5. It completely suppresses the odors which, despite the comfort and elegance of modern living, still hang about cesspools and privy-vaults, and attend the removal of their contents.
The expense is trifling as compared with that of water sewerage. The care and attention needed is somewhat greater, and this probably accounts for the limited use of the system in this country. In country houses, and in small towns and villages where the facilities of a system of public sewerage are not to be had, it would seem that the advantages of the earth-closet system would commend it to general favor.
The earth-closet is a mechanical contrivance attached to the ordinary seat, for measuring out and discharging into the vault or pan below a sufficient quantity of sifted dry earth to entirely cover the solid ordure and to absorb the urine. The earth is discharged by an ordinary chain or wire-pull, similar to that used in the water-closet. The vault or pan beneath the seat is so arranged that the accumulation may be readily removed. In a small family once in two or three weeks is often enough to empty the pan or drawer unless it is small. The entire apparatus need not cover more than two feet square by three feet high.
It is estimated that our present wasteful method of disposing of the night-soil occasions an annual money loss to the country of over $100,000,000. When the economic value of human excreta becomes as well known in the United States as it is in China and Japan we will cease to cast it into the sea.
A Truthful Picture.—Any one who has lived among or mingled much with people in the country and in hamlets and villages will recognize the truthfulness of the following picture as presented by George E. Waring, Jr., in “How to Drain a House.” He says:
“Let us see what chance a woman living in the country has to escape the direst evils that ‘delicate health’ has in store for its victims. The privy stands perhaps at the bottom of the garden, fifty yards from the house, approached by a walk bordered by long grass, which is always wet except during the sunny part of the day, overhung by shrubbery and vines, which are often dripping with wet. In winter, snow-drifts block the way, and during rain there is no shelter from any side. The house itself is fearfully cold, if not drifted half-full with snow or flooded with rain.
“A woman who is comfortably housed during stormy weather will, if it is possible, postpone for days together the dreadful necessity for exposure that such conditions imply. If the walk is exposed to a neighboring workshop window, the visit will probably be put off until dark. In either case, no amount of reasoning will convince a woman that it is her duty, for the sake of preventing troubles of which she is yet ignorant, to expose herself to the danger, the discomfort, and the annoyance that regularity under such circumstances implies.
“I pass over now the barbarous foulness and the stifling odor of the privy-vault. It is only as an unavoidable evil that these have been tolerated; but I cannot too strongly urge attention to the point taken above, and insist on the fact that every consideration of humanity, and of the welfare not only of your own families, but of the whole community, demands a speedy reform of this abuse. * * * I make no apology for calling the attention of women themselves to this important matter, believing that they will universally concede that, however much of elegance and comfort may surround them in the appointments of their homes, their mode of life is neither decent, civilized, nor safe, unless they are provided with the conveniences that the water-closet and the earth-closet alone make possible.”
Woman’s Part in Sanitation.—Some years ago, Dr. B. W. Richardson, then president of the British Medical Association, said: “I want strongly to enforce that it is the women on whom full sanitary light requires to fall. Health in the home is health everywhere; elsewhere it has no abiding place. I have been brought indeed by experience to the conclusion that the whole future progress of the sanitary movement rests for permanent and executive support on the women of the country. When, as a physician, I enter a house where there is a contagious disease, I am, of course, primarily impressed by the type of the disease, and the age, strength, and condition of the sick person. From the observations made on these points, I form a judgment of the possible course and termination of the disease; and, at one time, I should have thought such observations sufficient. A glance at the appointments and arrangements and management of the house is now necessary to make perfect the judgment. The men of the house come and go; know little of the ins and outs of anything domestic; are guided by what they are told; and are practically of no assistance whatever. The women are conversant with every nook of the dwelling, from basement to roof; and on their knowledge, wisdom, and skill, the physician rests his hopes.”
Materials of the Dwelling.—No material is so dry and healthful as wood. Where the dangers of fire preclude the use of this material, as in close and compact cities and towns, and where brick and stone must be employed, such houses may, with very slight additional expense, be rendered comparatively dry. Ordinary bricks absorb a great deal of moisture, and carry dampness from cellar to attic. Soft building stone is nearly as bad. The use of a double course of vitrified brick on a thick layer of the best cement just above the foundation wall, or ground line, will prevent the dampness of the soil from being carried up through the walls. The outside dampness from rains and sleet may also be corrected by the use of thick studding against the walls on the inside to support the plastering. This leaves an inch or two of space between the outer wall and the plastering, through which the air can circulate, and thus preserve the inner walls of the dwelling from dampness.