid which is objectionable in air, because, in the first place, it is not certain that the carbon dioxid in itself is the cause of diminished vitality due to insuffi- cient ventilation, and, in the next place, insufficient venti- lation affects different people in different ways. But it is known that in the lungs the life-giving oxygen is changed to carbon dioxid, and that just as carbon dioxid gas will prevent the combustion of a candle flame, so carbon dioxid gas will destroy the fife of man. 76 Rural Hygiene When a deep well is to be cleaned out, the decomposi- tion of organic matter in the bottom of the well will have, in all probability, caused the formation of this same carbon dioxid gas, and it is not uncommon for a man descending into such a well to be overcome by the gas, which, in some cases, even causes death. For this reason, it is common to lower into a well, before it is entered by a man, a candle or lantern, on the probability that if the lantern can stand it, certainly the man can, while if the lantern goes out, it is wise to avoid the risk of having a man's life put out in the same way. Organic matter in air. The stuffy and close feeling perceived in an ill-ventilated room is, however, due to the organic matter from the lungs, which is expired along with the carbon dioxid, and some chemists have argued that this amount of organic vapor ought to be measured instead of the carbon dioxid. At the present time there is no simple and direct method of measuring organic vapor, and because this vapor in- creases in the atmosphere proportionately to the carbon dioxid gas, it is much simpler to measure the latter. Then it is impossible to fix a standard of carbon dioxid because a person whose lungs are well developed and whose blood is well oxygenated, or, as we say, one who has good red blood can stand, even if uncomfortable, a few hours of a bad atmosphere without suffering serious discomfort, while an anaemic or poor-blooded person would be affected to a greater degree. It is for this reason that in any house no living room, especially one heated by a coal stove, should be shut up tight against fresh air. This is the reason why the women of the family, who have to breathe Measuring the Impurities in Air 77 the same air over and over all day, are pale and weak and easily susceptible to disease, while the men, who are out of doors most of the time, and when indoors are made restless by the bad air, suffer much less from the ill effects. Experiments seem to show that when the amount of carbon dioxid in the air has doubled, that is, when the expired air mixed with the air in the room has increased the proportion of carbon acid from four parts in ten thou- sand to eight parts in ten thousand, that the air is seriously affected, and that such ventilation ought to be provided that no greater amount than this could occur. This is such a condition that the room smells "close" or stuffy to a person coming in from outdoors, indicating organic emana- tions as well as an excess of carbonic acid gas. The ques- tion then is: how may this condition be avoided in an ordinary house, or in an ordinary stable, because the health of the cattle on a farm, judging at least by the character of the buildings provided, is quite as important as the health of the farmer's family. We must take it for granted that no such elaborate schemes are possible as in public buildings or schools, where fans are provided, either to force air into the several rooms or else to suck it out. The ventilation of the house must be more simple and easily adjusted and must depend on the principle of physics that warm air rises and that if the warm air of a room is to be removed, air must in some way be suppHed to take its place. The two essentials for ventilation are opportunity for the ingress and the egress of air — ingress for fresh air and egress for polluted air. Fresh-air inlet. In the construction of a dwelling house, special and 78 Rural Hygiene adequate preparation for the admission of fresh air is seldom provided, so that the existing openings must be used for the purpose. This means that in the summer- time an open window will furnish all the fresh air which a room receives and, when the temperature of the outside air is approximately that of the Hving room, such provi- sion is ample and satisfactory. But in the wintertime, Fig. 14. — Letting in fresh air. when the outside air is cold, the average person will prefer to suffer from the bad effects of impure air rather than admit cold air which may cause an unpleasant draft. Window Ventilation 79 One of the simplest and best methods of providing an inlet for fresh air, without at the same time allowing blasts of wind to enter the room, is to fasten in front of the lower part of the window a board which shall just fill the win- dow opening; then, raising the lower sash a few inches will allow fresh air to enter both at the bottom, where the board is placed, and at the middle of the window be- tween the sashes (see Fig. 14). Persons sitting close by a window thus arranged may feel a draft even under these conditions, since the cold air thus admitted will sink at once to the floor and then gradually rise through the room to the ceiling, but unless one sits too near the window, this is an admirable method of admitting fresh air. Another method, where steam or hot-water radiators are placed in the room, is to connect the outer air, either through the lower part of the window or through the wall of the room just below the win- dow opening, with a space back of the radiator, so that the cold air entering will pass around and through the radia- Fig. 15. — Ventilating device. tor and so be warmed as it enters. The picture (Fig. 15, after Jacobs) shows the arrange- ment of the radiators in one of the buildings of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. A is the opening in the wall ^ f r ^ ^^'.kkkkkk^k^^kk^^'.'.k^'.^kk'.kkk^kk-.'.^'.k'.^^^'.'.^'.' 80 Rural Hygiene below the window; Z) is a valve which regulates the amount of air entering through the opening; R is the radiator ; S is a tin-lined box which surrounds the radiator ; T is a door in front of the box, which when raised allows the air of the room to be heated and to cir- culate through the radiator. By adjusting the two valves D and T, air of any desired temperature can usually be obtained. Figure 16 (after Billings) shows an English device intended for the same purpose. The valve D in this case operates to admit air, either through the radiator or to the space be- tween the radiator and the wall, in order to vary the temperature of the entering air. The valve T may be open or closed, and its position, together with that of the valve F, determines the proportion of the room air which is reheated. The writer remembers one schoolhouse where these methods were used successfully, the radiators being placed directly in front of the window and inclosed at the back, sides, and top, except for an opening to the outer air through the wall, properly con- trolled by a damper. In the writer's own office the radia- tors are by the side of the window and are boxed in, the connection being made with the outside air through a wooden box entering under the radiator. This is an ad- mirable method, provided the radiator has sufficient sur- face to warm the fresh air admitted. Another excellent arrangement is to provide a narrow Fig. 16. — Venti- lating device. Inlets and Outlets in Rooms 81 screen similar to that used for protection against flies, but with the screening material of mushn cloth instead of wire cloth. This mushn will break up the current of air so completely that no draft is felt by persons sitting even close to the open window. Position of inlet. The inlet for fresh air, if connecting directly with the out- side air, should not be at the top of the room, since then the inlet would not serve to admit air, but rather to allow the warm air of the room to escape, and a burning match would inevitably show a draft outward instead of inward. Neither is it desirable to have the fresh-air inlet near the floor of the room unless the entering air is warm, because cold air admitted will flow across the floor and remain there, not disturbing the warm upper layers. The effect then is not to improve the ventilation, but only to chill the feet of persons sitting in the room. The position of the window lends itself, therefore, to admission of fresh air, since it is neither at the top nor at the bottom of the room, but at the level most suitable for such admission. Foul-air outlet. Very few houses have any provision for the outlet of spent air, and if ventilation is thought of at all, the only idea usually is to provide, in part at least, for the admission of air and to make no adequate arrangement for its egress. Whenever a stove or fire-place is in use, the mere burning of fuel requires the consumption of air, and in cases where apparently no air is admitted to the room, insensible ventilation is at work bringing into the room, through the walls and through cracks around the doors and windows, the necessary air for combustion. 82 Rural Hygiene (Tr t T V- It may be proved by the laws of physics that a coal stove burning freely in a room causes adequate ventilation; and that only where the dampers of the stove are closed, so that not merely is the supply of fresh air diminished, but also the products of combustion are thrown out into the room, is there danger from lack of ventila- tion. The stovepipe in this case furnishes the necessary outlet for the impure air, and the following suggestion has been made in order to utiHze this outlet, even when the fire is not burning freely or when the damper in the stovepipe is closed. If the stove- pipe from a stove is carried horizontally, as it usually is, an elbow must be pro- vided to raise the pipe to the stove hole in the chimney. Then providing a T connection at the point marked A in Fig. 17 (after Billings), the lower part of the T may be carried to within a foot of the floor with a damper at the points B and C. T ■DDDD y ^ Fig. 17. — Ventilation by means of coal stove. Ventilation by Stoves 83 When the fire is burning freely, the damper at C is closed, and ventilation is secured through the stove, the damper at B being open. When the damper at B is closed and the fire checked, then the damper at C may be opened and the im- pure air drawn up the chimney from the level of the floor. This, it is said, is an effective ar- rangement for drawing off the polluted air of a room. Another method is to surround the stove with a sheet-iron casing, as shown in Fig. 18 (after Billings), the top of the casing having a pipe leading into the chimney independently from the stovepipe. The casing becomes warm and heats the room by radiation, just as the stove does, but if the damper in the flue from the casing be opened partly, a t. ,o ^ , . *-w , . FiG- 18. — Coal-stove ventilation. strong draft along the floor and into this casing will be developed and the foul air thereby discharged into the chimney. It will be easily 84 Rural Hygiene possible, of course, to carry away all the heat from the stove in this method, and the damper in the flue of the casing must be care- fully regulated to carry away only the desired amount of foul air. Still another method of using the heat of a stove to secure venti- lation is shown in Fig. 19 (after Billings). Here the stove is sur- rounded with a sheet- iron jacket extending from the floor to about six feet above that level. A pipe is car- ried from the outside air up through the floor directly under the stove. By regu- lating the damper in this pipe the supply of fresh warmed air entering the room can be regulated. Doors in the casing must, of course, be provided for the purpose of taking care of the fire, Fig. 19. — Coal-stove ventilation. Size of Inlets Necessary 85 and of allowing air from the room near the floor to be heated instead of the outside air. A most objectionable method of providing an outlet for polluted air from a room is to have a register in the ceiling with the ostensible purpose of warming the room above. It was the writer's misfortune once to stay a week in the country, in a room over the Idtchen where this method of heating was employed, and the odors of cabbage, onions, and codfish which permeated the upper room, and clung there all night, still remain as a most unpleasant memory. Size of openings for fresh air. As an indication of the size of the openings needed, it has been said that in order to provide the necessary air movement, and yet to restrict the velocity of the moving air so that no objectionable drafts will be experienced, at least twenty-four square inches sectional area should be aUowed as an inlet for each person, so that one square foot is required for six persons. This is, perhaps, a theoretical requirement. Certainly, it is more area than is likely to be obtained in actual ventilation. The space between two windows, for instance, is about one inch by thirty inches, — barely enough, according to this rule, for one per- son, and yet that opening is sufficient to appreciably improve the quality of the air in a room occupied by three or four persons. Taking into account the necessary air required by lamps or gas burners, the inlet flue should have at least ten square inches area for each person, so that the ordinary single register should provide the necessary amount of air for a living room. When, as happens in houses where a studied 86 Rural Hygiene ^//////////////// ///y//////////M ',• f //////////////M/y//M////7 7A Tig. 20. — Outlets into the walls. effort is made to preserve the health of the inhabitants, an outlet is cut into the wall and a flue carried up through the roof, the flue should be preferably near the floor and on the side of the room opposite the window or inlet. With such an arrangement (see Fig. 20) the air entering rises at first, but sinks at once because of the temperature, so that the direc- tion of the air currents are diagonally across the room from the ceihng to the floor, thus re- newing and changing all the air particles except those directly over the outlet. Where the air is introduced mechani- cally, that is, forced into the room, it is better to have the inlet and outlet on the same side, so that the entering air is shot in at the top, flowing across the room, then sinking and coming back, just below the point where it entered. Ventilation of stables. All that has been said on the subject of ventilation in houses apphes equally well to the ventilation of stables, and a little book by Professor King of the University of Wisconsin, entitled "Ventilation," deals most thoroughly with the principles and practices of ventilation, not merely for dwellings but also for stables. Professor King proves by his experiments that the condition of cattle is much improved and that the milk-giving quahties are increased by a proper supply of fresh air, and in the book referred to, he gives a number of examples of the proper construc- tion to provide adequate ventilation. It is most convinc- Heating vs. Ventilation 87 ing to see how unscientific is the old-fashioned underground stable, the sole idea of which was to conserve the animal heat by crowding together the cows and by absolutely excluding the outside air. For further details of his work, its principles and practices, the reader is referred to the book, which may be obtained from the author at Madison, Wisconsin. Cost of ventilation. To ventilate a house is expensive, and to ventilate a barn requires not only a certain expenditure of money but also a considerable amount of judgment. It is evidently cheaper to heat the same air in a room over and over than to be continually admitting cold fresh air, which will have to be warmed. This extra cost is, however, not excessive, when the movement of the air currents is properly con- trolled. The cost of warming the air necessary for ventila- tion for five persons should not be, at the rate of 1000 cubic feet of air to each person, more than ten cents a day in zero weather, with coal at five dollars a ton. Enough coal will have to be burned in addition to compensate for radiation, or, in other words, it requires a certain amount of coal to keep an empty room warm in winter without any question of ventilation, and in some badly built houses this amount is large. Relation of heating to ventilation. It does not follow because much heat is lost in this way that the ventilation is good, since the heated air may ascend to the ceihng and there escape without influencing the ventilation. In fact, one of the first principles of ventilation is that as soon as regular inlets and outlets are provided, all other openings ought to be rigidly closed. Then and then 88 Rural Hygiene only can the warmed pure air be admitted as desired, at the points intended, and the full value of the heat utilized. Especially is this control of openings important in ventilat- ing barns. Here each animal is a natural heater, warming the air by direct contact and by rapidly breathing in and out large volumes of air which are thereby changed to a temperature of over ninety degrees Fahrenheit. The air around their bodies being warmed rises to the ceihng and spreads out to the two sides and is there gradually cooled ;|i!!#^»5ll^^^^^S^5^^|§^#%W^^%#^ Fia. 21. — Cow-bam ventilation. and at the same time mixed with fresh air which enters at the top, so that the cow is constantly supplied with freshened air. A flue is needed to carry the foul air up through the roof, and fresh-air inlets in the outer walls on Influence of Construction 89 both sides are required, and with these openings carefully controlled and with no others interfering, the stable may be well ventilated, as shown in Fig. 21 (after King). In all cases where ventilation is to be practiced, the walls and ceiling should not merely be tight in themselves, but they should be double, and the strictest attention paid to hmiting the amount of heat lost by radiation. All the heat used ought to be concerned in ventilation, and in that only. To secure air-tight walls and ceiling, the studding and joists should be boarded in, both on the inside and out, and the space between should be filled with shavings, straw, dry moss, or any similar fibrous substance. The outside sheathing must be well laid and must be water- tight in order that rain shall not penetrate to the inside of the wall, and the roof must be tight so that the ceiling filling does not get wet and rot. The choice, therefore, so far as ventilation of either house or barn goes, lies between a poorly built, loose- jointed structure without artificial ventilation and with poor economy in heat, and a well-built, air-tight structure, with ample ventilating pipes, carefully and intelligently planned and built. The first is healthy so far as pure air is concerned, but drafty and uncomfortable. The second is more expensive to build, but insures lasting health and comfort. Then the choice cannot but fall on the building which is easy to warm, healthful to hve in, and readily ventilated. CHAPTER V QUANTITY OF WATER REQUIRED FOR DOMESTIC USE Until the last few years it has been a sad commentary on the intelligence of the average farmer that but few attempts have been made to supply the farmhouse with running water, adequate to the needs of domestic use. The men of the farm long ago realized that carrying water for stock in pails was both laborious and time-consuming, and very few barnyards have not had running water leading into a trough to supply the needs of cattle. In many cases this supply has been extended into the barn, and in some cases into individual stalls, so that the farmer has long since eliminated the necessity of hauHng water for his stock. Perhaps, because the farmer did not him- self carry the water, but rather his wife, he has until recently not concerned himself with any extension of the water-supply into the house, and so long as the well in the yard did not run dry, he felt that his duty had been done. To be sure, bringing water from the well to the house in mid-winter involves much exposure and sometimes real suffering ; occasionally the farmer has been moved on this account to have the well located in the woodshed or on 90 Advantages of Running Water 91 the back stoop, avoiding the long outdoor trip, but in- creasing the dangers of pollution to the water. It would be interesting to make a census of the farm water-supphes in any county for the purpose of estimating the intelligence of the farm-owners, since one cannot but feel that such a primitive water-supply argues, in most cases, an undevel- oped or one-sided intelligence on the part of the property owner. Modern tendencies. Happily, such primitive methods of bringing water to the house are being superseded by satisfactory installa- tions, and one by one, each farmhouse is being provided with running water in the kitchen sink and with a bath- room containing all the modern conveniences. One can- not deny that this costs money, both because of the pipe line necessary to bring the water to the house and because of the plumbing fixtures required in the house. Again, a water-supply in the house involves a well-heated house, since pipes not kept warm will, in the winter, inevitably freeze, ruining the pipe hne and perhaps the ceilings and walls of the house itself. But if the owner of a house has any money to expend in improvements, surely no better way of adding to the comfort and health of his family can be found. An abundant supply of water increases the self-respect of the whole family and has been known even to change the temper of an entire household. For another reason, also, it is a good investment, inasmuch as the quahty of the water supphed from a spring on a hillside is, generally speaking, better than that of a well surrounded by barnyards and privies. It has been said that the civilization of a community is 92 Rural Hygiene measured by the amount of soap that it consumes, and it is almost the same thing to say that the refinement of a household is measured by the amount of water it uses. The poorer a family, the greater struggle it is to keep up the appearance of cleanliness, and no surer sign of rapid progress on a downhill road can be found than neglect of those practices which tend toward personal neatness. As the life of the farmer, then, becomes easier, as his condi- tion becomes more prosperous, and as his family make more requirements, so, inevitably, is there in the farm- house a greater demand for water in the Idtchen, in the laundry, and in the bath-room. Quantity of water needed per person. Just how much water is needed in any house is not easy to predict, unless, at the same time, it is known, not merely the present habits of the family, but also their capacity to respond to the refining influence of unlimited water. It has been shown by measuring the amount of water used in families of different social standing in cities of New England that the amount of water varies directly with the habits and social usages of the family. For example, in Newton, Massachusetts, where there are a large number of small houses with the water-supply limited to a single faucet, it was found that the water used amounted to seven gallons per day for each person in the house, while in houses supplied with all modern conven- iences, the consumption of water was at the rate of twenty- seven gallons per day for each person. In Fall River, the conditions were much the same except that the poorer houses generally had one bath-tub and one water-closet, the amount of water used being eight and a half gallons Quantity of Water required for Domestic Use 93 per head per day, while the most expensive house in the city used twenty-six gallons per head per day. In Boston, the poorest class apartment houses used water at the rate of seventeen gallons per head per day, the moderate class apartment houses at the rate of thirty-two gallons, first- class apartment Ijouses at the rate of forty-six gallons, and the highest class apartment houses at the rate of fifty-nine gallons per head per day. The difference in these rates is easily understood by considering the habits of the indi- viduals who make up the different classes referred to. In the poorer class of houses, the workers of the family are gone all day, and are too tired when home to spend much time in bathing. The children of such households are washed only occasionally, and the external use of water is generally regarded as an unnecessary trouble. In those famihes, on the other hand, where the necessity for daily toil is not so pressing, where bathing is more frequent, and where ablutions during the day are more often repeated, the amount of water used is much larger. Another factor that affects the measured amount of water used in a family is the number of plumbing fixtures. At first sight, it would not seem possible that because there were two wash-basins in a house, an individual should use more water than if there were only one basin. Nor would it seem possible that an individual would take more baths with three bath-rooms available than if only one existed, and yet the number of fixtures does influence the indi- vidual who washes his hands frequently. With a wash- basin on the same floor, for instance, he washes often, whereas if it were always necessary to go upstairs for the purpose, his hands would go unwashed. Also, the more 94 Rural Hygiene fixtures there are, the greater is the amount of leakage, since every faucet will, in the course of time, begin to leak unless the packing is continually replaced. The amount of leakage is, therefore, in direct proportion to the number of fixtures. The amount of water used then, per head per day, varies from seven to sixty gallons, but only by an intimate knowledge of the habits of the "household can one predict the amount of water likely to be used. Perhaps as an average in a house having a kitchen sink and a bath-room containing a wash-basin, bath-tub, and water-closet, a fair estimate of the water used would be twenty-five gallons per head per day. This amount must be multi- pUed by a maximum number of persons to be in the house at any time, and then this number must be increased by the aihount of water used in the bam and in the yard, if these are to be supphed from the same source as the house. Quantity used in stables. The amount of water used in the barn is even more than that used in the house, a variant depending on the habits of the manager. The minimum quantity needed per day is determined by the number of pailfuls of water which each head actually drinks multiplied by the number of head. But besides this there are many other uses to which water may reasonably be put in connection with stock. On a dairy farm, there is the water needed to wash cans and bottles and in some cases to furnish a running stream of cold water for the aerator. In some stables a large amount of water is used for washing harnesses and carriages; In others, but a small amount goes for such purposes. Maximum Rate of Water-use 95 Some farmers have concrete floors in cow stables and pig pens and use a hose frequently to wash these floors clean. Other stables never see a stream of water and only see a shovel at infrequent intervals. The amount of water used outside the house is too uncertain a quantity to esti- mate on the average, but its influence and importance must not be overlooked. Maximum rate of water-use. It should now be noted that the quantity of water already referred to is the average quantity used through the twenty-four hours and does not mean the rate at which the water comes from the faucet. For example, three persons in a house use water, according to the above statement, at the rate of seventy-five gallons per day, but a whole day has 1440 minutes, and if seventy-five gallons be divided equally among the number of minutes, it means one gallon in every twenty minutes, or one quart in five minutes. It is obvious that no water-supply system for a house, designed to supply water at the aver- age rate for the twenty-four hours would be satisfactory, since no person would care to wait all day for the amount. To wait five minutes to draw a quart of water would try the patience of any one, and while the total amount of water used in the house will be seventy-five gallons, pro- vision must be made by which it can be drawn in small amounts at much higher rates. Practically all of the amount is used in the daylight hours or in twelve hours out of the twenty-four, so that the rate would be twice the average rate, and with this correction, two quarts of water could be drawn in five minutes. But even this is too slow, and if one were to take a quart 96 Rural Hygiene cup to a kitchen faucet and note the time necessary to fill the measure with the water running at a satisfactory rate, he would find that unless the cup was filled in about ten seconds it would be considered too slow a flow. Since it is possible for more than one fixture to be in use at the same time, the pipes ought to be able to deliver the total amount running from different faucets open, at the same time, and if it is considered possible for three faucets to run at once, as, for instance, the kitchen faucet, bath- room faucet, and barn faucet, then the supply pipe must be able to deliver, under our assumption, three quarts in ten seconds, or at the rate of about six thousand gallons a day. It is necessary, therefore, to distinguish carefully between the total quantity of water used per day and the rate at which such water is used. The first of these requirements governs the size of the reservoir from which the water comes or the yield of the well or spring, or the capacity of- a pump from a pond to a distributing tank ; the other requirement governs the size of the pipe or faucet or the capacity of a pump which supphes direct pressure. It should be noted also that with ordinary fixtures, the rate of delivery and the corre- sponding sizes of the fixtures are not affected by the number of persons in the house, whereas the first requirement, that is, the total quantity of water used per day, is directly affected by the number of persons. Variation in maximam rates of water-use. The quantity of water used, however, is not uniform throughout the day or the week. It is commonly known, for instance, that on IMonday, or wash-day, when the well is the only supply, a great deal more water has to be car- Water for Fire Streams 97 ried on that day than on any other day in the week, and this same increased demand for water is made when the water comes in pipes into the house. Probably about half as much water again is used on Monday as on other days. Again, in the hot weather of summer, more water is used for bathing and laundry purposes than in cold weather. But, on the other hand, there is a great tendency in cold weather to let the water run in a slow stream from faucets in order to prevent freezing. This has been found to just about double the amount of water used. It is only a reasonable safeguard, therefore, if it has been decided that the family needs are such as to require twenty-five gallons per head per day, to provide for double that amount in order to meet the demands of excessive daily consump- tion or of the hot and cold weather extremes. Fire streams. If a water-supply is to be installed for any house, the possibility of providing mains of sufficient size for ade- quate fire protection should always be considered, although it may not be found to be a necessary expenditure. In case of a fire a large amount of water is needed for a few hours, entirely negligible if it is computed as an average for the year, but a controlling factor in determining the size of mains or the amount of storage. A good-sized fire stream delivers about 150 gallons per minute, and for a house in flames, four streams are none too many. The rate of delivery, therefore, for a fire should be at least 600 gallons per minute or a rate of nearly a million gallons per day, and if it is assumed that the fire might burn an hour before being 98 Rural Hygiene extinguished, 36,000 gallons of water would be used. If a spring or tank is the source of supply, the storage should be 36,000 gallons, and the pipe line from the tank to the hydrants must be large enough to freely deliver water at the rate of 600 gallons per minute. If the distance is not over 500 feet, a four-inch pipe is sufficiently large; but if the distance involved (from the reservoir or tank to the farthest hydrant) is more than about 500 feet, four-inch pipe is not large enough. This is because the friction in a large line of pipe is so great that the water cannot get through in the desired quantity. A four-inch pipe, dis- charging 600 gallons a minute, would need a fall of one foot in every four feet, while a six-inch pipe would need a fall of only one in thirty. Of course, if the reservoir from which the water comes is at such an elevation that the greater fall is obtainable, the smaller pipe may be used. It is more than likely, though, that the reservoir is about 3000 feet or more away, and the entire fall available only about thirty feet or one foot in one hundred. Then an eight-inch pipe would have to be used. Whether fire-protection piping, therefore, is a wise investment or not, depends largely on the cost of instal- lation. A four-inch cast-iron pipe laid will cost about forty cents per running foot, while an inch pipe, large enough for everything except fires, will cost about ten cents, so that the excess cost per foot for the sake of fire protection is thirty cents, for a distance up to 500 feet (when the grade is 1 to 4) or $150. If the grade is not 1 to 4, then the pipe must be six-inch, and the excess cost is fifty cents or the cost for 500 feet will be .|250. If the distance is greater than 500 and the fall not great, so that Water-supply from Rain 99 an eight-inch pipe has to be used, the excess cost is sixty- five cents a foot, or $650 for a 1000-foot hne. It is sometimes possible to economize by building a large tank containing about 36,000 gallons and using only a small pipe to fill, but always keeping the tank full. Such a tank would contain 4800 cubic feet or would be twenty- two feet square and ten feet deep, or it may be twenty-five feet in diameter and ten feet deep. This tank would have to be erected in the air, higher up than the top of the build- ings, and would require heavy supports and a great ex- penditure. Unless, therefore, a convenient knoll or side- hill is available on which to build a concrete tank, the large pipe direct from the water-supply must be provided for fire protection. Whether it is worth while depends on the cost of insurance and whether it is considered cheaper to pay high rates for insurance or to spend the large sum for protection. A third choice is also open, namely, to carry no insurance and to install no fire hydrants and to run the inevitable risk of losing the house by fire. Perhaps the decision is a mark of the type of man whose property is concerned. Rain water-supply. It will often happen that no pond or brook is available for a water-supply, and if water is obtained, it must come directly from the rain. Apparently, this is quite feasible, since an ordinary house has about 1000 square feet area on which rain water might be caught and carried to a tank. In the eastern part of the United States, the annual rain- fall is, on the average, 3f vertical inches per month, or the volume of water from the roof will be 310 cubic feet. This is nearly 80 gallons a day, or enough for three or four 100 Rural Hygiene people. The rain from the house and barns might be combined, malving perhaps 5000 square feet, and giving an ample volume of water for the needs of a dozen people. In discussing the size of tank necessary to hold rain water for a family supply, it must be remembered that for many weeks at a time no rain occurs, and that a tank must be large enough to tide over these intervals of no rainfall. In the temperate zone there is no regularity in the monthly rates of rainfall. In the eastern part of the United States, the months of June and September are usually the months of least precipitation, although the general impression, perhaps, is that July and August have less rainfall than any other months. The truth is. that, while wells and rivers are low in July and August, the actual rainfall for those months is, not below the normal, and the low flows in the streams are caused by excessive evaporation and by the demands of gro^^'ing crops. Although June and Sep- tember have usually less rainfall than other months, in Boston the fall has been as high as 8.01 inches in June and 11.95 inches in September. Again, in Boston, typif^dng the eastern part of the United States, and taken because of the great length of rainfall statistics available there, the two months of highest rainfall on the average are March and August, and yet, in each month, in some particular year, the rainfall has been the lowest for any of the twelve months in the year. As shown by statistics, the average rainfall in each month, taking a period of forty years or so, is practically constant for each month, and it is only the deviations from the average which would make trouble in a supply tank depending upon rainfall. Fortunately, statistics also Rain-water Storage 101 show that while a month whose average rate of rainfall is three inches may be as low as three tenths of an inch, it is not often that two months of minimum rainfall come together, and in looking over the rainfall statistics the writer finds that for any three consecutive months, including the minimum, the amount of rainfall is generally two thirds of the monthly average for that year ; and this is stated in this way because it gives what seems to the writer a basis for determining a fair and reasonable capacity of a rain-water storage tank. It depends, one will notice, on the average annual rainfall ; that is, on the depth to which the rainfall would reach in any year if none ran off. This varies from about ten inches in the south- eastern part of the United States to one hundred inches in the extreme northwest, the average for the eastern part of the country being about forty-five inches, so that the monthly average is 3.75 inches. Computation for rain-water otorage. With this for a basis, it may be determined how large a storage tank ought to be, assuming a family of five persons using water at the average rate of 25 gallons per head per day or 125 gallons each day. Doubling this amount to take care of emergencies and of the extra water used in hot weather, let us say that 250 gallons a day must be provided, or 7500 gallons a month. If we could be sure of starting at the beginning of any month with the tank full and that exactly thirty days would be the period of no rainfall, then a tank holding 7500 gallons would be the proper size. Unfor- tunately, with any month, as August, in which the rain- fall maybe practically zero, the preceding month may also have been so short of rain that the consumption was 102 Rural Hygiene equal to or even more than the rainfall, and the month of August would start with no rain in the tank. But if we take a three-month period, those inequalities will be averaged and the supply will be, so far as one can foresee, ample in amount ; that is, we shall take the supply required in three months, namely, 22,500 gallons, and sub- tract from it the amount of water furnished in the three months, which is presumably two thirds of the average rainfall on the area contributing to the tank. The normal rainfall in three months is three times 3| inches, or 11^ vertical inches, and if this falls on a roof area of, say, 2000 square feet, the total amount of water is 1850 cubic feet or 13,875 gallons, and two thirds of this is 9250. The tank, then, must hold the difference between the 22,500 gallons and 9250, or 13,250 gallons, whereas a month's supply would be 7500 gallons. The actual tank, therefore, is made to hold a little less than two months' supply. Such a tank would be ten feet deep and fourteen feet square, a good deal larger tank, of course, than one ordinarily finds with a rain water-supply; but the estimate of the use of water has been high and a long period of rainfall has been assumed, so that there is little likelihood of a house with this provision being ever without water. Computation for storage reservoir on a brook. In determining the quantity of water that may be taken from a small stream the area of the watershed answers the same purpose as the area of the roof which delivers water into a tank, the only difference being that from the roof all the water is always delivered, except a small pro- portion that evaporates at the beginning of a rain in sum- mer. From the surface of a watershed, on the contrary, Storage on Small Brook 103 a large amount, and in some cases all of a stream, will be absorbed by the ground and by the vegetation and will never be dehvered into the stream which drains an area. On large streams it is fair to assume that, on the average, only one half of the rainfall on the area will reach the stream, while with sandy soils this may be as small as 20 per cent. From December to May inclusive, when the ground is frozen, when there is no vegetation to absorb the water, and when evaporation is very light, practically all of the rainfall reaches the streams. From June to August, on the other hand, when the soil becomes rapidly parched, when vegetation is most active, and when evaporation is high, frequently no rainfall reaches the streams and the ground water sinks lower and lower, so that often streams themselves dry up. It is necessary, therefore, in pro- viding for a definite quantity of water to be taken from a reservoir built on a small stream, to make the reservoir large enough to furnish water from June to September without being supplied with rain. This does not call for a very large dam or a very large storage, and three months' supply will usually be ample. We have already estimated above that the quantity of water needed for three months will be 45,000 gallons, or about 6000 cubic feet. If the reservoir is built in a small gulley or ravine, its width may be twenty-five feet. If the length of the reservoir or pond formed by the dam is 240 feet, then the reservoir will furnish 6000 cubic feet for every foot of depth, and a reservoir of that size holding one foot of water will tide over a dry season. Evaporation during these same three months will use up about a foot and a half in depth over whatever area the 104 Rural Hygiene reservoir covers, so that two and a half feet in depth must be provided above the lowest point to which it is desirable to draw off the water. It would be well to allow a depth of at least ten feet in order to avoid shallow, stagnant pools, and if this depth is provided, even more than the two- and-a-half foot depth mentioned might be withdrawn in extremely dry seasons, though perhaps at some reduction in the quality of the water. Deficiency from well supplies. A large number of water-supplies in the country, perhaps the largest number, at present comes from wells, either dug or drilled. It often happens that after plumbing fixtures have been installed wth a pump to raise the water to the necessary elevated tank, the increased consumption causes the well to run dry for a number of weeks in the summer. The question then arises. Shall the well supply be supplemented or shall an entirely new supply be de- veloped ? There are two methods of supplementing a dug well supply, and it may be of advantage to point them out. If the sand or gravel in which the water is carried is fine, it may be that the water will not at times of low water enter the well as fast as the pump takes it out. Such a well always has water in it in the morning, but a short pumping exhausts the supply. One remedy here is to provide a more easy path for the water, and that can be done by running out pipe drains in different directions. If there are any evidences that the underground water flows in any direction, then the drains should preferably run out at right angles to this direction, to intercept as much water as possible. The drains must be laid in trenches and be Deep Well Supply 105 nn B surrounded with gravel, and of course the method is inap- plicable if the well is more than about fifteen feet deep, because of the depth of trench involved. Another remedy is to sink the well deeper, hoping to find a more porous stra- tum or to increase the head of water in the well. In one well, the writer remem- bers seeing two lengths of twenty-four- inch sewer pipe, that is, four feet, that had been sunk in the sandy bottom of the well by operating a posthole digger inside and standing on the top of the pipe to furnish the necessary weight for sinking. Still another remedy is to drive pipe down in the bottom of the well, hoping to find artesian water which will rise into the well from some lower stratum. This method has been successfully employed in the village of Homer, New York, where the public supply formerly came from a dug well twenty feet in diameter. The supply becoming deficient, pipe wells were driven in the bottom and an excel- lent supply of water found fifty feet below the surface, the water rising up in the dug well to within eight feet of the sur- face of the ground. If the well is a driven well and the water in the casing falls so low that the -r, ^o -cr '^ . Fig. 22. — How a ordinary suction pump will no longer pump works. 106 Rural Hygiene draw, two remedies may be applied. A so-called deep- well pump may be used; that is, a pump which fits inside the piping and can be low- ered down to the water -. level. The ability to bring ^ WATER up water then depends on the power to work the pump and on the presence of the water. Figure 22 _. shows the principle oh which this pump works. At some point, it may be " three or four hundred feet " below the surface of the ground, a valve A opening upward is set in the well so that it is always submerged. ° Just above this is a second valve fastened to the lower end of the long pimip rod which reaches up to the °] engine or windmill which , ° operates the pump. At ■p each up stroke water is lifted by the closed valve B and sucked through the open valve A. At each down stroke, the water is held by the closed valve A and forced up through the open valve B. The other method of developing a greater quantity of "O. ■ ■ ■• /■ Fig. 23. - fi.i=^ ' ■ .>■"■ :'c • o : Pump installation. Air Lifts for Deep Wells 107 water from a deep well is to use air pressure to force the water either the entire distance to the tank or to a point where the suction of an ordinary pump can reach it, as indicated in Fig. 23. In this method an air blower is needed, and since this means an engine for operation, it is not generally feasible, but is suited to occasional needs, where an engine is already installed for other purposes and is therefore available. The operation is very simple. An air pipe leads from a blower and delivers compressed air at the end of the air pipe, which must be below the level of the water in the well. The pressure of the air then causes the water to rise, the distance depending on the pressure at which the air is delivered. CHAPTER VI SOURCES OF WATER-SUPPLY Having arrived at the quantity of water necessary to supply the needs of the average household, we must next investigate the possible sources from which this quantity can be obtained. Before the advantages of running water in the house are understood, a well is the normal and usual method of securing water, although in a few cases progressive farmers have made use of spring water from the hillsides. It is rare, indeed, for surface water, so called, to be used for purposes of water-supply until after modern plumbing conveniences have been installed. Then the use of surface water becomes almost a necessity because of the large volume of water needed. The only drawback to its use is its questionable quality. Without modern plumbing, a well meets the requirements of family life, but does not answer the demands of convenience. With modern plumbing, a well is found to be pumped dry long before the domestic demands are satisfied. The result is an attempt to secure an unf aihng supply, and for this a surface supply is sought. Let us divide, then, the possible sources of water for domestic consumption into two groups, those found under 108 Underground Waters 109 the surface of the soil and those found on or above the surface. In the first group will come wells and springs, and in the second group will come brooks, streams, and lakes. Underground waters. Springs result from a bursting out of underground waters from the confined space in which they have been stored or through which they have been running. Thus in Fig. 24 is seen how water falling on the pervious ■y.-^c 0^ '^M Fig. 24. — Diagram of a spring. area a-h is received into the soil and gradually finds its way downward between impervious strata which may be clay or dense rock. At the point B, where the cover layer has, for any reason, been weakened, the pressure of the water forces its way upward and a spring is developed at the point C. Or, conditions may be as shown in Fig. 25, where the confined water, instead of being forced upward by pressure, flows slowly out from the side of a hill, making a spring at the point D, while the water enters the pervious stratum at the point a-b as before. If the water is held in the ground as in the first case, 110 Rural Hygiene it is possible to develop the spring artificially; that is, to drill through or bore through the overlying impervious Fig. 25. — Water finding its way from a hillside. strata so as to allow the escape of the water. When this happens, the water bursts forth exactly as in a natural spring except that under some conditions the pressure may be sufficient to force the water rising in a pipe instead 'wrnmmm iiimmi'm WiSiimmk '^■^:<^^:^<^ W!00Mmii Fig. 26. — The sinking of wells. of through the ground to flow above the surface of the ground as a fountain or jet, maldng what is known as an Underground Water at Ithaca 111 "artesian well." A true well, on the other hand, may be put down in the ground and through strata where springs could never develop; that is, where no pressure exists in such a way as to bring the water to the surface, as in Fig. 26. The well here is sunk until it reaches the water, and it is safe to say that one can always reach a layer of water in the ground by a well if the well is deep enough. The flow of underground water is, however, always very uncertain and confusing, and even in localities where water would naturally be expected in quantity, as, for instance, in the bottom of a valley filled with glacial drift, much disappointment is often experienced because the expected water is not found. The city supply of Ithaca, New York, is a case in point. For six miles south of the, lake there is a broad, almost level valley filled many hun- dred feet deep with glacial drift and presumably filled with water flowing at some unknown depth below the surface into the lake. When the city was recovering from the typhoid fever epidemic which, in 1903, committed such ravages, well water seemed to the panic-stricken citizens the only safe water. Geologists were called in, and they gravely asserted that the valley contained glacial drift to a great depth and that an ample supply of pure water could be counted on. It was known that water was met all through this valley at depths of from six to twelve feet and then that there would be found a layer of finely powdered silt to a depth of about one hundred feet, when another layer of water would be found, and that all the private wells reached this layer. When tested by the city, however, it was found that this water-bearing stratum was 112 Rural Hygiene of too fine material to yield its water freely, and the supply from the depth was altogether inadequate. In one section of the town large quantities of good water were found at a depth of about three hundred feet, and the city thought that other wells of the same depth should add to the quantity, but experiment showed that this three hundred-foot water was limited to one particular section, and after a considerable expenditure of money, an under- ground water-supply for the city was given up. Ordinary dug well. The ordinary well at a farmhouse is what is known as a shallow well or sometimes a "dug well," usually ten to twenty feet deep. This type does not usually pierce any impervious layer and thus reach a water-bearing stratum, otherwise inaccessible. The water is found almost at the surface, and the depth of the well is only that necessary to reach the first water layer. A very good example of this kind of well is to be found on the south shores of Long Island Sound, where a pipe can be driven into the sand at any point, and at a depth of a few feet an abundant and cheap supply of water may be secured. The amount of water that such a well can furnish depends upon the area from which the water comes and upon the size of the particles of sand or gravel through which the water has to percolate, it being evident that the finer the material, the more difficult for the water to penetrate. The writer remembers superintending the digging of trenches in the streets of a city where the texture of the soil varied continually from clay to sand and even to gravel, all saturated with subsoil water into which wells could have been dug. It was very striking to see how the Shallow Wells ' 113 coarseness of the material affected the quantity of water that had to be piirnped from the trenches, — the finest sand requiring only one hand pump at a time, while the coarse gravel required either a dozen men or a steam pump to keep a short trench reasonably free from water. The same conditions exist when a well is in operation, modified by the fact that the coarse material yielding a larger supply will be most quickly exhausted unless the area drained is very large. A shallow well is most uncertain as to its quantity and is hkely to be of doubtful quality. There are, however, some examples of shallow well supplies which furnish large amounts of water; as, for instance, the one at Waltham, Massachusetts, or at Bath, New York, — the latter, a dug well some twenty feet in diameter and about twenty- eight feet deep, furnishing a constant supply of good water to a village of about 4000 people Construction of dug wells. The construction of shallow wells requires little com- ment. Ordinarily, they are dug down to the water, or to such a depth below the level of the water as is convenient, by the use of an ordinary boat pump to keep down the water, and then are stoned up with a dry wall. Such a well for a single house requires an excavation of about eight feet diameter, with an inside dimension of about five feet. If the soil at the bottom of the well is sandy, it is possible to take a barrel or a large sewer pipe and sink it into the bottom of the well in the water by taking out material from the inside and loading the outside to keep it pressed down into the sand. This same plan may be 114 Rural Hygiene used to sink the whole body of the well wall, first support- ing the lower course of masonry on a curb, so called (see Fig. 27). This curb is usually made of several thicknesses of two-inch plank well nailed together, the Su fface Wafer ' '^-Masonrij V//// IfS^' 'A ; e- Pipe '0^ O O O Curb ^Well Curb Surface: W\ Shoe, % ■ ■ Q .'O .fabfaei Fig. 27. — Mode of sinking a well. plank breaking joints in the three or four layers used. It is a good plan to have this shoe or curb extend outwardly beyond the walls of the well so that some clearance may be had, otherwise the dirt may press against the walls so hard as to hold it up and prevent its sinking. While this arrangement may be put down in water, it requires some sort of bucket which will dig automatically under water and has not been therefore a customary method Construction of Wells 115 except for large excavations where machinery can be installed. There is no reason, however, why the method might not be used for a single house. In whatever way the well is dug, one point in the con- struction that needs to be emphasized is that the wall Fig. 28. — A well that will catch surface waste. should be well cemented together, beginning about six feet below the surface and reaching up to a point at least one foot above the surface. This is to prevent pollution from the surface gaining direct access to the well, and if 116 Rural Hygiene this cementing is well done for the distance named, it is not hkely that any surface pollution in the vicinity of the well could ever damage the water. Figure 28 shows the section of a well where no such precautions have been taken, and it is evident that not only surface wash, but subsurface pol- lution may readily con- taminate the water. Figure 29 (after Im- beaux), on the other hand, shows a shallow well properly protected by a good wall and water- tight cover. Figure 30 shows a photograph also of this latter type of well. Even if a cesspool or privy is located danger- ously near the well, in the second case the fact that the contaminating influence must pass down- ward through at least six feet of soil before it can enter the well is a guar- antee that the danger is reduced to the smallest possible terms. Deep wells. Deep wells are of the same general character as shallow wells. Usually, the ground on which the rainfall ^ Fig. 29. — A well properly protected. Deep Wells 111 occurs is more distant, so that the source of the water is often unknown, and usually, also, the stratum from which the water comes is overlaid by an impervious one. Fig. 30. — A properly protected well. It often happens that there are several layers of water or of water-bearing strata alternating with more or less impervious strata, and that wells might be so dug as to take water from any one of them. Indeed, not infrequently in driving down a pipe to reach water, a fairly satisfactory 118 Rural Hygiene quantity is obtained at a certain level, and then, in order to increase the supply, the pipe is driven further, shutting off the first supply and reaching some other, less abundant. Deep wells are reached usually by wrought- iron pipe driven into the ground. Sometimes this is done by taking a one-and-one-quarter- inch pipe, with its lower end closed and pointed, and driving it with wooden mauls into the ground. When it has gone six or eight feet, it is pulled up, cleared from the earth, and replaced, to be driven six feet again. With ordinary soil, the pipe is easily withdrawn with a chain wrench, and two men will drive one hundred feet in a couple of days. When water is reached, a well point is put on through which water may percolate without carrying too much soil. This type of well is suitable for use in soft ground or sand, up to depths of about one hundred feet, and in places where the water is not abundant. It is most useful for test- ing the ground to see where water may be found and by pumping from such a well to see what quantity of water may be expected. This type is often Fig. 31. — Well-drilling apparatus. Machinery for Drilling Wells 119 used as a shallow well, and the author has seen such wells driven only a dozen feet. Such a well has no pro- tection against pollution, and an ordinary dug well is better for shallow depths. A driven well always has a disadvantage also from the ever present danger that the iron pipe will rust through at the top of the ground water and so admit to the well the most polluted part of the drainage. For larger supplies and for greater depths, a machine like a pile-driver has to be used for forcing down the pipe. This is not usually removed, but driven down as far as possible, and when the limit of the machine has been reached, a smaller size is slipped down inside the driven pipe, to be in turn driven to refusal. In rock, that is, if the well has to penetrate a layer of rock, a drill is used that will work inside of the pipe last driven, and by alternately lifting and dropping the drill, and at the same time twist- ing it back and forth, a hole through rock may be made many hundred feet below the surface of the ground. Figure 31 shows a cut of a common type of well-drilling machine. In some soils, not rock, it is necessary to keep the drill going in order to churn up or soften the earth so that the pipe may be lowered. The churned-up soil is removed by a sand pump, which is a hollow tuJ^e with a flap valve at the lower end opening inwards and a hook on the upper end. By alternately drilling, pipe-driving, and pumping the wet material, length after length of pipe can be forced into the ground until water of a satisfactory quantity is reached. Very often a jet of water is used to wash out the dirt from the interior of the well instead of a sand 120 Rural Hygiene Rope to 2^ Drum. 3*~ Water Pressure. 2" movable Nozzle Pipe. Ham mer pump. As shown by Fig. 32 water under pressure is forced down the small pipe A which runs to the bottom of the well. The large pipe B can then, as the sand is loosened by the water, be driven down by the one thou- sand-pound hammer M. The water and sand together flow up in the space outside the small pipe and inside the large pipe, overflowing through the waste pipe W . This type of well has been very largely used throughout New York State; on Long Island, in connection with the Brooklyn Water-sup- ply; along the Erie Canal, in connection with the Barge Canal Work, and in New York City, in connection with build- wasfe Pipe, ing foundations. Sometimes, when a shallow dug well does not furnish the required quantity of water, the amount of water can be in- creased by driving pipe wells down into water strata below the one from which the dug well takes its supply, so that water will rise to the strata penetrated by the dug well. This has been done to in- crease the public supplies at Addison and Homer in New York State. Unfortunately, much uncertainty exists in >■ Permanent Caaina Pipe. Fig. 32. — Sinking a well by- means of a water-jet. Cost of Driven Wells 121 the matter of the yield of driven wells, and an individual undertakes a deep well usually with great reluctance on account of the expense involved and the uncertainty of successful results. In level ground, conditions are not likely to vary in the same valley, so that if one well is proved successful, the probabilities are that wells in the vicinity will be equally so, and yet, at some places, the contrary has proved to be true. One may estimate the cost of putting down four-inch driven wells as approximately one dollar per foot besides the cost of the pipe, which will be about fifty cents per foot. The cost of one-and-one-half-inch pipe would be considerably less than fifty cents, the cost of driving varying not so much with the size of the pipe as with the soil conditions. The writer recently paid ninety dollars for driving two' one-and-one-half-inch wells to a depth of about one hundred feet, the above cost including that of the pipe ; the soil conditions, however, were very favor- able. In Ithaca the cost of driving one-and-one-quarter- inch pipe is fifteen cents per lineal foot up to about fifty feet deep with the cost of the pipe fifteen cents per foot additional. Below fifty feet deep the cost increases, since the labor and time required for pulling up the pipe is largely increased, and at the same time the rate at which the pipe will drive is notably diminished. The question of pumping from wells will be considered in a later chapter, together with methods of construction and operation. Springs. Springs should be the most natural method of securing water-supply for a detached house, since no expense is 122 Rural Hygiene rmammmx'',': involved except that of piping the water to the building. In Europe, spring water-supplies have been greatly devel- oped in furnishing water for large cities. Vienna, for example, with its population of nearly two millions, obtains its water-supply from springs in the Alps moun- tains, and many smaller cities do likewise. But in this country springs have been little used for water-supplies, partly because of the uncertain quantity furnished and partly because of difficulty in acquiring title to the water rights. If an individual, however, has on his farm, or within reach, a spring furnishing a contin- uous supply of water, it would seem quite absurd not to make use of such a Heaven- sent blessing. Care must be taken always that a spring is not contaminated by sur- face drainage, and for this reason, as with shallow wells, the wall surrounding the in- closed spring should be extended above the ground and made impervious to water for at least six feet below the surface. In some cases it may be wise to con- vert an open spring into an underground one, putting a roof over all and then covering with earth and sod. Fig- ure 33 shows a type suggested by the French engineer, M. Imbeaux. Fig. 33. — An inclosed spring. Water from Springs 123 Very often a larger supply from a spring may be ob- tained by collecting into one basin a number of separate and smaller springs. A swampy or boggy piece of ground is often the result of the existence of a number of springs, and if drains are laid to some convenient corner of the field, and a well dug there, into which the drains will discharge, not only will the swamp be drained, but an ample supply of water in this way be obtained. It would, of course, not be wise to have cows pasture in this part of the fiield, nor, even when the ground has been dried out, should this field be manured or cultivated. It should rather be fenced and left to grow up in underbrush, dedi- cated to the farm water-supply. Extensions of springs. Again, if the water comes from a stratum TT'-TT', as shown in Fig. 34, a large additional yield can be obtained by extending the spring from the point where it breaks out along the edge of the water-bear- ing stratum on each side. This extension or gathering conduit can be made by build- ^^^^jj^wrw;?^.,,, ing rough stone walls Fig.34.— A spring extension. on each side of the ditch, covering with fiat stones so as to form a pervious channel to intercept the water and lead it to the chamber from which the supply pipe to the house leads out. The ground-water level will then be altered as shown by the broken line in the draining. 124 Rural Hygiene More simply it may be made by digging a trench along the hillside at the same level as the spring, or into the spring if necessary to find the water, and then laying draintile surrounded by coarse gravel or broken stone in the trench. In the western part of the country much knowledge has been gained by investigating and experimenting on this kind of spring water development, only there the springs have been made artificially by digging down to meet the underground flow of water. For example, in the Arkansas River Valley, California, where it was suspected that water was flowing underground, a trench was dug transversely across the valley, and at a depth of six feet sufficient water was found to amount to 200,000 gallons per day for each one hundred feet of trench. On the South Platte River, near Denver, much the same thing has been done, and in a trench eighteen feet deep, water is collected at the rate of a million and a quarter gallons per day for each one hundred feet of trench. Other exam- ples of the same sort might be given. For a single house, the spring need usually only be ex- tended by means of a short trench, and three-inch terra- cotta tile should be laid in the trench and surrounded by gravel and then covered over. The spring receiving water from these tiles should be inclosed, as will be described in a later chapter. Supply from brooks. Whenever a spring is not available and at the same time a supply of running water by gravity is determined on for a house, recourse is generally had to brooks which may find their way down the hillsides in the vicinity. In many Water from Brooks 125 instances -the water in such brooks is practically spring water and is the overflow of actual springs. Where the brook is not subject to contamination between the spring and the point at which the supply is taken, the latter is as truly spring water as the former, and if a long length of pipe is saved, there can be no objection to the brook supply. On the other hand, it is suggestive, at least, of misrepresentatioii for a summer hotel or boarding house to advertise that their water-supply comes from springs when really it comes from an open brook miles away from the spring which may be indeed the origin of the brook, but with so many intervening opportunities for contami- nation that the pure original source is unrecognizable. There are two obvious drawbacks to the use of brooks: (1) that the quality of the water is, in many cases, objec- tionable, and (2) that brooks are very apt to dry up in summer on account of their limited watersheds. The discussion on the first point will be postponed to a later chapter, and we have now to consider the question of quantity only. The wisest plan before deciding on a brook supply is to measure the volume of water which flows in the brook at the time when it is lowest, probably about the middle of August., The actual volume of water needed for the household h not large, although its required rate of flow may be high and, as already pointed out, a stream which furnishes water at the rate of one quart in five minutes is sufficient for a family of three persons, a rate which is almost a drop-by-drop supply. Such a stream would re- quire a reservoir somewhere in order to supply the faucets at the proper rate, and for a single family a small cistern or 126 Rural Hygiene even a barrel sunk in the ground would be sufficient for this purpose. An objection to the utilization of so small a flow in connection with the smaller storage is that the temperature of the water in summer is so raised that vege- tation and animal growths take place easily and freely, so that the taste and smell of such water is most disagreeable. These consequences can be avoided even with the low flow Fig. 35. — A reservoir for home use. by increasing the storage, since the larger quantity of water has been found to resist the bad effects of the low flow and high temperature. Figure 35 shows a small reservoir actually in use to supply water for a single house. Water from Ponds 127 Storage reservoirs. But even if the stream actually dries up for two or three months, it is still possible to use it for water-supply, pro- vided a suitable location for a dam and pond can be found where storage, as described in the preceding chapter, can be secured. For this reason as well as for the greater benefit to the quality of the water, brooks flowing through rough, wooded, and uninhabited country are to be pre- ferred as a source of water-supply to brooks flowing through flat agricultural land, and in many cases, where their flow is largely due to springs, the brooks themselves may compare favorably with springs in quality. Ponds or lakes. Water may be properly taken from ponds or lakes when- ever the danger from pollution is negligible. No better source of supply can be imagined than a pond in the midst of woods, far away from human habitation, presumably furnishing an unlimited supply of pure soft water. Some- times water from such ponds contains large amounts of vegetable matter, the result of decomposition of swampy or peaty material, as, for instance, from the ponds in the Dismal Swamp of Virginia, so that the water has a yellow, coffee-colored appearance. The appearance of such water is suspicious, but it need not be feared unless something more pernicious than the coloring matter is present. As the country becomes more settled, ponds are more and more likely to become contaminated and hence unfit for a water-supply, and this possibility must be taken into account in planning for a water-supply. It would be most shortsighted to carry a long line of pipe from a house to a pond several miles away, only to have the pond made unfit 128 Rural Hygiene for use within a few years by the growth of the community around the pond. The possibihty of cooperation ought not to be overlooked, however. It is quite possible that half a dozen householders might be so located with respect to each other and to a pond that an arrangement could be made whereby the owner of a small pond would agree to fence it around and dedicate it to the purposes of a water- supply, doing this as his share. The others might then well afford to pipe the water to one house after another, including that of the owner of the pond. Water from a pond or lake has one great advantage over water from a brook, namely, that contaminating substances in the pond settle out, so that pond water, especially if the pond is deep, is always of much better quality than running water. For this same reason, water taken from a reservoir on a stream is much better water than that in the stream above the reservoir indicates, and pollution is much less to be feared where the reservoir exists. Pressure for ivater-suppUes. The value of a high pressure in the water-pipes of a house has been much overestimated. For a number of years the water-supply in the writer's residence came from a tank in the attic, the pressure in the bath-room being not more than ten feet, and while the water flowing through a three fourths inch pipe was noticeably slow, it was not so slow as to discredit the supply. A height or head of twenty feet above the highest fixture in the house would be better and ought to be secured when- ever possible. This head is obtained by having the source of supply higher than the highest fixture, not merely the Pressure for Water Supplies 129 twenty feet mentioned, but also an additional height neces- sary to offset the frictional losses caused by the running water. The loss from this source in case of fire supply has already been referred to, but for purely domestic supplies the loss is appreciable. The maximum rate as already indicated is not more than 7000 gallons per day, whereas the fire rate both for single houses and for a small hamlet is about a million gallons a day. For the lower rate, as well as for rates one half and twice this rate, the friction loss in vertical feet per 100 feet run in small pipes is shown in the following table : — Table X. Showing Loss of Head by Friction, for Dif- ferent QrAXTiTiES op Flow, and in Different Sizes OF Pipes Rate of Flow IN Gallons 1/2" Pipe %" Pipe %" Pipe 1" Pipe 11/4" Pipe Per Day 3500 13.95 4.81 2.35 0.66 0.25 7000 47.17 17.30 7.45 2.04 0.74 14000 163.09 57.8 25.00 6.64 2.41 The table shows how much additional elevation is needed over the 20 feet already referred to. For example, suppose it is decided that a rate of 1 quart in 10 seconds is to be maintained from three faucets or a rate of 7000 gal- lons per day. Suppose that a pond 4000 feet away is found to be 50 feet above the highest faucet in the house, and it is a question what size pipe ought to be used. By the table a 1-inch pipe loses 2.6 feet per 100 feet or 104 feet in the 4000 feet, an impossible amount when only 130 Rural Hygiene 50 feet are available, although the size would be entirely proper if the difference of level was 124 feet or anything greater. A l^-inch pipe, however, loses only 0.74 foot in 100 or 39 feet per mile, so that the 1 j-inch pipe would be necessary, although that size would answer even if the pond were a mile and a quarter away. When water from a well is pumped to an elevated tank there is the same necessity of providing about 20 feet difference in level between the tank and the highest fixture, but the length of pipe involved being small, the friction losses are not great. It should be noted even here that too small a pipe may reduce the pressure, a |-inch pipe causing a loss of 47 feet in a 100-foot pipe line. If a tower is built by the side of the house, the distance down to the ground, across to the house, and up to the second floor would hardly be less than 50 feet, and this is a loss of 23j feet, which means that the tank would have to be set higher in the air by this amount. With a |-inch pipe, it should go 3.7 feet, and with a 1-inch pipe but a foot higher than the level necessary to make the water flow out of the faucet at the rate already specified. CHAPTER VII QUALITY OF WATER A PURE water-supply has always been regarded as desir- able and its value can hardly be overrated, from the stand- point of health, happiness, or economy. From the earliest history, no crime has been so despicable as that of deliber- ately poisoning a well from which the public supply was obtained, and in the past no charge more quickly could stir the populace to riot. In Strassburg in 1348 two thousand Jews were burned for this crime charged against them; and as late as 1832 the Parisian mob, frantic on account of the many deaths, insisted that the water-carriers who distributed water from the Seine, shockingly polluted with sewage as it was, had poisoned the water, and many of the carriers were murdered on this charge. Yet no water, as used for drinldng purposes, is abso- lutely pure, according to the standards of chemistry. Distilled water is the nearest approach to pure water obtainable, and it is said by physicians that such water is not desirable as a habitual and constant beverage. The human body requires certain mineral salts particularly for the bones and muscles, and while these salts are pro- vided in a large measure by food, a number are also fur- 131 132 Rural Hygiene nished by drinking water. On the other hand, a wonderful natural process is accomplished by distilled or approxi- mately pure water in that the water tends to dissolve, to add to itself, and to carry away whatever excess of solids may exist in the body. For certain kidney diseases, for example, pure water is prescribed, not merely as a means of preventing further accretions, but for the purpose of dissolving and removing the undesirable accumulations already existing. Practically, considerable latitude is possible in the matter of the purity of drinking water, and no particular harm is to be apprehended by the constant use of either a water containing as little as ten parts per million of total solids or of water containing as much as three hundred parts per million of total solids. The human body, in this as in so many other ways, is so constituted as to be able to adjust itself to varying conditions of food, and, until an excessive amount of ingredients are absorbed, no great harm is done. There are, however, certain definite sub- stances — animal, vegetable, and mineral — which, when found in water, are decidedly objectionable, and it is not the amount of foreign matter in a water-supply, but its character, which is of importance in a water to be used for drinking. Mineral matter in water. The mineral matter is the least objectionable as it is also the most common, since all water is forced to partake, more or less, of the nature of the rocks and soil over which it passes. Good waters contain from twenty to one hundred grains per gallon of mineral salts; that is, of various chemical substances which are able to be dissolved Effects of Hard Waters 133 by water. If the amount is much in excess of one hundred parts, the water is noticeably "hard," and this may increase to a point where the water cannot be used. For example, the writer once superintended the locating and drilling of a well which passed through a bed of sodium sulphate or gypsum, just before reaching the water, so that as the latter rose in the well it dissolved and carried with itself a large amount of this salt, so much that the water was useless. Water containing more than one hundred grains per gallon of such salts as magnesium sulphate or sodium phosphate is a mineral water rather than a good drinking water, and while an occasional glass may do no harm or may even have desirable medicinal effects, such a water is not fit for constant drinking. It is worth noting that many attempts have been made to show the relative effect of various hard waters on the health. A French commissioner reported that appar- ently people in hard-water districts had a better physique than in soft-water districts. A Vienna commissioner also reported in favor of a moderately hard water for the same reason. It is to-day believed by many that children ought to have lime in water; that is, ought to drink hard water to prevent or ward off " rickets " or softening of the bones. An English commissioner, on the other hand, has concluded that, other things being equal, the rate of mortal- ity is practically uninfluenced by the softness or hardness of the water-supply. This same commissioner has also shown that in the British Isles the tallest and most stalwart men were found in Cumberland and in the Scotch Highlands, where the water used is almost invariably very soft (Thresh 's "Water-supplies"). 134 Rural Hygiene It has been asserted that certain diseases, not neces- sarily causing death, are caused by hard water, as calculus, cancer, goiter, and cretinism; but, as already pointed out in Chapter II, no satisfactory proof has ever been estab- lished. One must conclude that within reasonable limits there is little to choose between a hard and soft water for drinking purposes, although a change from a soft water to a hard, or vice versa, usually produces temporary derangements. Loss of soap. For washing purposes the value of a soft water is more marked. When a hard water is used, a certain amount of soap is required to neutralize the hardness before the soap is effective, and this takes place at the rate of about 2 ounces of soap to 100 gallons of water for each part of calcium carbonate per gallon, or about 3 ounces of soap to 10.000 gallons for each part per milhon increase in hard- ness. The village of Canisteo, New York, has a hard spring water, the hardness being recorded by the State Department of Health as 162.8 parts calcium carbonate in a milhon parts of water. Clifton Springs water has a hardness of 208. Catskill, New York, which gets its water from a stream running down from the hillside, has a hardness of 22.1 or 140.7 parts less than Canisteo. Mr. G. C. Whipple says ("Value of Pure Water") he has found that 1 pound of soap is needed to soften 167 gallons of water when that water has a hardness of 20 parts per million, and that each additional part requires 200 pounds of soap to soften a million gallons. If Clifton Springs and Catskill should each use 100,000 gallons per day, the Soap Needed with Hard Waters 135 additional cost of the hard water, at five cents a pound for soap, would be 20X140.7X0.05 = $140.70, provided all the village water were neutralized with soap. Probably not over one fiftieth part of the water is so neutralized, so that the added cost of soap is actually about $2.80 a TT day. Whipple expresses this cost as = D, where H is the hardness in parts per million and D is the cost in cents for every 1000 gallons used for all purposes. Thus 162 8 Canisteo water costs [^ = 1.6 cents per 1000 gallons 22 1 used, while Catskill costs only -x^ror 0.2 cent on account of soap. This discussion is intended to suggest a comparison between a well of hard water and a surface supply of soft water, when both are available. It should arouse an interest in securing a soft water as well as a clear water, and the advantages of the softer water, in so far as soap consumption alone is concerned, are seen to be not incon- siderable. Vegetable pollution. The vegetable and animal matter is organic in its origin and nature, and their effect on water may be taken up together. Vegetable pollution is generally the result of decayed leaves, roots, bark, and such other vegetable tissue as would be likely to be found where the water-supply flows through a swamp or accumulates in hollows and depressions. This sort of water is likely to have a brownish or yellow- ish brown color, to have a slightly sweetish taste, and to 136 Rural Hygiene be soft, that is, free from mineral solids. Usually such water can be used for drinking purposes without serious consequences, ^sthetically, it is objectionable because of its color, and the city of Boston has expended many thousands dollars in building channels around swamps and in providing artificial outlets for swamps, so that the color of the water collected on the watershed shall not show the color induced thereby. Water from the Dismal Swamp of Virginia is so discolored as to look like coffee, and yet, in the vicinity, it is much prized for drinking, and formerly great pains were taken to fill casks with this water when in preparation for a long sea voyage. Such matter always has a marked influence on a chem- ical analysis of the water, shows large amounts of nitroge- nous matter, and apparently indicates a polluted supply; but, if the reason for this apparent pollution lies in the presence of a swamp, no danger to health therefrom is to be apprehended. Such water also is less subject to decay or putrefaction, and if a water-supply for a house is to be taken from a small pond, a gathering ground contain- ing swamps is likely to furnish a more satisfactory water, color alone excepted, than one free from such swamps. Pollution of water by animals. Animal pollution usually comes from the presence on the watershed of domestic animals, that is, cows, sheep, and horses, or from manure spread on fields draining into the brook, or from barns or barnyards close by the water. It is the presence of this sort of pollution that furnishes the other kind of organic matter not to be distinguished by chemical analysis from the organic matter just referred to, but vastly more objectionable. Animal Pollution of Water 137 Drainage from houses and barns is responsible for the same kind of animal pollution, and while it is difficult to prove by statistics that such pollution is always danger- ous to health, it is sufficiently repulsive from an aesthetic standpoint to be done away with whenever possible. Such pollution applies only to surface water, such as brooks or lakes, and the best method of detecting and evaluating this pollution is to make a careful inspection of the water- shed. If it is proposed to use the water from a certain stream for drinking purposes, the first step should be to examine carefully the area draining into the stream, to detect, if possible, all opportunities for animal wastes to find their way directly into the stream and to note whether fields sloping rapidly to the streams are manured; to see whether the stream flows through pasture land in which cows are kept, and especially to note whether houses with their accompanying outbuildings are near enough the brook so that water may at any time wash impurities down into the stream. Whenever a brook flows through woodland free from all animal pollution and not subject to pollution before entering the wood, the water is probably as pure as that in any spring or well. On the contrary, when the water in a brook flows through a meadow used for pasture or through gullies, the sides of which are manured, or in the vicinity of houses and barns, the water is probably unfit for drinking purposes. This can be realized by standing at the edge of a barn- yard and watching the rain falling first on the roof of the barn, then in larger quantities from the eaves on to the manure pile into the yard below, then accumulating in 138 Rural Hygiene pools of reddish black concentrated liquid, until the volume is sufficient to form small rills which gradually assemble into a fair-sized stream. Similarly, the pig-pen drainage is washed out from under or even through the building, and, after combining with the barnyard drain, is carried into the stream near by. The very idea of drinking such filth is nauseating in the extreme. It is common for small slaughter-houses to be built on the side of a stream, so that the offal, carrion, and refuse of the place may be carried off without effort on the part of the owner, and there are a number of such places where brooks, used as places of deposit for slaughter-house refuse, dis- charge directly into the reservoirs of water works. But this sort of animal refuse is not the most serious pollution. The leachings and washings from privies and cesspools, carrying, as they do, germs of contagious dis- eases, are most to be dreaded, and when a privy (with no vault underneath) is built on the side of a steep ravine and is so located that the natural drainage of the sidehill on which it is built cannot help but run around and through the building, then the pollution of the stream in the gulley is not only direct and inevitable, but of a deadly sort (see Fig. 36). Fortunately, the germs thus carried into the stream suffer the vicissitudes of all life exposed to the attacks of hostile forces. At the time of freshets the streams carry mud in abun- dance, which mud is continually settling out of the water as opportunity offers, and with this settlement of mud there occurs also the settlement of the germs. Also the pathogenic or disease-producing germs are usually weaker and more susceptible than the putrefactive and other Inspection of a Water Shed 139 organisms which are found in the water in great abundance after any rain storm, and which tend to inhibit or destroy the pathogenic germs. But some will survive, and, with favoring conditions, may pass through the water-pipe to the house, causing sickness, if not death. Fig. 36. — Stream draining a privy. Any inspection of the watershed, therefore, should look to the elimination of the dangers above described, and to the location of barns and barnyards, pig-pens and poultry yards, privies and cesspools, so that no direct drainage into the stream shall be possible. 140 Rural Hygiene It is out of the question for any surface water-supply to be pure, since the mere fact of the passage of water over the soil inevitably results in the collection of organic matter ; and it is no exaggeration to say that the time will inevitably come in this country, as it has already in Germany, when no surface supply will be considered satis- factory unless the water is filtered. The only alternative is water gathered from areas that are owned by the indi- vidual and on which, therefore, all dwellings may be pro- hibited, all cultivated land avoided, and where the pri- meval forest may be restored, making the watershed equal to that from which forest streams emerge. But usually, in the case of a single house, it will not be possible entirely to eliminate the dangers of surface pollu- tion, although an inspection will show the dangers, and possibly some of them may be avoided. Certainly any direct drainage into the streams should be cut out, as well as the drainage from barnyards in the immediate vicinity of the point where the water is taken out. Just what percentage of pollution may be eliminated in this way it is impossible to determine, but it is not too much to say that no brook or pond should be used for a water- supply of a house unless every known pollution of an organic nature has been removed. Under the most favorable circumstances there will be enough accidental contami- nation to make the water at times dangerous, and no added risks ought to be assumed. In looking over a watershed the possibility of sewage entering the stream is, of all pollutions, the most to be avoided. To adequately investigate the quality of a stream, the inspector must satisfy himself as to the point Protection against Privy Pollution 141 of discharge of the sewer of every house on the watershed, and this must be done personally, without apparently reflecting on the statements of the owner of the house. If any such points of discharge are found, the sewage should be either diverted into some other watershed, or spread out over the ground away from the stream, or purified by some artificial treatment before discharge, or else the creek water cannot be used. The next point to be noted in the source of the water- supply is the presence and location of privies. These nuisances should be as far back from the banks of the streams as possible to eliminate all danger since the sur- face of the ground always slopes toward some stream, and pollution may be carried for considerable distances over or through the soil. Water-tight boxes can be provided so that no possible pollution of the surface-wash can occur, and if periodically the contents of these boxes be hauled away and buried, the privy loses its dangerous character. The city of Syracuse has installed on the watershed of Skaneateles Lake a most admirable system of collection of privy wastes, and the lake water is thor- oughly protected, although there are several hundred privies on the watershed. Cesspools, in general, are not dangerous if they are located fifty feet or more from the stream and if no over- flow occurs. Barnyards ought not to drain directly into streams, but when, as in so many cases, the stream flows through the barnyard, the only remedy is to move either the stream or the barnyard, and it is difficult to persuade even a well-disposed neighbor to do either. It is sometimes 142 Rural Hygiene possible to appeal to his sense of right; but, too often, the neighbor feels that it is his land, his barn, his drain, even his brook, and he will do whatever he pleases with them, whether the water further down stream is to be used for drinking purposes or not. The question resolves itself into an inspection of the watershed and a determination of the existing conditions. If those are tolerable, the water may be used. If evident contamination is present, the water must usually be given up, and some other source of supply sought. Well water. The pollution of wells, if it exists at all, is usually very pronounced, and it is probably safe to say that, except where buildings, drains, or cesspools have been crowded too close to wells, or where some manifest and gross cause of pollution exists, a well water is safe to drink. To protect properly a well from gross pollution, two precautions should be observed. The wall of the well should be built up in water-tight masonry, so that surface wash cannot enter the well except at a depth of at least six feet, and second, this water-tight masom-y should be carried above the surface of the ground at least six inches and the well then covered with a water-tight floor so that no foreign matter can drop through the floor into the well or can be washed in by the waste water from the pump (see Figs. 28, 29, 30). If these precautions are taken, it is safe to say that nine tenths of the pollution occurring in isolated wells would be stopped. Besides the above, a well may be polluted by a stream of underground water washing the contaminating matter through the soil. Experiments have been made to show Quality of Well Waters 143 this very plainly. A large number of bacteria were placed six feet below the surface just in the top of the underground stream of water. Within a week they were found in considerable numbers in the water of the soil one hundred feet distant, but when the same number of bac- teria were placed in the soil four feet below the surface above the level of the ground water, none of them found their way into the water of the soil. This experiment shows the folly of building a cesspool in the vicinity of a well when they both go down to the same water level, since the contents of the cesspool will be carried into the well if the underground stream flows in the proper direc- tion. A shallow cesspool, however, would not be open to the same objection. It is always difEcult to detect the direction or flow of underground water, and various technical and delicate methods have been selected to make this determination. A very simple test, however, is to dig a hole at the point where pollution is suspected, carrying the hole down to where ground water is reached, and then to throw a gallon of kerosene oil into the hole, and if the ground-water flow is toward the well, the presence of kerosene in the well water will make the fact known. This would not, how- ever, prove that the actual contamination would produce disease, since a liquid like kerosene can find its way through the pores of the soil to much greater distances than bacteria can be carried. But, to be on the safe side, water from such a well should not be used. To make sure of the quality of the water proposed for a water-supply, it is wise to have such water examined by a chemist. The chemist will make certain determina- 144 Rural Hygiene tions of ammonia and other chemical combinations, and will report his findings with an interpretation or explan- ation of the result. What he finds is notHhe presence or absence of disease or disease germs, but substances that suggest or involve the presence of organic pollution. A test is made for the number of bacteria, and a well of spring water which contains more than about fifty in a cubic centimeter is a suspicious water. Surface water, on the other hand, may contain two or three hun- dred without being necessarily bad, the tj^jes of bacteria being harmless. Generally, a chemist will also determine the presence of the colon bacillus which is found in the intestinal tract of man or warm-blooded animals. Wher- ever this is found, in even such a small quantity as one cubic centimeter of water or less, there is strong presump- tion that the water has been polluted by human wastes and is therefore not fit to drink. Dangers of polluted water. Since no evidence of the danger of drinking polluted water can be so graphically expressed as by a direct refer- ence to epidemics caused by the unwise use of such water, it will not be out of place to refer briefly to some of the instances in which a direct connection has been traced between a specific pollution of a certain water and disease or death resulting from it. Although, as has already been explained, an infected water causes various kinds of intestinal disorders, partic- ularly among children, the most characteristic evidence of pollution occurs when the noxious material comes directly from a typhoid fever patient, so that this same disease can be recognized as transmitted to another indi- Epidemic at Caterham 145 vidual or family. This transmission of typhoid fever, while in some cases very plainly due to other agencies than water, as, for example, milk, oysters, and flies, yet, by far the largest proportion of the transmitted cases comes through the agency of polluted drinking water, and there are many examples both of contaminated wells and streams which emphasize this possibility beyond all question. Two historic investigations of epidemics which have thoroughly convinced samtarians that typhoid fever is a communicable disease and that water is the vehicle for its transmission may be briefly cited. In 1879 Dr. Thorne reported an epidemic in the town- of Caterham, England, which he had investigated, and disclosed the following facts: The population of the village was 5800. The first case of fever appeared on January 19. Others followed in rapid succession, until the number reached 352, of whom in due time 21 died. The possibility of infection was carefully looked into. The influence of sewer air was ruled out because there were no sewers. The milk supply was proved unobjec- tionable. No theory of personal or secondary infection could account for the widespread prevalence, particu- larly as only one isolated case had occurred during the preceding year, and this had been imported. Of the first 47 persons attacked, 45 lived in houses supplied with the public water-supply, and the other two were during the day in houses supplied with public water. Further, in the Caterham Asylum, with nearly 2000 patients, not a single case appeared their water coming from driven wells. Investigation of the water- 146 Rural Hygiene supply showed the undoubted cause of the epidemic. The pubhc water-supply was derived from three deep wells, comiected by tunnels in the chalk. In one of these tunnels, from January 5 to the end of the month, a laborer worked, who, though unattended by a physician, was evidently suffering from mild typhoid fever, the symptoms of the disease being carefully detailed by Dr. Thorne. The laborer at the time of his going to work had a severe diarrhoea, and while in the tunnel was obliged to make use of the bucket, in which the excavated chalk was hauled to the top. He admitted that at times the bucket, in being hauled up, would oscillate in such a way as to spill part of its contents and thereby pollute the water of the well below. Two weeks from this accidental pollution the epidemic began, and there can be httle doubt of the relation of this mild case of typhoid to the epidemic which followed. A second illustration may be cited at Butler, Pennsylvania, which occurred in 1903. The water-supply of Butler, a bor- ough of 16,000 people, comes from a reservoir on the creek which flows through the phase. On account of the gross pollution of the AA'ater at the pumping station, a long supply pipe has been laid from the reservoir directly to the pumps. The water also was filtered through a filter of the mechan- ical type. Through some accident the filter was thrown out of service for eleven days, between October 20 and 31, 1903, and unfortunately, on account of the failure of the reservoir dam, the water was at that time being taken directly from the creek at the pump well, and had Ijeen sinc(> August 27. Only ten days after the filter was shut down, the epidemic broke out in all parts of the Epidemic in Netv York Slate 147 town. Between November 10 and December 19 there were 1270 cases and 56 deaths. In the subsequent investigation it developed that not only was the stream generally polluted by the sewage at various points above the intake, but that there had been several cases of typhoid fever on the watershed, some on a brook that enters the creek within one hundred feet of the filter plant. As at Caterham, the inference is patent that the introduction of some specific infection into the drinking water was the direct cause of the general epidemic. The occasional outbreaks of typhoid fever which occur in single families are not so easj- to explain, particularly since the small number of persons affected does not usually call for a widespread interest on the part of those experi- enced in such epidemics. In the Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the New York State Department of Health, the following description of an outbreak in a small hamlet, where the cause seems to have been the use of a pond for a wash tub by some Italian laborers, thereby transmitting the disease germs from their clothes to the water after- wards used in a creamery, is given. The diagram. Fig. 37, shows that the creamery secured its water for the pur- pose of washing cans from a small pond by means of a gravity pipe line. The foreman of the creamery, who boarded at the residence marked A, first contracted ty- phoid fever. A week later an employee at the creamery also contracted the fever, the residence of the latter being marked B on the diagram. About six weeks later the railroad station agent, living at the point marked C, contracted the fever, and two weeks later his wife was attacked with the same disease. The residences at 148 Rural Hygiene B and C are only about three hundred feet apart, both f amihes taking their water-supphes from a spring between the two, but nearer B. During the summer previous to C rea m e r U Fig. 37. — Contamination of a creamery from the water-supply. Conditions at Creamery 149 this outbreak a gang of Italian laborers, engaged in double- tracking the Central New England Railroad, were housed in box cars standing on one track of the railroad. One of the members of the gang was reported to have been taken ill with a fever and was at once removed, it was supposed, to a hospital in New York. It was the practice of the Italian laborers to bathe and wash their clothes in the upper of the two ponds from which water is supplied to the creamery by the pipe line. All the persons who contracted the fever were supplied with milk from the creamery. The foreman, who was the first to contract the fever, used water from the creamery and from the well at the house where he boarded. The other families, as already mentioned, used water from the spring. The conclusions, therefore, are that the creamery in some way became infected with typhoid fever, probably through the water-supply from the pond, and that the first two cases were due directly to this cause ; that the station agent and his wife contracted the fever because of the infection of the spring, either from some small stream which is the outlet of the ponds or from some infection due to the illness of the owner of the house B near by. The report concludes as follows : "The use of water for creamery purposes from a pond exposed to such unwarranted and unchecked pollu- tion as is shown here, or the permitted abuse of a water- supply for a creamery, appears little less than criminal negligence on the part of those responsible for the manage- ment of the creamery. " Another report in this volume of the New York State Department of Health illustrates very well how a spring or well may be contaminated, and is taken from a report 150 Rural Hygiene on an outbreak at Kerhonkson, Ulster County. The report reads as follows: "The village of Kerhonkson is built mainly on the side of a mountain of sohd rock covered by a thin top soil of variable depth. Owing to its rocky nature, only one or two wells exist throughout the whole place ; such a thing as a drilled well has never been seriously considered. ' ' The inhabitants obtain their drinking water from a well on the property adjacent to and above the present school building, and known as the "Brown" well, and from a clear spring at the bottom of the hill in the rear of the village store and known all over the region as the Lounds- bury spring. "The school building is an old-fashioned two-story ram- shackle affair with overhanging eaves, especially designed to obstruct light and darken the upper schoolroom. The building is in the center of a pine grove 250 X 150 feet in size, which also obstructs the light and tends to dampen the building. At the extreme ends of this school lot are two privies for the boys and girls, built on loose stone foundations, innocent of mortar or cement, which allows the water in heavy storms to wash out the fecal contents of from nearly a hundred pupils down upon the habita- tions below. Were the wells existing in the village as carelessly constructed as the Brown well and the various privy vaults which I have inspected, the loss of life from typhoid fever would be terrible indeed. " Obtaining the names of all the patients who had suffered from this disease, 1 found that all but three were Ker- honkson public school pupils, and all had drunk the water of the before-mentioned well on the Brown property. Epidemic at Kerhonkson 151 Two out of these three cases were mothers of pupils who had been stricken with the fever and who had nursed the children through their long and exhausting illnesses and afterward had been attacked by the disease themselves, while the third and remaining case was a puzzler. This boy had never been a pupil of the school in question, nor had he partaken of any of the water of the suspected well. He was a pupil of another school entirely and lived in an adjoining village a considerable distance away. A special visit to him, however, developed the fact that some time before his illness he had come to the village store in Ker- honkson to purchase goods and had drunk water from the Loundsbury spring. "Two years ago two cases died of typhoid fever on the property on which the Brown well is situated. Their stools were treated with lime and buried on the hill behind the house. Three cases of the same fever have occurred in the same house this season. The well in question is laid up with stone and cement and was supposed to be tight and impervious to surface water contamination. Investigation, however, proved that there were openings in the stone work in the side toward the privy. On examining the privy it was found that the foundation was composed of loose stones without cement or mortar that would readily allow the fecal contents to be washed down toward the well, the privy being about three feet higher than the well, the natural descent of the land being about one foot in twenty- five, the distance between privy and well being only about eighty feet. Another factor favoring the well contamination from this privy is that any filth washed downward from the privy toward the well would be stopped by the wall 152 Rural Hygiene of the house proper and carried directly toward the well which lies close to the southeast corner of the house. Thus all of the conditions point to privy contamination of this well which should be at once cemented up on the inside, thoroughly cleansed and purified, before its use should be permitted, while all the privies in question should be provided with vaults of brick eight inches thick with eight-inch brick floors all laid with cement, and their inside surfaces lined with cement at least one inch thick, to prevent any further possible contamination. " In view of the imminent danger always possible wher- ever human wastes are directly discharged into streams, whether from privies or sewers, it is obvious that water so contaminated should never on any account be used as drinking water. It does not follow, because a stream so contaminated has been used for months or years without producing any evidence of disease, that the water is safe. Unless an excessive amount of organic matter is so trans- mitted, no evidence will be found that such pollution has existed through any outbreak of disease. But if once the discharges become affected through a person having ty- phoid fever, then the result of the infection is apparent immediately. If, therefore, an inspection of the stream above the point where it is proposed to take the water-sup- ply shows the existence of privies, as shown by Fig. 36, the water should not be used for domestic supply, although a number of individuals may have been using the water for years without bad effects. It is a case in which preven- tion is much wiser than cure, and while economy and con- venience may indicate such a polluted stream to be a desirable source of supply, a proper regard for health conditions will rule it out absolutely. CHAPTER VIII WATER-WORKS CONSTRUCTION Construction methods and practices which lend them- selves to the development of the water-supply for an in- dividual house may be divided into three parts, namely: — (1) Construction at the point of collection, whether this point be a well, spring, brook, or reservoir ; (2) The pipe line leading from the collection point to the buildings ; (3) Constructions involved in the house, other than the plumbing fixtures. Taking up these different points in order, we may note at the outset that it is possible to employ either very simple or very complicated construction. Methods of collection of water. The common method is to lay a galvanized iron pipe in a ditch as far as a spring and there to protect the end of the pipe with a sieve or a grating and to leave it exposed in the water with no efforts expended on the spring itself. In a brook with waterfalls or with good slope, it is not uncommon to project a large pipe or a wooden trough into the stream at the top of a waterfall and so carry a certain amount of the water into a tub or basins from which the 153 154 Rural Hygiene small pipe leads to the house. On the shores of a lake or pond the galvanized iron pipe is laid out on the bottom of the lake wdth the end protected by a strainer. In all these cases the simplest method is the best, provided the supply of water is not needed in the winter; but such simple methods as just described fail when frost locks up the surface flow of the stream. Then the pipe throughout its entire length must be in a trench below the frost line at the entrance to the spring as elsewhere. To permit this, the spring must also be deep, or else so in- closed that the pipe leading into the spring can be covered by earth banked up against it. Not long ago the writer saw a pipe taking water from a small lake recently improved by a stone wall. Instead of conveying the water-pipe down under the wall the unwise stone mason had built the wall around the pipe and the pipe line was frozen up through the entire winter following. Such simple methods also fail when the supply of water is not adequate, since, in order to secure a large quantity from a stream whose flow is periodic and irregular, some storage must be provided, and storage usually requires more or less elaborate construction work at the reservoir. Another reason for more elaborate construction at a spring is to prevent surface contamination, and it is always desir- able to roof over a spring in order to protect it from surface flows. The writer has seen, as an example of objectionable construction, a spring in the bottom of a ravine or gully down which, in time of rain, torrents of water passed, although in a dry season the spring was the only sign of water in the vicinity. It could not but happen that this torrent of water, which carried all kinds of pollution from Pollution of Sjyrings 155 the road above, practically washed through the spring, de- stroying its good quality. In such a case, another chan- nel for the gulley water ought to have been made, or else the spring dug out and roofed over, so that the torrential water could pass above it. In other cases, the spring is found at the lowest point in a general depression, so that, while no stream passes through the spring, the spring is a catch-all for the surface drainage in the vicinity. In such cases the water should be protected by a bank of earth around the spring, behind which the drainage should be led off though a special pipe line if necessary. Spring reservoirs. In protecting the spring and in building up around it in order to put it underground, concrete is the most suit- able material, although a large sewer pipe or a heavy cask or barrel will answer the purpose. It is usually sufficient to dig out the spring to a depth of four or five feet, and with a pump it is possible to keep the water down, so that the concrete walls may be laid. In building these walls, it is important to notice from which side the spring water comes, and on that side holes should be left in the wall. These openings may properly be connected \vith agricul- tural tile drains laid out from the spring in different directions, serving both to drain the ground and to add volume to the spring. It is often possible instead of pumping out water during construction to drain a spring temporarily, in places where the ground slopes rapidly, by carrying out a drainpipe from the lowest level ; this drain is to be later stopped up. The size of this spring reservoir depends on the average 156 Rural Hygiene rate of flow of the spring and on the quantity of water used. If there is always an overflow from the spring, that is, if it always at all times of the year furnishes more water than is required by the house at that time of day when the greatest demand is made, then a two-foot sewer pipe is just as good as a concrete chamber ten feet square. But if at times the spring is low, so that the flow during the night must be saved to compensate for the excess consumption during the day, or if the rate at which the water is drawn at certain hours is greater than the average rate at which the spring flows, then storage must be al- lowed for in preparing the spring to act as a reservoir. We have already estimated that a family of ten persons might use five hundred gallons of water a day, and the most exacting conditions would never require the spring to hold more than one day's supply. This would mean a chamber four feet deep and in area four by five feet. If the average supply of the spring is less than the average consumption of the family, then the spring must become a storage basin for the purpose of carrying water enough over the dry season, and the capacity of the basin must be computed from the number of days' storage required. It may not be out of place to suggest again the possibility of increasing the yield of the spring by laying draintile in a ditch running along the permeable stratum. These pipes may run fifty or one hundred feet each way from the main spring, so long as they continue to find ground water. The walls of such a spring reservoir as here suggested for depths of six to eight feet need not be more than nine inches thick, whether built of brick or concrete. For Construction of Spring Reservoirs 157 greater depths the thickness should be increased to twelve inches. The roof of the spring-chamber may be of plank, but this is temporary and undesirable. It is far better, for all spans up to ten feet, to make the roof a flat slab of concrete six inches thick, imbedding in the concrete in the bottom of the mass some one-half-inch iron rods, spaced about a foot apart each way and extending well into the side walls. The size of these rods should increase with the size of the chamber, making them three-quarter-inch rods up to a nine-foot span, and one-inch rods up to a twelve-foot span. There should be some way of getting into the spring, prefer- ably by an opening in . . .j = one corner so arranged ■° •'^ as to carry the side walls of the opening or manhole up above the ground, where it may be protected with an iron cover locked fast (see Fig. 38, after Im- bcaux). Besides the outlet pipe from the spring, which will natu- rally pass through the side walls about half- way between top and bottom in order to get the best water, there should be a drainpipe from the lowest part of the inclosure, the valve of which can be reached through a valve box coming to the surface. In the figure Fig. 38. — A protected spring-chamber. 158 Rural Hygiene the drainpipe is shown by the dotted hne, and the twofold chamber is for the purpose of allowing an examination of the spring to be made at any time. The concrete used in this work should be of good quality, one part of cement to five parts of gravel or to four parts of stone and two parts of sand. A concrete bottom, al- though sometimes used, is not necessary. The position of the drain, of the house pipe, and of the several collection pipes must not be overlooked when the wall is being built, since it is much easier to leave a hole than to dig through the concrete afterwards. Stream supplies. If the volume of a stream is more than enough for the maximum consumption, nothing is needed but to carry the intake pipe from the shore out under water and protect the end with a strainer. In this case, however, the stream may freeze down to the level of the strainer and even around the strainer, so that the supply of water in winter would be cut off. To avoid this possibility the intake pipe ought to be in a pool of water so deep that it never freezes, and this means sometimes creating a pool for this very purpose. If storage is to be provided, a reservoir must be built, and this intake pipe would naturally be placed at least two feet below the surface of the water. Dams. If the stream is not deep, or if there is not a pool of satisfactory depth, or if the minimum flow of the stream is not adequate for the maximum needs of the consumers, a dam across the stream becomes a necessity. There are two or three types of dams suitable for a reservoir on a small stream, and they may be described briefly. Earth Dams 159 A dirt dam is not generally desirable, since in most cases the dam must also be used as a waste weir; that is, the freshets must run over the dam. This means that unless the crest of the dam is protected with timber or masonry the dam will be washed out; as happened, indeed, in the terrible flood at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, several years ago. If it is possible to carry the overflow water of the stream away in some other chaimel than over the dam, then a dirt dam is not objectionable, although always a dirt dam is best with a masonry core. A very good dam can be made by driving three-inch tongue-and-grooved planking tight together across a gulley and then fiUing in on each side so that the slope on each face is at least two feet hori- zontal for every foot in height. This last requirement means that if the dam is ten feet high, the width of the dam at the base shall be at least forty-five feet, the other five feet being required to give the proper thickness to the dam at the top. In the second type of dam this central timber core is replaced with a thin wall of concrete, as shown in Fig. 39, from six to twelve inches thick, sufficing to prevent small animals bur- ^ ° Fig. 39. — Concrete core in a dam. the dam and at the same time to make the dam more nearly water-tight. Sometimes stone masonry is used, building a light wall to serve as the true dam, and then holding up this light wall with earth-filling on each side. If neither plank, 160 Rural Hygiene stone, nor concrete can be used, the central core is made of the best earth available, a mixture of clay and sand prefer- ably, and special pains are taken in the building to have this mixture well rammed and compacted. The writer has recently heard of a dam on a small stream being made by the continual dumping of field stone from the farm into the brook at a certain definite place. This stone, of course, assumed a slope at each side and settled in place from year to year as the dam grew. The mud and silt of the stream filled up the holes between the stones, so that the dam was finally practically water-tight. This made a cheap construction and had the additional value of serving to use up stones from the fields. It was neces- sary, since the spring floods poured over the top of this dam, to protect the top stones, and a plank crest was put on, merely to keep the dam from being washed away. The third tjqDe of dam is entirely of concrete or stone masonry, concrete to-day being preferable because more likely to be water-tight. The problem with a concrete dam is to get a foundation such that the impounded water will not leak out under the dam, imperiling the very exist- ence of it. The ideal foundation, of course, is rock, and in a great many locations can be found in the small guUeys where the limestone and shale peculiar to this region will answer as well as more solid rock for dams not more than ten feet high ; but with gravel banks on the sides or with soft sandy bottom, or where the clay soil becomes saturated with water at times, the gulley offers great difficulties for the construction of a dam. It will be wise, under such conditions, to carry a cut-off wall, not necessarily more than twelve inches thick, well into the bank, that is, about ten Masonry Dams 161 feet on each side, and under the dam this cut-off wall ought to go down until it reaches another stratum of sand or clay or rock. This cut-off wall, then, surrounding the main dam, shuts off the leakage, and the dam itself can be built without danger of undermining. In many large dams this cut-off wall is carried down more than a hundred feet, especially where the depth of water behind the dam is great. For small dams, a row of plank driven down behind a timber sill across and in the bed of the stream will often be sufficient. WfTm?. Fig. 40. — Section of a flood dam. The cross-section of the main dam, in cases where flood water in the spring runs over the dam, should be such that the bottom thickness is about one half the height, and Fig. 40 (after Wegman) shows a suitable cross-section of a dam ten feet high. Figure 41 (after Wegman) shows a cross-section intended to carry the water over the dam, especially in times of flood, without danger of erosion. Sometimes, in a narrow gorge with rock sides, it is possible to save masonry by building the dam in the form 162 Rural Hygiene of an arch upstream, the resistance to the force of the water being then furnished by the abutment action of the rock sides, instead of by the weight of the dam, as in ordinary construction. For a dam ten feet high, the necessary Fig. 41. — Section of a flood dam. thickness of the curved dam would probably not be more than twelve inches, while the ordinary gravity dam would be three or four feet thick. The workmanship on the former, however, must be of a very superior order. It is never desirable to allow the water flowing over the dam to fall directly on the ground in front, since the falUng water will rapidly carry away this soil and undermine the front of the dam. For this reason, the lower section of the dam is made curved, as shown in Fig. 41, giving the water a horizontal direction as it leaves the dam instead of a vertical. A plank floor is often added to carry even further from the dam any possible erosion (Fig. 40). Where it can be done, it is a good plan to provide a small body of still water below the dam, so that the force of the falling water may be distributed through the water on to the soil below. Waste Weirs 163 There are other forms of dams often used. For example, brush dams, formerly common, are made by cutting off the tops of trees and dropping them in place and loading them with stones so as to make a mass of interwoven branches. These branches hold together particles of earth which are dumped in and form a dam. Another dam that has been much used in rural commu- nities is the old-fashoned crib dam, where logs are piled up crib fashion, held together at the corners by iron pins, a bottom spiked on, and the crib then filled with stone, a succession of these cribs across the stream forming the dam. Dirt is filled in on each side of this crib work, and, in some cases, cross timbers are set in, and both sides of the dam covered with tongue-and-grooved planking. But such dams are not permanent, and their construction involves an expense nearly equal to that of a permanent structure, and consequently they are not to be recom- mended. Waste weirs. When the dam is made of earth with or without a core wall and when no opportunity exists for carrying the waste water around the dam, a waste weir of masonry through the dam must be provided, so that freshets may be carried off without destroying or washing out the earth work. The size of this weir is a matter of considerable concern, since its ability to carry off the high water is fundamental. The capacity of such waste weirs depends on the volume of flood-water, and this, in turn, depends on the area of the watershed. This volume cannot be predicted with any absolute certainty, but, in general, it may be said that 164 Rural Hygiene the maximum run-off in the eastern part of the United States, from small areas not exceeding twenty-five square miles, will be about one hundred cubic feet per second per square mile, so that the freshet flow for a watershed of twelve square miles would be twelve hundred cubic feet per second. Ordinarily, the height of the weir is taken to be from two to four feet and the length made sufficient to care for the volume of discharge. If the depth of water flowing over the weir is taken at one foot, the length of weir in feet necessary to carry the flood flow may be computed by multiplying the number of square miles of watershed by thirty. Then an area of twelve square miles would need a length of waste channel of three hundred sixty feet ; in most cases, for small dams, longer than the dam itself. If the depth be taken at two feet, then the number of square miles of watershed must be multiplied by ten to get the length of weir, so that a shed of twelve square miles would mean a weir one hundred twenty feet long. The factor for a depth of three feet on the weir is six, making for the same area the length of weir seventy-two feet, and for four feet depth the factor is four. There is no more important part of the construction of a dam than that involved by a proper design of a waste weir, since a failure either to provide proper area or to so build as to withstand the erosive action of the running water will inevitably wash away the dam. When the valley is narrow and the v/atershed large, the waste weir will ocupy the entire width of the dam, and then it becomes necessary to construct the dam in masonry. On the other hand, when the watershed is small and the Gate House and Pipe Line 165 width of the valley great, then it is proper to make the waste weir only a certain portion of the entire width of the dam, making the rest of the dam either masonry or earth, as may be convenient. Gate house. In connection with a reservoir and at the back of the dam at the bottom of the bank, it is convenient to have what is called, in larger installations, a "gate house"; that is, a masonry or wooden manhole through which the water-pipe leading out from the reservoir passes and in which a gate is placed to shut off the water. In larger installations, it is usually possible to admit water at this point from different levels of the reservoir into the water- pipe, so as always to get the best quality of water, but for a small plant that is not necessary. A gate or valve, however, should always be provided, and while this may be on the bank of the pond with the intake pipe extending twenty or thirty feet into the pond, the valve should not be omitted. The end of the pipe extending into the pond should be placed about two feet above the bottom of the pond, instead of resting in the mud, in order to get a better quality of water. Pipe lines. In bringing the water from the spring or pond to the house, some kind of a pipe line must be provided. Such a pipe line is made of various materials; hollow wooden logs, vitrified tile, cast-iron pipe, wrought-iron pipe, and lead pipe having all been used. The last-named pipe is now too expensive for use in any great lengths. Hollow wooden pipes are employed occasionally, but, except in unusual localities, they also are more expensive than other 166 Rural Hygiene forms, and are short lived on account of their tendency to decay. Cast-iron pipe, commonly used for municipal water-supplies, is not made in small sizes and may be excluded from the possibilities for an individual house. There remains only tile and wrought-iron pipe. Under cer- tain conditions, the use of tile pipe is to be recommended, since it may be installed even in large sizes at a compara- tively low cost, the objection to it being that it is very difficult to make the joints water-tight, and practically impossible when the pressure is greater than ten feet. It is more difficult to make joints in a pipe line of small diameter water-tight than in a pipe line of larger diameter, because the space for the cement in the former is so small. The writer has tried both four-inch and six-inch pipe, and while the four-inch line can be laid with tight joints, it requires much more careful and conscientious effort on the part of the workman than with six-inch pipe. The joints must be thoroughly filled with cement, not very wet, so that it can be rammed or packed with a thin stick into every part of the joint. Merely plastering the cement over the surface of the joint will always result in a leaking joint. It often happens that a water-supply coming from a distance of a mile or so runs at first nearly level, so that, except for surface pollution, the water might be carried in an open ditch. An open ditch is, however, far better re- placed by vitrified tile, six inches in diameter, which entirely prevents surface pollution, and which costs only about ten cents a running foot. When the slope of the ground exceeds the natural fall of the water, so that a pressure in- side the pipe is created, iron pipe must be used. If vitri- Friction in Iron Pipe 167 fied pipe is used, the joints must be made with the greatest care, and every precaution taken to prevent leakage. Figure 42 shows a section of a joint in tile pipe. In using iron pipe large enough to furnish the amount of water required, due regard must be paid to friction in the pipe. In flowing through a pipe of small size, water loses a great deal of head by friction. This friction be- tween the sides of the pipe and the water, which must be duly considered in a pipe of small size, increases very rapidly as the velocity of the flow increases. It is always a great temptation to use a small pipe, since the cost of the pipe in- creases rapidly as the H diameter increases, but ^^^_ ^^ _ ^.^^ .^ ^^^ ^.^^_ it is penny wise and pound foolish to lay a line of pipe several thousand feet long to furnish water to a house and find when completed that the amount of water furnished by the pipe is on account of friction only a small dribble. In a previous chapter we estimated that the flow of water, in order to furnish three faucets at a reasonable rate, ought to be at least two thousand gallons a day or about one and a half gallons a minute, and the effect of a reduced size of pipe on the head necessary to carry a definite amount of water was shown. The cost of cast-iron pipe should not be more than thirty cents per running foot for four-inch pipe and fifty cents per running foot for six-inch pipe. To this must be added the cost of about seven pounds or ten pounds respec- tively of lead for each joint and the cost of all the labor 168 Rural Hygiene involved. The price of terra-cotta pipe is much less, as already indicated, so that it is quite worth while to expend some additional effort on making the tile pipe joints water- tight, if it allows the cheaper pipe to be substituted for the more expensive iron pipe. Pumping. Although the present methods of securing water for isolated farm buildings will not corroborate the statement it is safe to say that the proper method of obtaining a water-supply is always to make use of a pond or stream at such an elevation that water will flow to the house by gravity, provided this is possible. Only when the condi- tions are such that a gravity supply is impossible and water from a well or stream at some lower elevation becomes inevitable is pumping properly resorted to. The advantage of a gravity supply is twofold. First, the daily charges for maintenance are practically nothing, so that when once the intake and the pipe line have been installed, there will be no additional charges. When pumping is resorted to, on the other hand, there must be a daily expenditure which, even if small, in the course of a year amounts to the interest on a large sum of money. For example, suppose that the cost for supplies for a small pumping engine was only ten cents per day, not counting in the cost of labor. This would amount to $36.50 a year, which at 5 per cent is the interest on $730. It would be $200 cheaper, therefore, to borrow $500, at 5 per cent, to pay for a gravity supply rather than to pay $30 for a pump which costs ten cents a day to run. This same reasoning may be applied to the cost of different kinds of pumps. One pump may cost $200 more than Advantage of Gravity Supply 169 another, but the saving in fuel and repairs maybe sufficient to more than justify this additional cost. Second, a gravity supply is to be preferred because of its greater reliability. It is hardly possible to imagine any excuse for a gravity supply failing to deliver its predetermined quantity of water regularly day after day. A pumping plant, on the other hand, both breaks down and wears out. Valves are continually requiring to be repacked, nuts drop off and have to be replaced, pieces of the machinery break and require repairs, so that with the best machinery it is almost inevitable that for many days in the year the water-supply is interrupted by some failure of the machinery. In planning water works for cities, an engineer weighs and estimates the value of a continuous service, and even if the gravity supply costs somewhat more than the pumping system, it is in many cases adopted because the greater cost is supposed to be compensated for by the greater reliability of the supply. Windmills. Perhaps the cheapest source of power for pumping water is a windmill, and in many cases it proves entirely service- able. It has two drawbacks which are self-evident. Unless the wind blows, the mill will not work, and, unfor- tunately, at those times of the year when a large supply of water is most to be desired, that is, during the hot summer months, the wind is particularly light. It is necessary, therefore, when using wind as a source of power, to provide large storage which will tide over the intervals between the times of pumping. Again, the wind may blow frequently enough, but may be so light as not to turn the large vanes necessary to pump rapidly and easily the 170 Rural Hygiene large amount of water needed. Nothing less than a twelve-foot mill ought to be erected, and, to be efficient, Fig, 43. - Windmill and water tank. the wind must blow at the rate of twelve to sixteen miles an hour. A windmill of the best design is made entirely of steel with small angle irons for posts for the tower, and with Windmills 171 the mill itself made of galvanized iron. It requires a good foundation and must be well anchored to the masonry piers by strong bolts set well down into the masonry. If the mill is set directly over the well and the storage tank supported on the tower, a very compact arrangement is accomplished and the danger from frost is the only difficulty to be apprehended. However, the tank is often placed in the attic, some distance from the well, to which it is connected by suitable piping. The location of the windmill requires careful consider- ation in order that it may receive the prevailing winds in their full force and at the same time be properly located with reference to the well. It must be remembered that the surface of the wheel is exposed to the full fury of a storm, and both the wheel and the tower must be strong enough to withstand such storms. Figure 43 shows wind- mill and water tanlv in the vicinity of Ithaca, New York. Hydraulic rams. A hydraulic ram is the cheapest method of pumping water, provided that the necessary flow with a sufficient head to do the work is available. It requires about seven times as much water to flow through the ram and be wasted as is pumped, so that if it is desired to pump five hundred gallons a day, the stream must flow at the rate of about thirty-five hundred gallons per day to lift the necessary water. The two disadvantages of a ram are, first, that a fall of water is not al^^-ays obtainable or that the stream flow is not always sufficient, and second, that the action of the ram is subject to interruptions on account of the accumu- lation of air in summer and on account of the formation 172 Rural Hygiene of ice in winter. In fact, in winter it is necessary to keep a small fire going in the house where the ram is at work in order that this interruption may not take place. Its great advantage is that it requires no attendance, no expense for maintenance, and practically nothing for re- FiG. 44. — Installation of ram. pairs. It operates continuously when once started, and, except for the occasional interruption on account of air- lock, is always on duty. Usually the water is led from above the dam or water- Hydraulic Rams 173 fall in a pipe to the ram and flows away after passing through the ram, back into the stream. The water pumped is generally taken from the same stream and is a part of the water used to operate the ram. This is not necessary, however, and double-acting rams are manufactured which will pump a supply of water from a source entirely dif- ferent from that which operates the ram. The following table from the Rife Hydraulic Engine Manufacturing Co. gives the dimensions and approximate costs of rams suit- able for pumping against a head not greater than about thirty feet for each foot of fall available in the drive pipe: — Table XI Dtmf.nsions P. Q a Gallons per Minute required to operate Engine s M 1 a 1 .Hi .a 'S a t T3 £| o a 10 15 20 25 30 40 80 120 120 2'1" 2' 1" 2' 3" 2' 3" 2' 7" 3' 3" 7' 4" 8' 9" 8' 9" 3' 2" 3' 4" 3' 8" 3' 9" 3' 10" 4' 4" 8' 4" 8' 4" 8' 4" 1' 8" 1' 8" 1' 9" 1' 9" 1' 10" 2' 0" 2' 8" 2' 8" 2' S" li" U" 2" 2J" 3" 4' 8" 12" 2-12" 1" r' 1" 1" H" 2" 4" 5" 6" 2^ to 6 6 to 12 8 to 18 11 to 24 15 to 35 30 to 75 150 to 350 375 to 700 750 to 1400 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 150 175 225 250 275 600 2200 3000 6000 S 50 55 60 66 75 150 .525 760 1500 $ 65 70 75 81 90 170 575 850 1700 If the length of the discharge pipe is more than a hun- dred feet, the effect of friction is to reduce the amount of water pumped, but rams will operate successfully against a head of three or four hundred feet. The writer remem- Hot-air Engines 175 bers an installation in the northern part of New York State, where two large hydraulic rams furnish the water- supply for an entire village, pumping every day several hundred thousand gallons. Figure 44 shows an instal- lation by the Power Specialty Co. of New York, using the fall of some rapids in a brook to pump water into a tank in the attic of a house. In Fig. 45 are shown two methods of securing a fall for hydraulic rams, recommended by the Niagara Hydraulic Engine Co. The first method shows no drain pipe, but a long drive pipe; while the second method puts the ram in an intermediate position, with considerable lengths of each. There are other methods of utilizing the fall of a stream, but usually they involve a greater outlay for the construc- tion of a dam and other appurtenances. An old-fashioned bucket water wheel may be used, which, though not effi- cient, utilizes the power of the stream. The wheel may be belted or geared to a pump directly or may drive a dynamo, the power of which may in turn be transmitted to the pump. The objection to such construction usually is that during the summer the small streams which could be made of service at slight expense run dry or nearly so, while the expense of damming and utilizing a large stream where the water-supply is always sufficient is too great for a single house. Hot-air engines. The simplest kind of a pump worked mechanically is the Rider-Ericsson hot-air engine (see Fig. 46), which is made to go by the expansive force of hot air. The fuel used may be wood, coal, kerosene oil, gasolene, or gas, the 176 Rural Hygiene amount used being very moderate and the daily expense of maintenance very small. For a number of years the writer used one of these machines to pump water from a tank in his cellar to a tank in the attic, so that running water could be had throughout the house. With an en- gine and pump costing 1100, it was necessary to pump twice a week for about an hour to supply the attic tank and to fur- nish the necessary water for the family. The fol- lowing table shows the dimensions, the capacity, and the fuel consumption of the different styles of pumps made by this com- FiG. 40. — A hot-air engine. pSbUy : — Table XII Size of Cylinder Suction AND Dis- charge Pipe Capacity PER Hour Cn. Ft. OF Gas Kerosene PER Hour Anthracite Coal per Hour Price 5" ^f ? 150 gal. 12 1 qt. 4 1b. $90 6" 1" 300 gal. 16 2 qt. 41b. 130 S" li" 500 gal. 20 2 qt. 51b. 160 10" li" 1000 gal. 50 3 qt. 6 1b. 240 Gas Engines 177 Gas engines for pumping. During the last few years, on account of the great demand for gas engines for power boats and automobiles, the efS- ciency and reliability of these engines depending upon the explosive power of the mixture of gas and air has greatly increased. To-day, probably no better device for furnish- ing a satisfactory source of power in small quantities at a reasonable cost can be found. One engine might readily be used in several capacities, pumping water during the day or at intervals during the day when not needed for running feed cutters; and possibly running a dynamo for electric lights at night. It would be easy to arrange the gas engine so that a shift of a belt would transfer the power of the engine from a dynamo to a pump or to other machinery. In this case the pump is entirely distinct and separate from the engine, and while the gas engine may be directly connected with the pump and bolted to the same bed plate, if the engine is to be used for other purposes than pumping, an intermediate and changeable belt is desirable. The term "gas engine" is properly restricted to engines literally consuming gas, either illuminating gas or natural gas; but the term is also applied to engines using gasolene as a fuel. The same principle is used in the construction of oil engines where kerosene oil is the fuel instead of gasolene, and it is probable that the latter engines are safer; that is, less, subject to dangerous explosion than the former. Whichever fuel is used, the engine may bo had in sizes ranging from one half to twenty horsepower and are very satisfactory to use. Any ordinary, intelligent laborer with a little instruction can start and operate them, 178 Rural Hygiene and except for occasional interruptions they may be de- pended upon to work regularly. The cost of operation with different fuels may be estimated from the following table, which also shows the cost when coal is used as in an ordi- nary steam plant, the data being furnished by the Otto Gas Engine Works: — Table XIII Fuel Price of Fuel Fuel Consumption Per Brake H,-P. 10 Hours Cost of Fuel Per Brake H.-P. 10 Hours Gasolene . lOc per gal. 1.25 gal. 12.50 Illuminating gas $1.00 per 1000 cu. ft. 180 cu. ft 18c Natural gas 25c per 1000 cu. ft. 130 to 160 cu. ft. 3.25 to 4c Producer gas, anthracite pea coal $4.00 per ton 15 1b. 2.67o Producer gas, charcoal . . SIO.OO per ton 12 1b. 5.35c Bituminous coal, ordinary steam engine . $3.00 per ton 80 to 100 lb. 10.7 to 13.40 A photograph of a small (2 H.P.) gas engine made by the Foos Gas Engine Co. with pump complete is shown in Fig. 47. This pump will lift forty gallons of water per minute, with a suction lift up to twenty-five feet, to a height of about seventy-five feet above the pump. The pump gear can be thrown out of connection with the Steam Pumps 179 engine, so that the latter can be used for other purposes where power is desired. Steam pumps. The use of a steam pump would probably not be consid- ered for a single house unless a small boiler was already installed for other purposes. Not infrequently a boiler Fig. 47. — A gas engine. is found in connection with a dairy for the purpose of furnishing steam and hot water for washing and steriliz- ing bottles and cans. Where silage is stored in quantity, a steam boiler and engine are often employed for the heavy work of cutting up fodder. In both these cases it may be a simple matter to connect a small duplex pump with the installed boiler, as is done frequently in creameries, for the sake of pumping the necessary water-supply for the house. Whenever extensive improvements are contemplated, it is well worth while to consider the possi- bilities of one boiler operating the different kinds of ma- 180 Rural Hygiene Fig. 48. — Pump operated by belt. Fig. 49. — Duplex pump, operated directly by steam. Sizes of Pumps 181 chinery referred to.. In Fig. 48 is shown a small pump, made by The Goulds Manufacturing Co., capable of lifting forty-eight gallons of water per minute against a head of a hundred feet. The diameter of piston is four inches and the length of stroke is six inches. It is operated by a belt from a steam engine used for other purposes as well. Table XIV i Is 1 s i 1 t g n a II > s a. d O Size of Pipes for Short Lengths To be increased aa Length Increases Approximate Space Occupied Feet and Inches 1* S Is o a, V to > D. p Length Width 3 3 0.019 80 1.5 J * H 2 9 3 1 3 0.033 80 2.6 f * H 2 9 1 4i 1 4 0.044 75 3.6 \ 1 2 l\ 2 10 1 4i H 4 0.064 75 4.8 \ 1 2 u 2 10 1 5i U 5 0.08 70 5.6 1 H n 3 1 4 5i If 6 0.18 70 12.7 1 H 11- 3 1 4 6 If 6 0.22 65 14.0 U H 3 5 5 6 2 6 0.29 65 19.0 H \\ 3 5 5 6 Ol 6 0.38 65 25.0 li li 3 5 5 7i 2i 6 0.38 65 25.0 u 2 4 3 3 6 6 6 2^ 6 0.48 65 31.0 H 14 1 3 5 5 7i 2i 6 0.048 65 31.0 IJ 2 4 3 3 6 9 7* 21 6 0.056 65 36.0 n 2 4 3 3 7 9 9 2f 6 0.056 65 36.0 1^, 2 4 3 3 8 11 9 3i 6 0.079 65 51.0 li 2 4 3 3 9 11 182 Rural Hygiene Figure 49 shows a cut of a small duplex Worthington pump which operates by steam, not requiring any inter- mediate engine. To show the variety of pumps made and the way in which the proportions vary with the ca- i Fig. 50. — Raising water by means of compressed air. I ; A/ON BLOWING - ARTESIAN WELL Air Lifts 183 pacity of the pumps, the preceding table is given of pumps of small capacity designed to work with low steam pressure. Air lifts for water. Compressed air is also a source of power for raising water from a deep well ; but it is neither economical in first cost of apparatus nor in operation. The principle is shown by the diagram of Fig. 23, and explains without words how air pressure may be carried down into the well through one pipe and thereby force the water of the well up into another pipe far above its natural level. The machinery needed involves an engine or motor and an air compressor, the latter taking the place of the ordinary pump. It has the single advantage that it avoids the maintenance of valves and similar deep-well machinery at a great distance below the ground, the air pump not requiring any mechanism in the well. In Fig. 50 is shown a plant installed by the Knowles Pump Co. for a hotel where the air compressor furnished compressed air to raise the water from the deep well into a tank, whence a steam pump lifts the water to a reser- voir, not shown. Water tanks. The standard form of wooden tank in which water may be stored and from which it may be delivered to the house fixtures is pictured in Fig. 51. Figure 52 shows a galvanized iron tank for the same purpose. The tables appended, taken from catalogues of firms building such tanks, show Fig. 51. — Wooden tank. 184 Rural Hygiene the dimensions, weights, and costs of the two kinds of tanks. Table XV. Dimensions and List Prices of Water Tanks. Wooden Stave Tanks cS .1 §§ 03 oJ o a . o o o rice alv. oops, xtra li-IN.C STPRESS 2-iN. Cypress 2-IN. Pine CJ2z) Weight Price Weight Price Weight Price 2o& PrntS OO ZW fcOKH Lb. Lb. Lb. 2 3 66 2 S .30 105 $9.30 127 S12.00 110 S10.50 3 3 108 3 .40 146 12.00 182 16.00 157 13.20 2 4 125 2 .35 150 14.30 186 17.50 160 15.50 4 4 283 4 .65 260 21,00 321 26.00 277 23.00 2 5 207 2 .45 190 19.80 240 24.00 207 21.00 2H 5 272 3 .65 247 21.30 305 26.00 263 23.50 3 5 337 3 .65 267 22.80 332 28.00 287 25.00 4 5 467 4 .85 342 25.80 425 32.50 307 28.50 S 5 597 4 1.00 409 28.90 508 37.00 438 32.00 2 5K 252 2 .50 233 22.50 317 27.60 251 24.00 2H 5H 312 3 .75 275 24.00 341 31,70 294 28.00 2 6 304 2 .50 265 23.50 331 28,00 284 25.00 2H 6 400 3 .75 310 26.30 387 31.00 334 28.00 4 6 688 4 1.25 443 31.80 546 41.00 473 35.00 5 6 880 4 1.40 520 36.90 645 48.00 557 41.00 6 6 1072 5 1.60 600 42.00 744 55.00 642 47.00 2'A 7 650 3 .85 381 29.00 475 38,00 409 32.00 5 7 1210 4 1.60 630 45.00 780 58,00 675 50.00 6 ■ 7 1474 5 2.00 738 51„50 910 66.00 789 56.50 7 7 1738 6 2.35 829 58,00 1028 74.00 889 63.00 2 8 551 2 .80 408 31,00 506 40.00 436 35.00 2K 8 725 3 1.20 472 35,00 687 45.00 507 39.00 6 8 1913 5 2.60 880 61.00 1083 78.00 938 68.00 8 8 2639 7 3.50 1113 76.00 1363 97.00 1193 84.00 9 9 3825 8 S.2t) 1770 124.40 1539 108.00 6 10 3093 5 4.30 1458 107.00 1266 91.00 S 10 4200 7 6.20 1867 131.00 1630 113.00 10 10 5308 9 8.10 2277 156.00 1994 135.00 12 10 6516 11 10.00 2653 179.00 2323 157.00 6 12 4494 5 6.30 1930 138,00 1685 120.00 10 12 7714 9 11.35 2910 200.00 2555 174.00 12 12 9324 11 14.00 3393 231.00 2984 201.00 Storage Tanks 185 Galvanized Iron Tanks No. Height Ft. Diameter Ft. Capacity Bbl. Weight Lb. Price 150 5 8 60 475 $ 47.50 151 6 6 41 340 35.00 152 6 8 72 530 52.50 153 8 6 54 430 43.00 154 8 8 96 640 65.00 155 8 10 150 875 85.00 156 10 8 120 750 73.00 157 10 10 180 970 95.00 158 10 12 270 1400 128.00 159 12 12 324 1600 150.00 There are many combinations and forms of these struc- tures, and a detailed description of their characteristic construction and cost would occupy too much space for this present work. By referring to the pages of any agri- cultural, architectmral, or engineering magazine, advertisements may be found of firms who build such towers and who may be depended upon for satisfactory work. If the tank is to be placed inside a building, it may be built of steel or of wood, although a lining of lead, cop- per, or galvanized iron is of advan- tage in the latter case. If the tank is out of doors, protection against frost must be carefully attended to, both to prevent an ice cap forming in the Fig. 52. — Iron tank. 186 Rural Hygiene tank — the cause of many failures of tanks — and to prevent standing water in tiie connecting pipes being frozen. If tlie tank is to be placed inside the building, care must be taken to have it water-tight and to have the supports of the tank ample for the excessive weight which will be thereby imposed. Wooden tanks are likely to rot, and if left standing empty, become leaky. They are, therefore, less worth while than iron tanks. Pressure tanks. A simple and very satisfactory method of storing water, and at the same time making provision for pumping water, Fig. 53. — Hand pump applied to air-tank. is to place in the cellar or in a special excavation outside the cellar a pressure tank similar in shape to an ordinary horizontal boiler. The water in this tank is forced up into the house through the agency of compressed air, pumped Air-pressure Tanks 187 in above the water, either by hand or by machinery, and in some cases automatically regulated so that the air pressure in the tank remains constant, no matter whether the tank contains much or little water. The village supply of Babylon, Long Island, is on this principle, the tanks there being eight feet in diameter and one hundred feet long, — much larger, of course, than is needed for a single house. The accompanying diagram and figures show the method of installing this system, which is known generally as the Fig. 54. — Engine applied to air-tank. Kewanee system, although a number of other firms than the Kewanee Water Supply Co. are prepared to furnish the outfit necessary. How the air-tank may be used in connection with a hand force pump is shown in Fig. 53. The water is pumped from a well into the tank, usually in the cellar, whence it flows by the pressure in the tank to all parts of 188 Rural Hygiene the house. Figure 54 shows the tank with a gas engine and a power pump substituted for the hand pump. Fig- Br>.^Kfea^-mrt/fcC^ Fig. 55. — Windmill connection with tank. ure 55 shows the using of a windmill in connection with the tank and also shows the relation of the tank to the fixtures in the rest of the house. CHAPTER IX PLUMBING A GENEROUS supply of Water for a house brings with it desires for the conveniences necessary to its enjoyment. As soon as running water is estabhshed in a house, the kitchen sink fails conspicuously to fulfill all requirements, and a wash-tub seems a sorry substitute for a modern bath-room. A single pipe supplying cold water only, no matter how pure the water or how satisfactory in the summer, does not afford the constant convenience which an unlimited supply of both cold and hot water offers, and the introduction of running water is usually followed by an addition to the kitchen stove whereby running hot water may be obtained as well as running cold water. The next step is the equipment of a bath-room, affording suitable bathing facilities and doing away with the out- of-door privy. Installation of the 'plumbing. These things are reckoned as luxuries, not among the necessities of life, and it must be understood at the outset that such conveniences cost money, both for original instal- lation and for maintenance; the water-back in the stove will become filled up with lime if the water is hard, the boiler will become corroded and have to be replaced, the 189 190 Rural Hygiene plumbing fixtures will certainly get out of repair and need attention, and there will be, year by year, a small but continuous outlay. Again, it is idle to propose installing plumbing fixtures unless the house is properly heated in winter time, and this calls for a furnace for at least a portion of the house. Usually the kitchen is kept warm enough through the winter nights, so that running water may be put in the kitchen without danger from frost ; although the writer knows of a house where it is the task of the housewife each winter night to shut off all water in the cellar and to clean out the trap in the sink drain in order to prevent freezing in both the supply pipe and drainpipe. Usually a water-pipe may be carried through the cellar without danger of freezing, but in most farmhouses heated by stoves, except in the kitchen and sitting room, water-pipes would, the first cold night, probably freeze and burst. Various makeshifts have been employed to secure the convenience of a bath-room without adding to the expense by installing a furnace. In one house the bath-room was placed in an alcove off from the kitchen, with open space above the dividing partition, so that the kitchen heat kept the bath-room warm. This is not an ideal location for a bath-room, but, in this case, it avoided the necessity for an additional stove or furnace. In another house the bath-room was placed above the kitchen, with a large register in the fioor of the former, so that the kitchen heat kept the room warm; and in still another case the bath- room was over the sitting room, and a large pipe carried the heat from the stove below into the room above. The stovepipe also went through the bath-room and List of Fixtures 191 helped to provide warmth. It is better, all things con- sidered, to defer the installation of a bath-room until a furnace can be provided, since then there is no danger of frozen water-pipes at intermediate points where the cold reaches the pipes. A full list of fixtures and piping re- quired is as follows : — 1st. A tank in the attic to store water in case the main pipe-flow or pump-capacity is small. This tank, of course, is not needed if the direct supply from the source is at all times adequate for the full demand. 2d. A main supply pipe from the outside source or from the attic tank connecting with and supplying the kitchen sink, the hot-water boiler through the kitchen stove, the laundry tubs, the bath-tub, the wash-basin, and the water-closet tank. It is wise, in order to save expense, to have all these fixtures as close together as possible ; as, for instance, the laundry tub in the base- ment directly under the kitchen sink and the bath-room fixtures directly over the kitchen sink. 3d. A hot-water pipe leading out of the hot-water boiler to the kitchen sink, to the laundry tubs, and to the bath-tub. Although not essential, it is desirable to carry the hot-water pipe back to the bottom of the hot-water boiler, so that the circulation of hot water is maintained. This will avoid the necessity of wasting water and waiting until the water runs hot from the hot-water faucet when- ever hot water is desired. 4th. The necessary fixtures, such as faucets, sinks, tubs, wash-basins, kitchen boiler, water-back for the stove, water-closet, tank, and fixtures. These may be now taken up in order and described more in detail. 192 Rural Hygiene Supply tank. The attic tank may be of wood or iron, and its capacity should be equal to the daily coiisumption of water. Its purpose, as already indicated, is to equalize the varying rates of consumption from hour to hour and between day and night. The minimum size of this tank would be such that the flow during the night would just fill the tank with an amount of water just sufficient for the day's needs. Of course, the additional supply entering the tank during the day would reduce the size somewhat, but the basis for computation given is not unreasonable. Several accessories must be provided for such a tank. An overflow is essential, and this is best accomplished by carrying a pipe out through a hole in the roof. This must be ample in size, provided with a screen at the inside end, and be examined frequently to make sure that the overflow remains open. A light flap valve to keep out the cold in winter is also a desirable feature for the overflow pipe. The tank must be water-tight, and while it is possible to make a wooden tank water-tight, it is wiser to line a wooden tank with lead or sheet iron. The latter can be painted at intervals, so that it will not rust, and is safer than wood alone to prevent leakage. Care must be taken to give sufficient strength to the wooden tank; it should never be made of less than two- inch stuff, and should not depend upon nails or screws alone for holding the sides together. Figure 56 shows a suitable way to put together such a tank. Certain firms that make windmills and agricultural implements gener- ally can furnish wrought-iron tanks, warranted to be water- tight, of suitable size to go in an attic. Such a tank, as Supply Tank 193 we have already said, should hold about five hundred gal- lons and should therefore be a cube four feet on a side or its equivalent. It needs to be very carefully placed in the house, or else its weight will cause the attic floor to sag. A tank of the size named will weigh a little more than two tons, and such a weight, unless special precautions are taken, cannot be placed in the middle of an attic floor without causing serious settle- ment, if not actual breaking through, of the floor. A good way of plac- ing such a tank is to nail the floor joists onto the bottom of the rafters, so that a truss is formed, and the box or tank is properly supported on the floor and also hung from the rafters by iron straps bolted both to tank and rafters. If possible, this tank should be placed directly over a partition car- ried through to the cellar, in which case no settlement is possible. Main supply pipe. The main supply pipe, except when pressure is very great, is most satisfactory when made of three-quarter- inch galvanized iron pipe. Even with a high pressure, half-inch pipe is unsatisfactory because of the great veloc- ity with which the water comes from the faucets and o Fig. 56. — Construction of a wooden tank. 194 Rural Hygiene because the high pressure causes the packing in the faucets to wear out rapidly. This three-quarter-inch pipe should have a stop-and-waste, as it is called, just inside the cellar wall, so that if the house is not occupied at any time, the valve may be shut and the water in the pipes drawn off, to prevent possible freezing. The pipe should never be carried directly in front of a window or along the sill of the building unless protected by some kind of wrapping. The laterals and the different fixtures are taken off from this main supply pipe as it rises through the house, and the pipe is capped at the top. Hot-water circulation. To provide hot water, a branch must be taken off at the level of the kitchen stove and run into the hot-water boiler at or near the bottom. The circulation in the tank and through the house is then provided for by a separate circuit running from the bottom of the hot-water tank to the water-back and back into the tank at a point about halfway up. The house circuit is then run from the top of the boiler around through the house, and if a return pipe is provided, it comes back and enters at the bottom. This hot-water pipe is also of galvanized iron and should be of the same size as the main supply pipe (see Fig. 57). The fixtures may be as elaborate as the purse and taste will allow, but some general instruction may not be out of place. There are many types of faucets, all good, and differing from each other only in some minor detail of construction. Experience with the so-called self-closing faucets or bibbs has not been entirely satisfactory, since, with high pressure, the packing very quickly wears out. Similarly, experience with those faucets that open and Hot-water Boiler 195 shut by a single turn of a handle shows that frequent renewals of packing are necessary. The simplest, most reliable, and the easiest faucets to repair are those in which Fig. 57. — Hot-water attachment to the kitchen stove. the valve is screwed down onto the valve seat, which is a plane, and where the water-tightness is made by the 196 Rural Hygiene insertion of a rubber or leather waslier that can always be cut out with a knife from a piece of old belting or harness. The faucets may be nickled or left plain brass, and the advantage of the added expense of nickel is in the appear- ance alone. If the faucets themselves are nickel, then the piping also should be nickel ; that is, brass nickel- plated. Galvanized iron piping and brass faucets do not, to be sure, have the same satisfactory appearance as highly finished nickeled faucets, but the one is quite as serviceable as the other. Kitchen sinks. In providing a sink for the kitchen, choice lies between plain iron and enameled iron. For special work, sinks have been made of galvanized iron, of copper, slate, soap- stone, and of real porcelain. There is hardly any limit to the cost of a porcelain sink, and while an enameled iron sink with fittings costs from $30 to $60, a cast-iron sink of the same size will cost only $3 or $4. A good qual- ity of white enameled iron sink, of size suitable for a kitchen, with white enameled back and a drainboard on the side, costing $30, is very attractive as an ornament, but it serves no more useful purpose than a $3 sink and a fifty- cent drainboard. Figure 58 shows an enameled iron sink, containing sink, drainboard, and back all in one piece. This is pure white, and when fitted with nickel faucets makes a very attractive fitting. Laundry tubs. If running water is to be put in a house, stationary tubs for the laundry, into which water runs by a faucet and which can be emptied by pulling a plug, are certainly worth their cost over movable wooden tubs in the labor saved. Laundry Tubs 197 Stationary tubs may be made of wood, of enameled iron, or of slate. Wooden tubs are not as desirable as the others because in the course of time they absorb a certain amount of organic matter and have a persistent odor. They are, however, very inexpensive, a man of ordinary ability being able to build them himself at the cost of the wood only. Enameled iron tubs of ordinary size cost, with the fixtures, from $20 to $40 apiece, and a set of three slate tubs costs $25. To these figures must be added the ex- pense of the piping to bring both hot and cold water to 198 Rural Hygiene the tubs, together with the two faucets and the drain- pipe connections necessary. Figure 59 shows three white enameled iron laundry tubs costing about $75 installed. Hot-water boiler. The kitchen boiler is to-day almost always made of galvanized iron and is placed on its own stand, usually back of the kitchen stove, although it may stand in an lUf«ti«WFrt*)(M( 1 Fig. 59. — Enameled laundry tubs. adjoining room, — the bath-room, for instance, — and aid in keeping that room warm. Such a tank costs about $12, to which must be added the necessary piping, and it is always desirable to put a stop-cock on the cold-water sup- ply entering the tank. Then if the tank bursts, the cold water may be shut off without doing harm. A drainpipe from the bottom of the tank is also desir- able to draw off the accumulations of sediment. Cost of Plumbing 199 Water-back, wash-basin, bath-tub. The water-back is merely a hollow box made to fit the front of the fire box in the stove, usually shaped so as to replace the front fire brick. The cold water comes in at the bottom of the box, is heated by contact with the fire, and the hot water goes out through the other pipe into the boiler. The wash-basin in the bath-room is either marble, enameled iron, or porcelain. The marble basins with a slab can be had for about $7.50, while the enam- eled iron basins cost from $6 to $40. To this must be added the cost of faucets and piping, together with the drain and the trap that belongs with the drain. The • enameled iron basins which are being used to-day more than ever before have proved very satisfactory, have but little weight, can be fastened to the wall without difficulty, and take up less room than the old marble basin. A fancy porcelain basin costs about $75, and is no better for practical use than either of the others. Much the same kind of material may be used for bath- tubs, although warning ought to be given to avoid the use of the old-fashioned tin-lined bath-tub. This lining will easily rust or corrode, is very difficult to keep clean, and while the first cost is less than the enameled iron tub, it has no other advantage. An enameled iron tub five and a half feet long will cost from $20 to $100 without fixtures. Cost of plumbing installation. A fair estimate of the cost of the plumbing in a house, including all the fixtures mentioned except the tank in the attic, including also the plumber's bill, is $150. This 200 Rural Hygiene requires very careful buying, and implies an entire ab- sence of brass or nickel-plated piping. If a high grade of fixtures, including nickel fittings and nickel piping, wherever it shows, is used, the cost of the fixtures alone, not including labor or piping other than mentioned, will be from $150 up. House drainage. The term "plumbing" is generally used to include both the water-supply in the house, with all the fixtures pertain- ing thereto, and the carrying of the waste water to a point outside the house ; it remains, therefore, to discuss the waste pipes connected with the plumbing fixtures. The house-drain, or the pipe which carries the wastes from the house to the point of final disposal, is generally made of vitrified tile, and in ordinary practice is five inches inside diameter. The lower end of this drain discharges into a cesspool, or settling tank, or into a stream, as local conditions permit. This house-drain should be carefully laid in a straight line, both horizontally and vertically, for two reasons. In the first place, the velocity of flow in a straight pipe will be greater, and therefore the danger of stoppage will be decreased, and in the next place, if a stop- page does occur in the pipe, it can be cleaned out better Laying the House-drain 201 if the pipe is straight than if it is laid with numerous bends. Such a pipe should have a grade of at least one quarter inch to a foot, and this is conveniently given by tacking a little piece of wood one half inch thick on one end of a two-foot carpenter's level and then setting the pipe so that with this piece of wood resting on the pipe at one end and the end of the level itself on the pipe at its other end, the bubble will be in the middle. Figure 60 shows the carpenter's level in position on a level board, which rests on the hubs of three pipes. The joints of this pipe should be made with Portland cement mixed with an equal part of sand, and the space at the joint completely filled. When nearing the house, it is very desirable that a manhole should be built so that if a stoppage occurs, it may be cleaned out without taking up the pipe. In city houses a running trap is always inserted just outside the house with a fresh-air inlet on the house side of the trap, as shown m Fig. 61. But for a single house this is not necessary, and it is wiser to omit the running trap. The soil-pipe begins at the trap or at the cellar wall and runs up through the roof of the house, so that any gas in the drain or soil-pipe may escape at such a height as not to be objectionable. Through the cellar wall and up through the house the soil-pipe should be of cast iron, which comes in six-foot lengths for this special purpose. Y 's are pro- vided by which the fixtures are connected to the soil-pipe, and the top of the pipe is covered with a zinc netting to keep out leaves and birds. This soil-pipe weighs about ten pounds per foot and is almost always four inches inside diameter. The length necessary is easily computed, since it runs from the outside cellar wall to the point where the 202 Rural Hygiene vertical line of pipe rises and from that point in the cellar extends to the roof. Such a pipe may be estimated at two cents a pound with something additional for the Y's. The soil-pipe must be well supported along the cellar wall Fig. 61. — Water-supply installation. on brackets or hung from the floor joists by short pieces of chain or band iron. Special care must be taken to support the pipe at the elbow, where it turns upward, since a length of thirty feet of this pipe, weighing three hundred pounds, has to be provided for. It is a good practice to The Soil-pipe 203 build a brick pier from the cellar bottom up to and around the elbow to support it firmly in the masonry. The joints in this drainpipe should be made with lead, ramming some oakum into the joints first and then pouring in enough lead melted to the right degree to provide an inch depth of joint. After the lead cools, it must be ex- panded or calked by driving the calking tool hard against it. To prevent rain finding its way between the soil-pipe and the roof, a piece of lead is generally wrapped around the soil-pipe for a distance of twelve inches or so above the roof, and then a fiat piece of lead extending out under the shingles is slipped over and soldered fast to the other lead piece. The fixtures are connected to the iron pipe usually by lead pipe, the lead pipe being first wiped onto a brass fer- rule, the ferrule being leaded into the Y branch. These Y branches are usually two inches in diameter and the lead pipe usually one and one quarter inches. Between the soil-pipe and the fixtures a trap must be provided with a water-seal of about an inch. Trap-vents. In city plumbing it is customary to vent traps; that is, to carry another system of pipes from the top of the trap nearest the fixture up to and through the roof. On most roofs, where modern plumbing has been installed, are seen two pipes projecting, one the soil-pipe and the other the vent-pipe, indicating the location of a bath-room below (see Fig. 61). In a single house, however, and particu- larly in view of experiments made recently on the subject of trap siphonage, these trap-vents seem hardly necessary. 204 Rural Hygiene They were formerly insisted upon because of the feeling that by the passage of a large amount of water down the soil- pipe, sufficient suction might be induced to draw out the water from some small trap on the way, thereby open- ing a passage for sewer gas into the room. Experiments have shown that it is practically impossible to draw off the water from a trap in this way, and that the system of vent-pipes does little more than add to the cost. The traps themselves, however, are essential, and great care should be taken to see that each trap is in place and has a seal of the depth already mentioned. The best trap to use in any fixture is the simplest, and a plain S trap answers every purpose. It is always wise to have a clean- out at the bottom of the trap; that is, a small opening which can be closed with a screw plug, so that when the, trap becomes clogged, it can be easily opened and cleaned (see Fig. 62). Water-closets. A great many kinds of water-closets have been made and used, with various degrees of success. The old-fashioned pan-closet becomes easily clogged, allows matter to decompose in the receptacle under the valve, and, in spite of its being cheaper, should not be used. The long-hopper closet is also objectionable, for the same rea- son. A recent bulletin of the Maine State Board of Health, which gives the relative merits of the different forms now available, very directly and briefly, is here repeated : — "The choice of a water-closet should be made from those Fig. 62. — A trap. Water-closets 205 which have the bowl and trap all in one piece, which are simple in construction, are self-cleansing, and have a safe water-seal. None should be considered except the short- hopper, the washout, the washdown, the syphonic, and the syphon-jet closets. " Short-hopper closets not many years ago were considered desirable, but other styles costing but little more are better. "The washout closet (Fig. 63) has too shallow a pool of water to receive the soil, and the trap below and the portion above the trap do not re- ceive a sufficient scouring from the flush. " The washdown closet (Fig. 64) is an improvement over the wash- out. Having a deep basin, a deep water-seal, smaller surfaces uncov- ered by water, and a more efficient is more cleanly. Fig. 63. — Washout water-closet. Fig. 64. — Washdown water-closet. scouring action, it The washdown closet is really an im- proved short hopper. " Of late years the principle of syphonic action has been applied to the washdown closet. Figure 65 shows the outline of a syphonic closet. It will be seen that the basin, as in the washdown closet, has considerable depth and holds a con- siderable quantity of water; but it differs in having a more contracted outlet. When the closet is flushed, the filling of this outlet forms a syphon, and then the pressure Fig, 65. — Syphonic closet. 206 Rural Hygiene of the air upon the surface of the water in the basin drives the water into the soil-pipe with much force. At the breaking of the syphon, enough water is left in the trap to preserve the seal. " In the syphon-jet closet (Fig. 66) there is added to the mechanism of the syphon closet a jet of water which helps to drive the contents of the bowl more rapidly into the outlet. These two closets, syphon and the syphon-jet, are preferable to those of any other style. Among Fig. 66. — Syphon-jet , i i , , i i closet. other advantages they are more nearly noiseless than any other kinds. " Recapitulating, it maybe said, while the short-hopper and the washout closets may not deserve absolute condem- nation, the advantages of the washdown, syphon, and the syphon-jet closets are so much greater that they should be chosen in all new work." Properly to flush out the closet, a water-pipe connection must be made from the supply main. It would be quite possible to connect directly to the closet rim where the flush enters, but there are two objections urged against this. Sometimes, when the pressure is low and water is being drawn in the kitchen, if a faucet in the bath-room is opened, not only will no water come, but air is drawn into the pipe by the force of the running water below. A direct connection with a water-closet, it is conceivable, might allow filth to be drawn up into the water-pipe under certain conditions. The other objection is that the small pipe generally used in a house does not deliver water fast enough for effective flushing. Flushing Water-closets 207 It is common, therefore, to put in, just back of or above the closet, a small copper-lined wooden tank which holds about three gallons and which can be discharged rapidly through a one-and-a-quarter-inch pipe. This tank with fittings costs about $10, and in a great many cases is probably unnecessary. It has the advantage, how- ever, of allowing a small flov/ to enter the tank when- ever emptied, to be automatically shut off by a float valve when filled. If the house has a tank supply or if the pressure is strong enough to insure a positive flow at all times, there can be no objection in a single family, where the flushing action will be insisted on by the mistress of the house in the interests of cleanli- ness, to making a direct connection between the closet and the house supply pipe. An automatic shut-off bibb would then be used on the water-pipe, allowing the water to flow freely as long as the bibb was opened, but closing automatically when released. CHAPTER X SEWAGE DISPOSAL The subject of sewage disposal for a single house in the country does not at all present the elaborate problem that is suggested when the disposal of sewage of a city is under discussion. In the first place, the amount of sewage to be dealt with is moderate in quantity; and in the second place the area available on which the sewage may be treated is in almost all cases more than ample for the purpose. Nor is there the complication that arises with city sewage, due to the admixture of manufacturing wastes. The ma- terial to be handled is entirely domestic sewage and varies only according to the amount of water used in the house, making the sewage of greater or less strength according as less or more water is used. Sewage from a single house differs only in one respect disadvantageously from city sewage, namely, in the fact that the sewage, not having to pass through a long length of pipe, comes to the place of disposal in what is known as a fresh condition; that is, no organic changes have taken place in the material of which the sewage is composed. Definition of sewage. The great bulk of sewage is water, and, in quantity, the amount of sewage to be cared for is about equal to the 208 Definition of Sewage 209 amount of water consumed in the household, although this will depend somewhat on the habits of the family. If, for example, part of the water-supply is used for an ornamental fountain in the front yard, or if in the summer time a large amount of water is used for sprinkling the lawns, that water is not converted into sewage, and the amount of the latter is thereby diminished; but, ordinarily, it is safe to say that the quantity of water supplied to the house and the quantity of sewage taken away from the house is identical, and since it is much easier to measure the water-supply than the sewage flow, the former is taken as the quantity of sewage to be treated. In the course of its passage through the house, however, the water has added to it a certain amount of polluting substances, largely derived from the kitchen sink, where dirt from vegetables and particles of vegetable material, together with more or less soap, are carried by the waste water from the sink into the drain. In the bath-room, also, some small amount of organic matter is added to the water, but the proportion of such matter to the total vol- ume of water used is very small, probably not exceeding one tenth of one per cent. This small proportion is never- theless sufficient to become very objectionable if allowed to decompose, and the problem of sewage disposal for a single house is to drain away the water, leaving behind the solids so disposed that they shall not subsequently cause offense by their putrefaction. The process of decay is normal for all organic matter and is due to the agency of certain bacteria whose duty it is, providentially, to eliminate from the surface of the earth organic matter which otherwise would remain use- 210 Rural Hygiene less, if not destructive, to man. It is impossible to leave any vegetable or animal matter exposed to the air without this process of decay at once setting in. Apples left in the orchard at the end of the season inevitably are reduced and disappear in a short time. Dead animals, whether large or small, in the same way succumb to the same pro- cess of nature, and it has been pointed out that, unless this provision did exist, the accumulation of such organic wastes since the settlement of this country would be so great as to make the country uninhabitable. Fortunately, however, this inevitable process breaks down the structure of all organic material, partly converting fiber and pulp into gas, partly liquefying the material and converting the remainder into inorganic matter which is of vast importance as food for plant life. A cycle is thus formed which may be best illustrated in the case of cows which feed on the herbage of a meadow, the manure from the cows furnishing food for the grass which otherwise would soon exhaust the nutriment of the soil. Stream pollution. The first fundamental principle of sewage disposal, therefore, is to distribute the organic matter in the sewage so that these beneficent bacteria may most rapidly and thoroughly accomplish their purpose. During the last fifty years, a great deal of study has been expended on this problem, and while it has not as yet been entirely solved, certain essential features have been well established. The most important factor promoting the activity of these agents of decay is the presence of air, since in many ways it has been proved that without air their action is impossible. Thus it has been shown that dis- Pollution of Streams 211 charging sewage into a stream, whether the stream be a slow and sluggish one or whether it be a mountain stream churned into foam by repeated waterfalls, has little other power to act on organic matter than to hold it for trans- portation down stream, or to allow it to settle in slower reaches until mud banks have been accumulated which will be washed out again at the first freshet. Experiments have shown that the agencies to which certain diseases are attributed, commonly known as pathogenic bacteria, are frequently, if not always, found in sewage, and that when these bacteria are discharged into streams they may be carried with the stream hundreds of miles and retain all their power for evil, in case the water is used for drinking pur- poses. No right-minded person to-day will so abuse the rights of his fellow-citizens as deliberately to pour into a stream such unmistakable poison as sewage has proved itself to be. The fact is so well known that it is not worth while pointing out examples. It is enough to say that some of the worst epidemics of typhoid fever which this country has known have been traced to the agency of drinking water, polluted miles away by a relatively small amount of sewage. In a number of states, laws have been passed which expressly prohibit the discharge of sewage, even from a single house, into a stream of any sort, even though the stream is on the land of the man thus discharging sewage and where it would appear as if he alone might control the uses of that stream. Unfortunately, the machinery of the law does not always operate to detect and punish the breakers of the law, but any law which, as in this case, has so positive a reason for its existence, and violation of which 212 Rural Hygiene is so certain to bring disaster on persons drinliing the water of the stream below the point where the sewage is discharged, any law which appeals for its enforcement so directly to the common sense and right feeling of all intelligent people, seems hardly to need legal machinery for its enforcement. It must depend, as indeed all laws must depend, upon the intelligent support of the commu- nity, and surely no law would commend itself more urgently than this one forbidding the pollution of drink- ing water. In spite of the fact that the lack of air in the water will prevent bacterial action, there are, nevertheless, many cases where the discharge of sewage into a stream may be permitted as being the best solution of the disposal problem, provided always that the stream is not used and is not likely to be used for drinking water. Such cases occur where the stream is relatively large and where the level of the stream is fairly regular, so that there is no likelihood of the deposit of organic matter on the banks during the falling of the stream level. Examples of this sort might be cited in the vicinity of the Mohawk or Hudson River, or in the vicinity of any of the larger rivers of any populous state, since although the water of the Mohawk is used by the city of Albany for drinking purposes, yet the amount of organic matter which inevitably finds its way into such rivers precludes its use for drinking without filtration. Into the Hudson below Albany there can hardly be any question of the propriety of discharging sewage from a single house. Again, houses in the vicinity of large bodies of still water may without question be allowed to discharge into those Sewage Treatment on Land: 213 lakes. For example, houses in the vicinity of Lake Ontario or Lake Michigan, or even of much smaller lakes, should not contribute any offensive pollution to the waters of the lake. In New York State, some of the smaller lakes are used as water-supplies for cities, as, for example, Owasco Lake for the city of Auburn and Skaneateles Lake for the city of Syracuse, and, acting under the statutes, special laws have been passed by the State Department of Health, for- bidding any discharge of any kind of household wastes into these lakes. The same is done in other states. Here, again, it is a question of the drinking supply which is being considered, and not a question of the possibility of any nuisance being committed. Treatment of sewage on land. If no stream suitable for the reception of sewage is available, then the sewage must in some way be treated on land before it passes into the nearest watercourse. For the second fundamental principle about the treatment of sewage is that of all places the action of putrefactive bacteria is most energetic in the surface soil and that it is there that the organic matter of sewage can be most rapidly accomplished. Experiments already referred to have shown not only this, but also that their activity is most noticeable in the surface layers of the soil and that their action continues for scarcely two feet downward, and it is customary to assume that the largest amount of work done is accomphshed in the top twelve inches. Further than this, it has been established that in order to persuade the bacteria involved to do their work as promptly as possible, the application of sewage to any particular local- ity should be made intermittent; that is, that a resting 214 Rural Hygiene period should be given to the bacteria between successive apphcations of sewage. For example, one can recall without difficulty the con- ditions on the ground at the back of the house where the kitchen sink-drain commonly discharges. At the begin- ning of summer perhaps a rank growth of grass starts up vigorously in the vicinity, and the path of the surface drain can be traced by the heavy vegetation along the hne of the drain. If the slope of the surface away from the house is considerable, no other effect may be noticed through the season, since the surface slope carries away the sewage, spreading it out over the ground so that the soil really has a chance to breathe between successive doses. But if the ground is flat, it will be remembered that before many weeks the sewage ceases to sink into it ; the ground becomes "sewage-sick," as they say in England, and a thick, dark- colored pool of sewage gradually forms, which smells abominably. If a piece of hose a dozen feet long had been attached to the end of the drain and each day shifted in position so that no particular spot received the infiltration two days in succession, it is probable that no such pondage of sewage would occur, but that the mere intermittency of the application thereby secured would permit the successful disposal of this sink waste throughout the season. The same effect is to be noted in some cesspools where, because of the great depth to which they are dug and because no overflow into the surface layers of the soil is provided, the pores of the ground around the cesspool become clogged and choked, and the cesspool becomes filled with a thick, viscous, dark-colored, objectionable- looking, and evil-smelling liquid. Bacterial Action in Soil 215 The three principles which will avoid these conditions are, as already stated, plenty of air, presence of bacteria normally found in the surface layers of the soil, and inter- mittency of application. In order to secure the operation of these three principles in the application of sewage onto land, the sewage must be made to pass either over the surface of the land in its natural condition in such a way that the sewage may sink into the soil and be absorbed and at the same time give up its manurial elements to whatever vegetation the soil produces ; or, as a modification of this principle, the sewage may be required to pass through an artificial bed of coarse material by which the rate of treatment may be considerably increased. In the latter case, although prob- ably the greater part of the action of the bacteria takes place in the top twelve inches, it is customary to make the beds about three feet thick, chiefly in order to prevent uneven discharge of the sewage through the bed. Finally, wherever, for aesthetic reasons, it is desirable that the sewage should not be in evidence, either before passing through the natural soil or exposed in an artificial bed, the practice may be resorted to of distributing the sewage through agricultural tile drain laid about twelve inches below the surface. In this way, the sewage is scattered through the top soil, where bacteria are most active, without being apparent, and a front lawn thus treated would not give any indication of its use. Taking up now in order these three methods of treat- ment, we may consider some of the details of construction. In spreading the sewage over the lawn or in distributing it on the surface, due regard must be paid to the kind of soil. Clay soils and peaty soils are useless for the purpose 216 Rural Hygiene of sewage disposal unless as the result of continuous culti- vation a few inches of top soil may have accumulated on the clay. This top soil is adapted to sewage purification, provided the quantity applied is not excessive. Surface application on land. Two methods of operation may be pointed out. The sew- age (and this is the simplest method of disposal possible) may be brought to the upper edge of a small piece of ground, usually sowed to grass, and allowed merely to run out over the surface of the ground. There should be, however, some method of alternating plots of ground, one with another, so that the sewage is turned from one to the other every day. Each plot will then have one day's application of sewage and one day's rest, and this would complete the disposal, were it not for the interference of rain and cold. The winter season practically puts a stop to this method of treatment, and rainy weather reduces the power of the soil to absorb sewage. For these two reasons, it is desirable to have one plot in reserve, or three in all, and the area of each plot should be based on the amount of sew- age contributed. For a family of ten persons using twenty- five gallons of water per day the total area provided should be one tenth of one acre, or an area seventy feet square divided into three plots. Figure 67 shows six beds ar- ranged to care for the sewage of a public institution in Mas- sachusetts. As a guide to the amount of land needed, it will be safe to provide at the rate of one acre for each forty persons where the soil is a well-worked loam but underlaid with clay. The effect of this irrigation on the grass will be to induce a heavy, rank growth which must be kept down by repeated cutting or by constant grazing. Both Filter Beds in Massachusetts 217 218 Rural Hygiene methods are practiced in England, and it may be said in passing that no injury to stock from the feeding of such sewage-grown grass has been recorded. The grass cut from such areas (and the cutting is done every two weelcs through the whole summer) is packed into silos and fed to cattle through the winter with advantage. Or, if grazing is resorted to to keep the grass down, the herd is alternated with the sewage from one field to the other, so that the bed which has received sewage one week is used for pasture the next week, and the number of head which can thus be fed is astonishing. In order to secure an even flow of sewage over such grass land as is here contem- plated, there must be a gentle slope to the field, and the ditch or drain bringing the sewage to the field should run along its upper side. Openings from the drain, controlled by simple stop planks, are provided at intervals of about ten feet, and no attention is needed further than the open- ing and closing of these admission gates. Another method of applying sewage to the surface of the ground is to lead it in channels between narrow beds on which vegetables have grown. These beds are made about eight feet wide with two rows of root crops, such as turnips or beets, set back about two feet from the edge. The beds are made by properly plowing, the channels between the beds being back-furrowed. Here, again, the principle of intermittent application is essential, and the area to be provided is the same as already given for the surface irrigation. Three beds should be provided, as before; but, in general, no provision need be made for carrying off the sewage at the lower end of the beds, since it may be safely assumed that all of the sewage will be ab- Applying Sewage to the Soil 219 sorbed by the soil. Of course, a sandy soil will absorb more water than a clay soil, and if the soil is entirely clay, it is not suitable for such treatment. Sewage passed over the surface of clay soil, however, will, in the course of a few months, so modify the clay as to convert it into a loam, and in this way increase its absorptive power. When possible, it is desirable to have a plot of plowed ground over which the sewage may pass before reaching the beds, so that the grosser impurities may be left behind and harrowed in or plowed under. If proper regard is paid to intermittent application, no danger from odors need be feared, and the repeated plowing in will increase immensely the fertility of the soil. Nor need one be afraid that all of the manurial elements will be left behind on this plowed ground. About two thirds of the organic mat- ter in sewage is in solution, and this will be carried onto the beds just as if passage over the plowed ground had not occurred. Artificial sewage beds. In order to secure a higher rate of discharge of sewage through the soil it is best to arrange an artificial bed which shall be made of coarse, sandy material which will allow a rate of at least 10 times that already given. The best material out of which to make such an artificial bed is a coarse sand; that is, a sand whose particles will not pass through a sieve which has 60 meshes to the inch and which would pass through a sieve of 10 meshes to the inch. Such an ideal sand will purify sewage at the rate of 50,000 gallons per acre per day, or an acre will take care of the sewage of at least 1000 persons. This means that it is necessary to provide about 50 square feet for each person 220 Rural Hygiene in the family, or a family of 10 persons could have all the sewage taken care of on an area 25 feet square. The same principle of intermittency of application, how- ever, must be observed by dividing the bed into three parts, so that the sewage may be alternated from one bed Distribution Tile