Footwashing

“ The value of a process of street-cleansing is proportioned to the rapidity with which it is performed, but at present it is usually delayed until the sun or the air has done a large portion of the work by the evaporation of the moisture, commonly however to the deterioration of the air of the town and the health, and also to the deterioration of the value of the refuse. ”

“ The new and modern idea of bodily self-cleansing is here effectually put in force and apparently with good health results. The rivers when in flood are extremely muddy; when not they are very shallow, and the water is usually alkaline and undrinkable, as well as quite useless for bathing purposes. ”

“ Human excrements (feces and urine) as found in closets and privy vaults are known as night soil. These wastes may be flushed away with running water, and there may be added the discharges from washbasins, bathtubs, kitchen and slop sinks, laundry trays, washing vats, and floor drains. This refuse liquid product is sewage, and the underground pipe which conveys it is a sewer. Since sewers carry foul matter they should be water-tight, and this feature of their construction distinguishes them from drains removing relatively pure surface or ground water. ”

“ In our climate, where rain is abundant during a considerable portion of the year, the water falling upon the roof of any house, if properly collected and stored, is ample for the whole supply of the family which that roof shelters. This water as it falls is ordinarily free from any impurity that can affect its taste, and from every source of serious fouling; though, after a long-continued drought, it is well to divert and discharge upon the surface of the ground the first ten minutes' flow of a shower, so that the impurities of the air and the dust of the roof may first be removed. ”

“ Houses surrounded with high walls, trees, or plantations, are rendered unwholesome. Wood, not only obstructs the free current of air, but sends forth exhalations, which render it damp and unhealthy. Houses situated on low ground, or near lakes and ponds of stagnant water, are the same: the air is charged with putrid exhalations, which produce the most malignant effects. Persons obliged to occupy such situations should live well, and pay the strictest regard to cleanliness. ”

“ Water-supply almost entirely from shallow wells, often uncovered, mostly in the cottage garden, not far from a pervious privy pit, a pig-sty, or a huge collection of house refuse, polluted by the foulness soaking into it. The liquid manure from the pig-sty trickles through the ground into the well. Often after heavy rain the cottagers complain that their well-water becomes thick. ”

“ Under existing arrangements there is no provision for a thorough and periodical cleaning of the roads. They are not even swept, the result being that in dry weather they are littered with refuse and abominations of various sorts, which pollute the atmosphere and fully account for the unpleasant odors which have during the present summer prevailed in the metropolis and been the cause of general complaint. Water-carts are of very little service in washing the streets; they may lay the dust for the time, but they merely transform it into mud without removing it. ”

“ Given porous ground, a seamy ledge, or long-continued pollution of one plat of land, the zone of contamination is likely to extend long distances, particularly in downhill directions or when the water is low through drought or heavy pumping. Only when the surface of the water in a well or spring is at a higher level at all times than any near-by source of filth is there assurance of safety from impure seepage. ”

“ The principles to be kept in the foreground are the disposal of sewage in the superficial layers of the soil in not too great quantity, the disinfection of the stools of the sick with lime before such disposition is made, the digging of wells in places kept permanently in grass and at some distance from barnyards, and, above all, their thorough protection from contamination from the surface and from the soil immediately below the surface. ”

“ The heavy rains of this month interfere in a material degree with outdoor work, and are often a great impediment to the orderly management that should prevail. The accumulation of rubbish anywhere, even if out of sight, is to be deplored as an evil altogether. The injury to vegetation is as great as that inflicted on our own health when dirt poisons the air and damp hastens the general dissolution. ”

“ In fact, the reckless way in which house and street cleaning are handled is really appalling. Dusting should always be done with a damp cloth, and carpets cleaned by a closed sweeper well filled with wet tea leaves. The street-cleaning problem is simply a question of water supply. ”

“ In consequence, all refuse, garbage, and excrements of at least 50,000 persons are thrown into the gutters every night, so that, in spite of all street sweeping, a mass of dried filth and foul vapours are created, which not only offend the sight and smell, but endanger the health of the inhabitants in the highest degree. ”

“ You are aware that one inconvenience of the existing mode of street cleansing, independently of the great expense, is the length of time during which the wet refuse remains to the public annoyance on the surface, until removed by the slow process of sweeping and cartage?—Yes; and the men would appear to delay for the purpose of the dirt being removed, by being washed by rain into the sewers. ”

“ A slop-hopper with pipe to the cesspool, on the [216] same level and near the kitchen, for waste wash water, etc., from the chambers, saves many steps, and is far more sanitary than throwing slops on the ground outside the house or carrying them to the outhouse.
The chief problem is the outhouse, or privy vault. There is no more disgusting or unsanitary feature of rural life than this ill-smelling, dirty hole in the ground, from which the filth permeates the surrounding soil, and may contaminate the water supply. ”

“ In the metropolis of London alone, the watering of the streets and roads employs, in addition to a staff of surveyors, inspectors, and foremen, about 1,500 men, and an equal number of horses and carts; and in order to lay the dust effectually, about 30,000 tons of water must be spread upon the streets every dry day, the cost of this gigantic work being nearly £200,000 per annum upon an average of 120 days, when watering becomes necessary. ”

“ The effective watering of streets and roads in any town during the summer months is an important matter, not only on sanitary grounds, but also from the fact that considerable damage may be caused in the neighbouring shops, warehouses, and dwellings, if something is not done to prevent the clouds of detritus and decaying refuse, of which the dust is composed, from being blown about. ”

“ No wonder, for the rain has washed the roof, and has carried off a supply of collected dust and soot. Not the roofs of houses alone, but the streets, the walls, the pavements, in a town—the trees, hedges, grass, roads, in the country—are all relieved of dusty layers, while, if the rain be heavy enough, sand and soil also are swept away. ”

“ Cochrane, whose orderlies cleanse the streets without wetting, and consequently without dirtying, the surface by the use of the watering-cart, there is the opposite method proposed by Mr. Lee, of Sheffield, and other gentlemen, who recommend street-cleansing by the hose and jet, that is to say, by flushing the streets with water at a high pressure, as the sewers are now flushed; and so, by washing rather than sweeping the dirt of the streets into the sewers, through the momentum of the stream of water, dispensing altogether with the scavager’s broom, shovel, and cart. ”

“ A place for washing the person and clothes should be arranged for in each company street, and the waste water disposed of by means of drainage or rock-filled pits. In dry weather the streets in camp should frequently be sprinkled with water to keep down the dust. ”

“ Nothing is gained towards security by the mere act of leaving our metropolitan area, if one resorts to some other place where the system of drainage is equally vicious, or where—as at our nearest bathing-place, the beach is made almost as offensive by sewage as here the river-banks. [86] From earlier statements in my Report, it will be obvious to you that the eligible sites of residence are those which stand high and dry, with clean effectual drainage of their soils and houses, conveying all organic refuse beyond range of the local atmosphere. ”

“ And state generally the condition of those unhealthy streets, courts, and houses, as to drainage, supplies of water, cleanliness.—“In the above-named streets the drainage is very imperfect, and much filthy water is thrown often into the streets. A plentiful supply of water. Many pay but little attention to cleanliness. Densely populated. In many houses from four to eight or nine in one room.” ”

“ They retain a mass of filth in a decomposing condition deep in the ground, where it is but slightly affected by the bacteria and air of the soil. In seeping through the ground it may be strained, but there can be no assurance that the foul liquid, with little improvement in its condition, may not pass into the ground water and pollute wells and springs situated long distances away in the direction of underground flow. ”

“ Tile lines laid with improper slope allow the effluent to collect in a limited area and saturate the soil, causing odors. Bacteria cannot work in such areas, where the soil becomes sour, or "sewage-sick." These lines must be relaid on the correct slope. Odors or a water-logged soil may also indicate that the disposal field is too small. ”

“ One is thankful for small mercies; "some of the solid refuse is retained." But the "offal from the slaughter houses," and the "tip" to which all refuse is taken! And the sewage which there is "no attempt to purify"! What grizzly nightmare could be more grizzly than this?
However, we get soon now above the range of pollution by mill or town. Peebles only remains; thereafter we have really a river as it used in its entirety to be, and, above Peebles, as it may still be called, "the silver Tweed." ”

“ It is not impossible to point out authorities on sanitary matters so wedded to pet theories that they unhesitatingly deny that the conversion of a pure running stream, or even a large river, into a conduit for the sewage-filth of a great city, will have any deleterious effect on the potable quality of the water taken a few miles below the filth-entering point. ”

“ Where the rotary broom is preceded by a street sprinkler, the dust forms into mud and clings to the surface of the pavement, and where the pavement is rough the mud is forced into the joints between paving blocks. As the street becomes dry, the dirt pulverizes and appears again as a dust nuisance. In all but one instance machine sweepers have been dispensed with in Chicago. ”

“ They go over the city with brooms, shovels, and dust-boxes, and sweep and gather up refuse and dirt. They put it into carts and take it away to where it is loaded upon barges and sent out to sea, or used to fill in low places where it can do no harm.
There is a great deal that each of us can do to help keep the streets clean. No one should ever do anything that is likely to leave any dirt about them. Banana and orange peel should never be thrown on the sidewalk. ”

“ In villages and isolated houses, where no drains are provided for waste water, and the dry system of closets is adopted, the disposal of waste water requires special provision. Very commonly the slops are thrown out of the door, and soak into the ground about the house. They should be carried by means of a waste-pipe into a water-tight cesspool, remote from the house,197 whence they can be pumped into a field, or carried away by special conduits. ”

“ It seems almost impossible that so small a quantity of organic matter as one tablespoonful in a barrel of water could cause offense in any way, and yet engineers, city officials, and householders know by bitter experience that, when spread out on the surface of the ground or when allowed to stand in pools, water so polluted will undergo putrefaction resulting in most disagreeable odors and in complete stagnation. ”

“ 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 contemplated, 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. ”

“ The great difficulty attached to this duty arises from the fact that as a rule these private courts and alleys are very badly paved, if paved at all, full of [48] pits, where pools of stagnant mud and water collect, and even in the best cases, the interstices between the pebbles, or other paving, are filled with filth arising in great measure from the dirty habits of the people, and this filth it is found exceedingly difficult to dislodge. ”

“ The odour arising from the surface evaporation of the streets when they are wet is chiefly from horse-dung. Susceptible persons often feel this evaporation, after partial wetting, to be highly oppressive. The surface-water discharged into sewers from the streets and roofs of houses is found to contain as much filth as the soil-water from the house-drains. ”