Report to the local government board on certain means of preventing excrement nuisances in towns and villages / by J. Netten Radcliffe.

Radcliffe, J. Netten.

Date:: [1875]

Credit: Report to the local government board on certain means of preventing excrement nuisances in towns and villages / by J. Netten Radcliffe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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$20 On Excrement Nuisances, l>y Mr. J. Netton lladclilYe. Glas(j<yw. adopt watercloset.s, and these are being more exten.sively introduced IVom year to year. The older tenements of Glasgow, as ot Ldinburgh, from their arrangement and the class of jjopnlation inhabiting them, do not admit of the introduction of waterclosets. For these buildings and iheir inhabitants efl’orts are mainly directed to the improvement of ]>reviously established plans. I observed in some of the newer tene- ments which had been furnished with waterclosets that these Avere out of order and offensiA^e. d'his had arisen from inability to make particular families in the common stair responsible for the cleanliness of the Avaterclosets, OAving to the inconvenient position and insufficient number of the latter. In other instances, AAdierc each flat had its separate Avatercloset, and this Avas kept locked, the families of the nat being hold responsible for its orderline.ss, the Avaterclosets Avere kept in excellent order, although iin])erfectly lighted from the common stair. When Dr. Buchanan and I visited GlasgoAv in 1869, midden- steads Avere to be seen attached both to public and private privies, of enormous size, filthy and foetid, uncOA’ered, receiving all urine as Avell as stools of the neighbourhood, and also ashes. Middensteads of this kind still exist, but probably all are noAv covei-ed in. Of the 1,278 mid- densteads in the burgh, 935 are drained. For middensteads of this class there are noAv being substituted smaller, covered, undrained mid- densteads, of a capacity calculated to hold tAvo days’ accumulation of the filth, ashes, and dry-house refuse of the families using them. This important change, begun before 1869, has since been steadily carried oiit, and recently has received a further deA'elopmcnt Avhich makes the GlasgoAv midden closet, as ncAvly designed—one detail alone excepted, —a pattern for the construction of the common privy, so long as common privies must be tolerated. The additional improA^ement con- sists in so fixing an inclined plane beneath the opening through A\diich the ashes and dry-house refuse are throAvn into the middenstead, that these shall fall above and cover the excrement. The exception referred to is that the bottom of the middenstead is sunk beneath the level of the ground, Avhich should not be the case. Mr. Garrick, the master of Avorks, appears to have been the first to have conceived this arrange- ment, but its successful Avorking out has been duo to Mr. Dobson, of the sanitary department. Plates VI. and VII. shoAv the arrangements of this form of privy.*^ The folloAving description of the plans, including also a description of a plan of pail closet (Plate VIII.) is furnislied by the sanitary department:— Description of Privies in the Central Sanitary District OF Glasgoav. No. 1 {Plate VI.)—Is a combined ash-bin and privy, constructed Avith .9-inch brick Avails, the seat, riser, inclined plane, bottom and'roof of G-incb Caithness stone. The Avhole structure covers an area of 56 sujierficial feet. This ives accommodation to 2/ families, two Avarehouses, and seven shojis, and costs 16/. No. 2 {Plate VII.)—Is a design of tAvo privies, placed back to back, and divided into four compartments by tAvo partitions of Caithness stone, inches thick; the external Avails are built of 9-inch brickAvork in mortar the seat, riser, inclined^ planes, and bottom of bin of 22-inch Caithness stone set on one course of brick footings. The dotted lines are suggestive of a screen to hide the persons sitting from persons passing. The superficial area on Avhich it stands is 95 feet, and cfiviim accommodation to three distinct localities, having a population of 236. ^ ° No. 3 (P/«^e VIII.) is the plan of a privy on the pan system, constructed Avith G-mch Caithness pavingf stone set in grooA'esin the paA’ementof the court * Mr. Dobson has also devised an ingenious mechanical arran<>-emont the details of Avliicb are shoAvn on Plate Vila., having for object the prevonVion of annoyance ironi ashes being cast into the middenstead Avhen in nse, to the persons iisino- it An experimental trial of this arrangement Avas being made Avhen I visited Glas«mAv$