On diet and regimen in sickness and health : and on the interdependence and prevention of diseases and the diminution of their fatality / by Horace Dobell.

Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On diet and regimen in sickness and health : and on the interdependence and prevention of diseases and the diminution of their fatality / by Horace Dobell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    open the window, the warm house will quickly receive the smell you intended to go outside, and you will soon perceive that the air will not obey your commands. Have a space (however small) between the inner and outer doors of the water-closet; if this space is too con- fined for a window, get external air into it by tubes; this stratum of air will materially assist you, because it tends to balance and check the progress of the air in the water-closet beyond ; but the better method is to lead a tube from the ceiling of the water-closet into the nearest chimney-flue where there is smoke ascending, or where there is sufficient warmth to make it act as you wish; your water-closet will then soon be cleared of all dis- agreeables. A valve, however, should be balanced in this tube to prevent any sudden down draught. Some provision should be made for disposing of slops entirely away from the water-closet. People are little aware what odd things are put down water-closets. If plumbers told people the queer things they find in water-closet pipes, they would not be believed. Water- closets should be strictly guarded, and domestic servants cautioned against misusing them. The same oversight should be given to traps in sinks and elsewhere; these traps are often lifted off and not put on again, resulting in much damage to the health of the servants and all the inmates of the house. Let all pipes from sinks, butlers pantries, baths, etc., discharge themselves free to the air before entering sewer drains: this plan can generally be carried out without difficulty or unsightliness. Have all junctions of water-closet pipes with the drains examined now and then, as the stopping often shrinks and the lead decays, especially if the stopping is made of Portland cement. The seating or fixing of the