"A trap should be placed on every main drain to disconnect the house from the sewer or cesspool. In places liable to unusual pressure from the sewer it should be a double trap, with vent from between the two traps, running up full size above the roof; or, where the pressure from sewer is only occasional and the rigor of climate will permit, this vent may be carried to the sidewalk or area, at a safe distance from windows. If the first trap is forced, the gas can gain easier exit through this pipe than through the second trap.

"Every vertical soil or waste pipe should be extended at least full size through the roof.

"No traps should be placed at the foot of vertical soil-pipes to impede circulation.

"Traps should be placed under all sinks, basins, baths, wash-trays, water-closets, &c., and as near to these fixtures as practicable.

"All traps under fixtures, wherever practicable, should be separately ventilated, in order to guard against siphonage. Such vent-pipes should not branch into a soil-pipe below where any drainage entered it. In some cases it is preferable to carry it to outer air independently.*

"Rain-water leaders should not be used as soil-pipes, and, when connected with house-drains, they should be made of cast iron in preference to galvanized sheet-iron or tin, there being less liability of corrosion. Joints should be gas and water tight, to preclude possibility of drain-air entering open windows.

"No safe-waste should connect with any drain, but it should be carried down independently to a point where its discharge would indicate the existence of a leak or any overflow above.

"No waste from a refrigerator should be connected with a drain.

"Unless the water supply is ample, so that it will rise to every part of a building, insuring at all times the proper flushing of fixtures and traps, a cistern should be provided into which the water will rise at night or into which it may be pumped. Said cistern should be large enough to hold an ample daily supply, be kept clean, covered, and properly ventilated. The overflow-pipe from it should never be run into any drain under any circumstances. The supply for drinking-water should not be drawn from it, but from a direct supply, i. e., direct from the street main.

"Water-closets should not be supplied directly from street pressure or by a pipe from which branches are taken for drinking-water. Where the valve-closets are preferred to those that are supplied from a small cistern immediately ever them, then the supply should be taken to a storage-tank, from which it can be conveyed to the valves on the closets, thereby insuring an equable pressure and securing more reliability in their working.

"All drain-pipes within a house should be of metal in preference to stoneware, owing to the liability of the latter to crack and the difficulty of keeping the joints tight. It is best to run them along the cellar-wall or ceiling, with a good incline. They should never be hidden underground, as then leaks will not be perceptible. In some places it is common to paint pipes white, so that any leakage will show itself to the most careless observer.

"All drains should be kept at all times free from deposit, and if this cannot be effected without flushing, special flushing arrangements

* The extension of soil-pipe, full size, through the roof is not a certain protection against siphonage of traps branching into it, and no protection when traps are on a horizontal pipe a distance from the vertical soil-pipe.

should be provided, so as to effectually remove all foul matter from the house-drains to the public sewers.

"All drains should be laid in a straight line, with proper falls, and should be carefully jointed and made water-tight. No right-angled junction should be allowed, except in the case of a drain discharging into a vertical shaft.

"No drain should be constructed so as to pass under a dwelling-house, except where absolutely necessary; and then it should be constructed of cast-iron pipes, with lead-calked joints laid so as to be readily accessible for inspection, and ventilated at each end.

"Whenever dampness of site exists, it should be remedied by laying subsoil drains, which should not pass directly to the sewer, but should have a suitable break or disconnection.

"Water-supply and drain pipes should be concentrated as much as possible, and not scattered about a buildihg. Horizontal pipes are objectionable.

66 Plumbing fixtures should not be hidden behind walls and partitions, where their condition is never apparent. They ought properly to be open to view, and so situated that any leak would be readily detected. It is also well to have a plan of the plumbing of each house for the tenant's or owner's convenience and guidance in any emergency.

"In planning house-drains, they should be got outside the walls of the house as quickly as possible, so that there may be few joints of pipe and the smallest chance of leakage from defects or accidents, taking proper precautions in locating to guard against freezing."

SEWER-TRAPS.

Two hundred and nineteen sewer-traps were reported during the year as having become nuisances. These were mainly the drops or catch-basins at street corners or the mouth of alleys, which become filled with refuse, street washings, &c., material which, containing more or less vegetable matter, soon decomposes and becomes offensive.

In this connection I would repeat the words of my letter of March 27, 1879, urging the necessity for providing some less offensive means for cleaning sewer-traps:

"The present mode is very defective and has always been objectionable. The contents of these traps or "drops" is always offensive in the extreme, especially those situated at the mouth of the populated alleys; animal and vegetable matter of all kinds finds its way into them, and not unfrequently focal matter is found as a component of the reeking mass removed. The material is taken up by means of buckets and shovels, dumped on the surface, thence transferred to open carts, and drawn through our streets to the place of final deposit, free to disseminate its effluvia on the route. It is one of the few remaining relics of a bygone age in Washington, and should not be longer tolerated. These traps are in many instances situated under the windows of our best residences, and the occupants have come to look with abhorrence upon each return of the period for cleaning. There is no reason, I think, why they should not be cleaned in as inoffensive manner as our privy vaults, and I earnestly hope that the serious nuisance which must follow their cleaning by the present system may be obviated by the introduction of more approved means ere the approach of another warm season."

TABLE C.-Unwholesome food condemned during the year ending June 30, 1879.

This service is considered by many to rank as first in importance among the duties of the health officer. Upon the wholesomeness of those three great necessaries of life, meat, flour, and vegetables, the public health to a great extent depends, and the health authorities of a city should be so armed with authority and means as to be able to render impossible, the sale for food of any diseased or unsound meat, impure flour, or unripe, overripe, or decomposing vegetables. The present method of inspecting meats only after being brought upon the market stalls is not satisfactory. There is urgent necessity for the establishment of abattoirs and the execution and enforcement of rules. and regulations governing the inspection and slaughter of animals intended for food. Aside from the question of abating the nuisances now created by slaughter-houses, the

INSPECTION OF LIVE STOCK

previous to their slaughter is necessary as the first step toward perfect ing the system in the prevention of the sale of unwholesome food. Unti we can control the great sources of supply and absolutely prevent un sound meats reaching our markets the service will not accomplish the results desired.

Mr. John Gamgee, in a report of examinations made at the request of the English Government, expresses the belief that as much as one-fifth

of the common meat of the country, beef, veal, mutton, lamb, and pork, comes from animals which are considerably diseased. The following is a digest of his examinations:

"Horned cattle affected with pleuro-pneumonia are, much oftener than not, slaughtered on account of the disease, and when slaughtered are commonly (except their lungs) eaten, and this even though the lung disease has made such progress as notably to taint the carcass; that animals affected with foot and mouth disease are not often slaughtered on account of it, but if slaughtered are uniformly eaten; that animals affected with anthracic and anthracoid diseases, especially swine and horned cattle, are (except their gangrenous parts) very extensively eaten; that the presence of parasites in the flesh of an animal never influences the owner against selling it for food; that carcasses too obviously ill-conditioned for exposure in the butcher-shop, are abundantly sent to the sausage-makers, or sometimes pickled and dried; that specially diseased organs will often, perhaps commonly, be thrown aside, but that some sausage-makers will utilize the most diseased organs which can be furnished them; that the principal alternative on a large scale to the above-described human consumption of diseased carcasses is that, in connection with some slaughtering establishments, swine (destined themselves presently to become human food) are habitually fed on the offal and scavenge of the shambles, and devour, often raw and with other abominable filth, such diseased organs as are below the sausage-makers' standard of usefulness.”*

Perhaps, taken as a rule, this statement would not prove true of the average slaughtering establishment in this District, but there are practices cited (notably the latter two) which would apply to some of our slaughter-houses. At any rate the opportunity is afforded for such practices if persons are so disposed, and this temptation should be removed.

Our flour is happily pure, breadstuff not having as yet reached a figure in this country which would tempt the adulterator. The public is pretty well protected as regards vegetables also, as the large amount of condemnations shown in the foregoing table will testify. Adulteration obtains largely among the shelf goods of our grocery stores, however, and it is a subject which must sooner or later demand action.

"That teas are faced, to give them bloom, with ferro-cyanide of iron, considered by the majority of physicians to be deleterious to health; that ales are salted to make customers more thirsty; that nearly every sherry is plastered; that fusel-oil is a frequent accompaniment to raw spirits; that sugar often contains iron and sand; that preserved vegetables are frequently colored with copper; that lemonades, beer, and porter not uncommonly contain lead; that tea is weighted with iron, and weakened with the leaves of the thorn and other plants; that butter is sometimes made without cream; that coffee is adulterated with rotted figs, which have been roasted and ground to powder; that ports are manufactured at chemical works, are all facts which are now pretty well known to the public, who have the remedy in their own hands."

* Sanitary examinations of water and food: Fox.

Fish....

bunches..

Sturgeon

19, 432 181

17, 230

22, 008