But however satisfactory the general conditions may be, great danger will exist if the fittings themselves are not of a suitable character and if the plumber's work in connection with them is not properly executed. Untold harm has resulted from the fixing of water-closets and other fittings of faulty design by unskilled workmen under more or less ignorant supervisors. The harm has not always been confined to the occupants of the houses containing the fittings, but has often spread throughout the community. Many towns to-day are paying the penalty for previous misdeeds.

Even some of our health resorts have shown an almost criminal disregard of sanitary requirements. Two examples will suffice for our purpose.

In March, 1899, Dr. G. S. Buchanan, after a serious outbreak of diphtheria at Tunbridge Wells, wrote:-"House-drains are rarely trapped from the sewer, and frequently they are ventilated only by means of rain-water pipes which open just below the eaves. Often, I was informed, waste-pipes opening within the dwelling are connected directly with the house-drain.....Within the smaller dwellings commonly the only drain is a sink-pipe, which discharges its contents outside the building over a bell-trap.

These bell-traps are usually defective.....In houses of better class are occasionally found water-closets provided with objectionable D-traps, and soil-pipes of water-closets often are unventilated. As a rule in smaller house property each dwelling has belonging to it a water-closet placed outside the building. A majority of these water-closets are without apparatus for flushing; being of the 'hopper' type, and getting merely an occasional ' flush' from a water-can, they often become filthy. In one row of houses I found closets of this sort built in the basement of the house, open-into the kitchen."

In his report (dated January, 30, 1900) on "Epidemic Enteric Fever in the Borough of Falmouth,"Dr. Buchanan wrote:-"Excrement disposal is almost everywhere effected by water-closets. Most of these closets are provided with flushing-boxes or flush-tanks, but some 200 are without flushing apparatus. The latter 'hand-flushed' closets are apt to become exceedingly foul. ... At the date of my visit the occupants of a few of the larger private dwellings in Falmouth were having their house-drains exposed for examination. In each instance where I had an opportunity of seeing these house-drains they were seriously defective; thus, joints of pipe-drains were leaky, . , . soil-pipes were inside the house and unventilated, sink waste-pipes led directly to the house-drains. . . . ." In a later paragraph he added:-"Soil-pipes are habitually unventilated* .... Much of the recent plumber's work which I saw also seemed unsatisfactory."

These instances serve also to show that, however much knowledge of sanitary fittings and plumbing there may be in the country, the practical application of this knowledge has been, and still is, far from adequate. Every one who has to carry out alterations of houses, meets many instances of glaring defects even in buildings which have been erected in recent years. These defects are often due to ignorance or carelessness, but in many cases the blame must rest on

* In the next paragraph Dr. Buchanan modified this statement by saying that " new soil-pipes have in most instances been provided with ventilating shafts." the owner of the houses, for having demanded cheapness (however nasty) instead of efficiency. The architect unfortunately has to deal with many clients of this nature, and is often thwarted in his endeavours to do good work, even though he points out that cheapness in first cost almost inevitably entails excessive expenditure in repairs and alterations, and perhaps in doctors' bills.

Sanitary fittings ought always to be of good quality and properly fitted. If little money can be afforded, the number of the fittings must be reduced, as it is better to have one good water-closet than (say) two bad water-closets, or a bad water-closet and a bad slop-hopper. Economy can also be effected by grouping the sanitary fittings together, and so reducing the length of the waste-pipes and drains and the number of ventilating pipes.