Sanitary reform : water-closets versus privies, practically considered in reference to Manchester and Salford : being the substance of a paper read before the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association, January 29, 1869 / by John Newton.

  • Newton, John.
Date:
[1869]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sanitary reform : water-closets versus privies, practically considered in reference to Manchester and Salford : being the substance of a paper read before the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association, January 29, 1869 / by John Newton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    evening has ah^eady, on various occasions, occupied the earnest attention of this Association. The importance which at the present time attaches to it, must be my apology for again introducing it. Common privies are by many people viewed as a necessary evil. That they are an evil, and, moreover, one of the greatest magnitude, I maintain. That they are a necessary evil I emphatically deny, and I will endeavour to show, first, their baneful effects upon the health and well-being of society; and, secondly, the advantages which the water-closet system offers. A few words, in the first place, descriptive of the existing state of things. Privies are ordinarily built alongside, and partially over, the ashpits. These latter are three to four yards long, one to two yards wide, and three to six feet in depth. With A^ery few exceptions, they are uncovered, and thus admit rain and the water which falls upon, and from, the roofs of the adjoining privies. In the majority of cases no drainage whatever is provided, and where it is otherwise, an untrapped opening exists in the side wall, in lieu of a properly protected and trapped drain in the bottom. They are generally in close proximity to dwelling-houses—at most a few yards distant— and sometimes on ground curtailed from the cottage sites, with fileeping-rooms above. Ashpits are the recognised receptacles of ashes, faecal matter, broken crockery, cockle-shells, and every description of