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 FOR THE 
 
 EVER OFFERED TO THE PUBLIC, 
 
 PROSPECTUS 
 
 OF 
 
 No. 41 UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK. 
 
 EVERYTHING PERTAINING TO HOUSE SANITATION. 
 
 *- 
 
 Printed by P. F. McBreen, 16 Beekman St., New York. 
 1883. 
 
OFFICERS. 
 
 Dr. Wm. F. Duncan, - - - - - President 
 
 Hon. Chas. G. Cornell, - - - Vice-President 
 
 B. F. I no rah am, Esq., - - Secretary and Treasurer 
 
 Prof. E. H. Janes, M.D. (N.Y. Health Dep't), Consulting Hygienist 
 Prof. H. A. Mott, Ph. D., Chemist, and Expert on Ventilation 
 Col. Geo. D: Scott, Sanitary Engineer [Plumbing Dept.) 
 
 TRUSTEES. 
 
 Dr. Wm. F. Duncan, Barrett House. 
 
 Hon. Chas. G. Cornell, 18 East 58th Street. 
 
 Col. Geo. D. Scott, 151 Ninth Avenue. 
 
 Frank R. Walton, Broker, 202 Broadway. 
 
 B. F. Ingraham, Prest. Standard Water Meter Co. 
 
 II. A. Mott, Ph. D., Prof. Chemistry. 
 
 Edward F. O'Dwyer, Esq., Counsel. 
 
TO Tr^ ?mif- 
 
 In coming before the public for the purpose of assisting in 
 the maintenance of healthful houses, we believe we meet an 
 existing want. 
 
 We offer no new thing with which to appeal to the imagina- 
 tion, but simply a novel application of old and trusted remedies, 
 and endeavor to solve the question of avoiding the danger from 
 sewer air, by establishing the detection of imperfections in plumb- 
 ing, cleanliness and fumigation as the foundation of our 
 system. There is no longer any dispute as to what 
 constitutes perfect plumbing, but the point we wish to make is, 
 that after you have secured it you can not be sure that it will re- 
 main in good condition ; erosion destroys the pipes, rats make 
 holes in them, the house settles and breaks them, they become 
 stopped with filth and dirt, and they will wear out. 
 
 Your attention is perhaps happily early called to some defect 
 by a bad odor, but if, as at times will occur, the gas be odorless 
 it escapes notice until prolonged sickness indicates its presence. 
 We believe it would be wiser and more economical to have your 
 house visited periodically by an expert, who would detect the im- 
 perfection in time to prevent the dangerous exposure. We do 
 not wish to be considered alarmists ; enough real dangers exist 
 without creating imaginary ones, and appeal only to common 
 sense to recommend our undertaking. Our business is to make 
 
inspections of plumbing, and to point out its defects ; to cleanse 
 pipes and keep them open ; to fumigate them, when necessary, 
 with burning sulphur, as infected ships are fumigated at quaran- 
 tine ; to suggest remedies for bad ventilation, and to disinfect 
 and fumigate rooms and clothing which have been exposed to 
 contagion or infection ; in a word, to do everything practically 
 possible to secure our patrons against the dangers of living in 
 unsanitary houses. 
 
 PROTECT YOUR HOMES FROM SEWER-GAS. 
 
 The action of the Board of Health in adopting constantly 
 increasing stringent measures as to how plumbing must be done 
 shows that they are thoroughly convinced of the danger from 
 sewer-gas when inhaled. 
 
 Heretofore all the special inventions to remove the danger- 
 ous germs of disease from the sewer-gas have been a failure. 
 They simply deodorize it without depriving it of any of its dan- 
 gerous properties. Our aim is to prevent its formation. 
 
 Before attempting to describe the methods of the Manhattan 
 Anti Sewer Gas Company, let us inquire 
 
 WHAT IS SEWER-GAS? 
 
 It consists of air and vapor ; and usually a sufficient quantity 
 of the products of decomposition are suspended in it to give it an 
 unpleasant or musty odor. 
 
 It may or may not contain sufficient quantity of these pro- 
 dui ts to give it a bad smell ; but in either case the bacteria, Or 
 
germs of disease may be suspended in it. Sewer-gas which is 
 perfectly odorless contains animal and vegetable germs of disease 
 which are poisonous when inhaled. 
 
 A dirty sewer or soil-pipe, inaccessible to light and air, which 
 is moist and moderately warm, is the favorable place to propagate 
 bacteria, which, when planted in the system, cause pneumonias, 
 which are rapidly fatal, or diphtheria, which is no less dangerous, 
 or the family have continuous malaria. The children are cross, 
 the wife is fretful, the husband is "blue," and no one suspects 
 the cause of the trouble. 
 
 The Manhattan Anti Sewer Gas Company claims to have a 
 perfect system of cleaning and purifying the house plumbing. 
 
 DISEASES WHICH COME INTO OUR HOMES THROUGH 
 
 THE SEWERS. 
 
 In the following remarks we will not quote any authorities, 
 because we wish to avoid tiresome details, and also because we do 
 not make a single statement which is not endorsed by every 
 physician. 
 
 A form of fever with symptoms like those of malarial fever ; 
 comes to us frequently through the sewers. A system constantly 
 filled with malarious poison is liable to develope acute or chronic 
 organic disease of any organ in the body. 
 
 In the lungs chronic bronchitis is established, which later 
 develops into inflammatory pJithisis — one form of consumption. 
 
 Diseases of the liver, spleen and intestines arc more fre- 
 quently caused by long-continued malarial poison. 
 
Diphtheria, one of the most destructive diseases which afflict 
 the human race, is freely propagated in an atmosphere charged 
 with sewer-air. " 
 
 Scarlatina, small-pox, and all other contagious diseases, the 
 poisons of which may be conveyed from place to place, doubtless 
 come to us through our sewers from distant houses which are 
 infected. 
 
 The Manhattan Anti Sewer Gas Company thoroughly appre- 
 ciate these evils, and in connection with the improved style of 
 plumbing which the Board of Health now require builders to use, 
 they can with certainty obviate them. 
 
 Their means of caring for plumbing lessens greatly these 
 dangers. 
 
 If allowed to put the plumbing in such order as they know 
 it should be, they can guarantee in each and every case perfect 
 freedom from the dangers of sewer-gas. They have the only 
 system by which the" above results can be obtained. 
 
 DETECTION OF SEWER-GAS. 
 
 The only way at present in which the attention of the family 
 is earnestly directed to the faulty condition of the plumbing, is 
 the presence of an odor so disagreeable that it attracts the notice 
 of every one entering the house. This is frequently not a suffi- 
 cient warning to cause prompt action in removing the defect. It 
 is not usually attended to until the entire family are taken sick, or 
 there is such a frequent succession of illnesses in it that the most 
 obtuse mind cannot help noticing that there must be something 
 
wrong about the dwelling. More frequently, one or two deaths in 
 addition to the above warnings are necessary to really move the 
 parties concerned to definite action. To illustrate more practi- 
 cally, we will relate one case : 
 
 A house in this city which came under our observation had 
 for two years an unpleasant odor about it ; two of the occupants 
 died from malarial poison, three others became prostrated, one 
 with diphtheria and two with malaria. After having called the 
 attention of the family for two years to the bad condition of the 
 plumbing, it was not till the above additional proofs of the pres- 
 ence of sewer-gas in the house became manifest that we succeeded 
 in obtaining their concurrence in having something done. 
 
 An inspection of the premises was made. Oil of pepper- 
 mint and warm water were poured into the ventilating pipe on the 
 roof, and a man was stationed below to notice the odor if it should 
 escape from any part of the plumbing. He was convinced that 
 it did not escape, and the house was reported " all right." 
 
 We simply mention the above facts to show that the pepper- 
 mint test which is so commonly used is not always reliable, and do 
 not desire to censure in any way the intelligent efforts to discover 
 the trouble. 
 
 We believe that this test will occasionally fail to detect leaks, 
 if conducted as it usually is. 
 
 The man pouring the peppermint in on the roof should close 
 the scuttle and soil-pipe and leave the premises through the ad- 
 joining house, trusting the results of the experiment to the party 
 left in the house that is being tested. If in two hours, the smell 
 
8 
 
 of peppermint is not to be discovered in any part of the house, 
 the plumbing is in fair order as far as the ingress of sewer-gas is 
 concerned. 
 
 The unpleasant smell and the malaria continued. At last 
 some planks were removed from the basement floor. The soil- 
 pipe or water-pipe entering it was made of lead. There were two 
 rat-holes in it. The main trap was found completely obstructed. 
 The sewer at one point in the street was higher than the end in 
 the house. 
 
 This is the condition that many of our city houses are in. 
 
 The Manhattan Anti Sewer-Gas Company, by their special 
 appliances, and by their periodic inspection of houses under their 
 charge, discover these defects early, and remove them or apprise 
 their patrons of their danger before it is announced in the usual' 
 way by sickness and death. 
 
 PERFECT PLUMBING. 
 
 Every person who lives in a house where there is plumbing 
 should have a clear idea of the principles of plumbing. 
 
 It is the deplorable ignorance on the part of the public which 
 ents our present competent Board of Health from enforcing 
 such measures as their honest convictions have forced upon them 
 as being the least that should be done to protect the inhabitants 
 of every house from the ravages of disefc.se communicated through 
 the sewers. 
 
The pipe from the sewer to the house should be iron. The 
 joints should be carefully leaded. 
 
 The pitch of the pipe from the sewer to where it joins the 
 vertical soil-pipe should be regulated by law. 
 
 At the entrance of the sewer into the house there should 
 be a good iron trap, so accessible that it may be readily cleaned 
 when obstructed. Just inside of this main trap there should be a 
 good-sized iron pipe, which admits the air to all that portion of 
 the plumbing which is within the house. 
 
 Every basin, bath-tub and water-closet should have a sepa- 
 rate trap, and the trap should have a vent-pipe connecting the 
 discharging end of the trap with the main ventilating pipe at a point 
 higher than the trap, otherwise the suction caused by the discharging 
 water will cause all the water in the trap to follow it, thus leaving 
 the trap empty and making it useless. 
 
 The water supply must be constant ; if nq,t, all our efforts 
 to ventilate the plumbing from above and below, by admitting air 
 at the main trap and through the soil-pipe from the roof, as well 
 as our attempts to prevent what contagion may be in the soil-pipe 
 from entering the house by traps that will not syphon, will be of 
 no service. 
 
 Our present scanty water-supply makes all attempts to pre- 
 vent the flow of sewer-gas into our houses a failure unless we 
 place a tank of sufficient capacity to last the entire day in the 
 house, above all openings into the soil-pipe. 
 
 If this is not done the traps on the upper floors are entirely 
 without water, and consequently become unprotected openings 
 into the soil-pipe. 
 
IO 
 
 These tanks usually fill during the night. In some locations 
 they will not fill ; then a force pump to fill the tank is a necessity, 
 without which you have no protection from contagion through 
 the soil-pipe. 
 
 A DANGER ALWAYS PRESENT. 
 
 Having perfect plumbing is no security that it will always 
 remain so. At every point where the flow of water is slackened, as 
 by a turn in the course of a pipe or passing through a trap, the 
 incrustation which is common to the entire lining of the soil-pipe 
 is greatly increased at these points. 
 
 Fungous growths begin to develop here, and the traps become 
 a perfect hot-bed for the development of bacteria, which are so 
 fatal to the human race when once planted in the system. To 
 illustrate the aboye, let us quote Prof. J. G. Richardson, of Phila- 
 delphia : 
 
 " On moving into a new residence I had all the stationary 
 wash-stands filled with ball traps of the most approved construc- 
 tion. Noticing, however, after a few months, that the flow of 
 waste water through one of them seemed to be impeded, I un- 
 screwed the glass cup which forms the lower segment of the trap 
 for the purpose of removing the obstruction, and was surprised 
 to find what appeared to be a fragment of thick, black blotting- 
 paper hanging from the vertical pipe. On further investigation I 
 discovered that this was a part of a continuous lining to the up- 
 right tube of the trap, which had extended a little above the 
 ordinary water level on the inner or house side; and in order to 
 
1 1 
 
 determine its nature I detached a portion for microscopical ex- 
 amination. At first I did not appreciate the tremendous im- 
 portance of my obervation, but on finding, under a power of 
 1,250 diameters, that the film was a felted mass of mycelium, bac- 
 teria and micrococcus, I realized at once that the existence of 
 such a lining of vegetable growth, completely through the trap 
 from its outer to its inner limit, accounted for the penetration of 
 disease-germs through the best of these contrivances, and ex- 
 plained that frequent and deadly entrance of sewer infection 
 through apparently tight traps, which has been the despair of 
 plumbers, sanitary engineers'and hygienists. Manifestly, if the 
 bacteria of putrefactive decomposition which make up this filthy 
 coating * * * could thus intrude to the house side of the 
 trap across the microscopic inequalities of the surface to which 
 the ball 'fitted air-tight,' the micrococcus of diphtheria could 
 likewise penertrate by the same occult but infallible pathway, 
 and only chance had saved me and my family from similar access 
 of typhoid fever or other pestilential germs." 
 
 Thus, it will be seen, that we are threatened with another 
 danger, quite distinct from the poison of sewer-gas. We may 
 have our closets and drain-pipes trapped and sealed so as to effect- 
 ually prevent the passage of sewer-gas, as this company propose 
 to do ; but we are still exposed to the attacks of the disease- 
 germs which are cultivated and thrown off by the fungous growth 
 which lines the interior of our waste pipes. There is but one 
 way of meeting this evil — to destroy the life of the fungous growth. 
 This The Manhattan Anti Sewer Gas Company propose to 
 do, as we shall show further on. 
 
I 2 
 
 FAULTY PLUMBING. 
 
 The sewer from the street to the house is of earthenware ; it 
 has no pitch, or is pitched the wrong way. If the house settles, 
 or if any of the ground which supports the sewer settles, the 
 sewer-pipe cracks and one end becomes lower than the other. 
 At this point, sooner or later, there will be a complete obstruc- 
 tion of the sewer. 
 
 In a house in Fifty-seventh street different members of the 
 family had in succession the same disease. It was insisted that 
 something must be wrong with the plumbing. Several plumbers 
 inspected it, but were unable to find any imperfection. The ill- 
 ness continued. The owner of the house thought he would 
 investigate for himself ; he started to excavate in the cellar, at 
 the point where the sewer left the house. 
 
 The first time a pick was made to perforate the cement floor, 
 the sewer refuse began to flow through the opening. The entire 
 house was undermined with sewer products. The house had 
 settled, broken the sewer-pipe, and complete obstruction was 
 found at this point. The defect was remedied, and the sickness 
 promptly disappeared. 
 
 Another defect is the main trap, which, being usually inac- 
 cessible, cannot be cleaned. 
 
 A ( ommon defect is that the house plumbing is not ventilated 
 from the bottom by a vent-pipe, and quite frequently is not ven- 
 tilated from the roof. 
 
The common form of trap is the S trap, which, if not provided 
 with an air-vent, the column of water discharging below the trap 
 will always cause the water in the trap to follow it by its suction, 
 thus always leaving the trap empty and useless. 
 
 Occasionally everything is properly trapped but the bath-tub 
 or some other opening which is in direct connection with the 
 soil-pipe, thus allowing a constant stream of sewer-gas to enter 
 the house. 
 
 If our readers will carefully scrutinize their plumbing they will 
 find plain defects, which unnecessarily expose to danger the lives of 
 those living in their houses. It is the purpose of The Manhattan 
 Anti Sewer Gas Company to lind out these defects, remedy them, 
 and prevent their return. 
 
 ADVANTAGES OF OUR SYSTEM. 
 
 i. Every house under our care is periodically inspected by a 
 corps of trained scientific experts, who examine the plumbing, and 
 by means of flexible brushes and alkali thoroughly clean its whole 
 interior. By plugging the pipe below the trap, we are enabled to 
 fill the trap with a disinfectant, and to allow it to stand for suffi- 
 cient length of time to kill all vegetable or animal germs of 
 disease. 
 
 2. The entire soil-pipe and plumbing are thoroughly disinfect- 
 ed by fumes of burning sulphur driven by compressed air into the 
 soil pipe from below, thus killing all germs of contagion which 
 are being propagated in the plumbing between the main trap and 
 
the local traps. The same principle is in use at Quarantine for 
 destroying contagion in ships. 
 
 3. Fumigation of sick rooms. 
 
 4. Special attention is given to correct imperfect ventilation. 
 
 5. We seal hermetically every opening which connects the 
 house with the sewer. 
 
 6. We have a perfect water-closet seal. Although left through 
 the summer, the water cannot evaporate and allow the house to 
 become saturated with sewer-gas, as it is automatically replaced. 
 
 7. Everything pertaining to house sanitation. 
 
 Full information will be gladly given to all who seek it, the 
 Company feeling sure that a general understanding of their sys- 
 tem by the public will lead to its universal adoption. 
 
 The Manhattan Anti Sewer Gas Company earnestly 
 request all readers of this pamphlet to call the attention of their 
 family physician to it, feeling sure that their system of prevention 
 of, and protection against, disease will commend itself to the 
 cordial co-operation of every intelligent practitioner. 
 
 In conclusion, we would impress upon our readers that no 
 house is at present safe from the dangers we have enumerated. 
 The remedy offered by this Company is a sure and practicable 
 one; and in order to bring it within the reach of all, the cost of 
 applying it has been placed at the lowest possible figure consist- 
 
i5 
 
 ent with the faithful performance of our promise. We guarantee 
 nothing that we are unable to perform, and we invite the public 
 to call at our office and examine our system. Full information 
 will be given to all who will favor us with a visit. 
 
 THE MANHATTAN ANTI SEWER GAS COMPANY, 
 
 No. 41 Union Square, 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 Nov., 1883. 
 
E INVITE the attention of architects and 
 projectors of new buildings to our plans 
 for plumbing, which simplify the process of cleaning. 
 
 "-* is: 
 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 
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