SANITATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXIII, Issue 74, 16 April 1901, Page 2

SANITATION.

THE SEPTIC BYSTEM. The following report by Dr. Valintine was read at the Hospital JBo*rd on Monday:—

To the members of the Taranaki Hospital and Charitable Aid Boird: — Gentlemen, —I beg to submit the following report an to the advisability of adopting the " Septic Tank " syetem for dealing with the excreta and waste waters from the Hospital and Old Men's Home. But before discussing that particular system of drainage allow me to draw your a 1 tnhtion ta some facts that will necessitate your accompanying me into a widar field of hygiene. Boms of those present may hare read or I heard of a series of articles that have! been written by Dr. Vivian Poore of | London, a well known authority en sanitary matters and a member of the* Permanent Committee of the laternational Congress of hygiene and demography. The warning* and rocsmmendations of Dr. Poore have struck' me as being so particularly applicable to this country, not only on sanitary but also on agricultural and moral grounds, that I have lang felt it to b» my duty to take the first opportunity of bringi»g to public notice the warnings Dr. Poore gives and the principles he advocates. And how can Ido tbi? better than by bringing '.hem before the notice el jour Board, a Board that has always taken a keen interest in sanitary matters; an example that might well fee copied by other Boards and Councils in this colony. One might aptly describe Dr. Poore as holding a brief for the advocates of natural hygiene—if I may so term it, Briefly his argument is this; he maintains that we do not take sufficient advantage of the processes of nature to dispose of all that is abominable to our sitises; at the same time he deplores on econo mieal, moral, and agricultural grounds the enormous expenditure of money on so-called sanitary works. With your permission we will go into this argument and briefly review nature's processes for the disposal of excreta. Everything that dies, be it of vegetable or animal origin, returns ia some form or other to the earth; here they are fed upon in their turn by living auiinil and vegetable matter and under favourable conditions this assimila'ion proceeds rapidly. Take the earth itself, or rather the humus, better known as garden mould : of what is it cornp sed ? Why the remains of d.iad animal ano vegetable matter, dead leaves, the excreta of animals, birds and ins<ct«, the casts of worms. Nor is this all: thir humus or moulding which is barely six iaches deep in this locality, swarms with fungi, animalculae, and conntleis minute organisms, of which latter some 750,000—900,000 have be»n found in a gram, pr lg grains of mould. These organisms pursue almost without inter-! mission their duty of breaking up com-1 pier organic rif use into simple salts which,iatbeirturn, assist in the growth of all forms of plant life. This is. known as the process of oxidat : on, and if the soil be moist and sufficiently icrated the oxygen of the soil combines with ths nitrog-n of the air to form nitrio acid and subsequently nitrates. The carbon combines with oxygen to form carbonic ecid and carbonates. You will thus understand how putrescible matter buried in the first few inches of the soil will fare. It will be decomposed without occurrence of putrefaction which is sn obnoxious to the sense and so deleterious to health. To insure the proper decomposition of pat rrscible matter within the soil certain essentials are necessary. The ground tuijst be wej| ti||ed and the soil well aerated and fairly moist. Extreme cold retards the process of decomposition. These, I repeat, are the e*seutials, and what soil or what climate is more suitable than the light poros soil and the humid climate of Taranaki? Now, gentlemen, I do net ask you fo> one mement to take my word far tlie- e assertions: in fact, thp object of tbi> paper would be wholly lost if I did not feel certain that y<u would like yournelvos to certify the facts I have stated. Up to a certain point you can experiment for yourselves, and this I irust you will do. Naturally, without a microscope, you will not be able to s* many of the organisms I have men tioned, but I am confident you will «« enough to convive yon that the direc application of frevh excreti to the earth is the rational and economie manner for the disposal of what is so wrongly called refuse. Take » familiar example, not rare in this dis trict, a pit of cow dung ; when it has hardened, which will occur a few dayt after it has been deposited, torn it over and examine it, Yeu will find six or s-ven animalculate at work, and generally the garden worm. Mr. George Murray, F.R.S., Biologist tt.he British Museum, has found no less than 91 distinct species of fungi peculiar to the dung of the ox. He has tabulated 628 species which are kno>vn to flouiish on the excrement oF various animals. But the cow, as 1 have rem*rked, has 91, the horse 78, the dog 30, sheep 25, man 21, the pig 7, But to return to the paw dung; •tfter a few dsys Jyoii will nqtice that, it has altered in character and ermsistertey, and were it not for its characteristic shape you would bo unable to 1 ell it from ordinary garden mould. The fungi and organisms are doing their work. Again, tak • a panful ef fresh kumau f*tces aud bury it nbjut half a. spit deep ia gardes sail, in 24—48

'hours, under suitable conditions, on 'digging up the spot you will not be able to distinguish the faeces ner will you see tbe paper. The?e ara simple experiments. I only ask you to try them. I will not worry you with my expariraeots on other org&uie matter such as dead cats, does, fowls, and old boits, but tbey all disappeared in the same marvellouß manner if buried

«uperfically, hut bury thorn 3 or 4 deep Mid you will find the faeoos, etc., is Fresh aa «v«r even affcflr a year's burial —oar friends the fungi and organism? aive not been able to get at them; nor indead has the air. Surely these Pacts which can be bo easily verified thould tend to revolutionise not only che system for the disposal of our sxcreta, but also the manner in which

we bury eur dead. Does not this rais* the question whether it would be better instead of ,£20,000 on the drainage of a town to spend the interest, say £IOOO a year, on increising the supply of scavengers? Better than piling up a debt only to bo renewed in a few yews for another fashionably scheme; or, at the best, for succeeding generations to face. But this brings me to the crux of the whole question; owing to the aggregation of people in our largercitiesand the consequently scant curtilage round buildings, it is impnsnble for the householder to dispose of the excreta and slop waters about his pvoßiia' S. That is why drainage, as we know if, is necrssary in crowded cities—it is more expedient but that is all. But is it necessary in our smaller towns? A man whose stands on l-sth of an acre could dispose of both ex creta and «lop waters of himself and family to the satisfaction of any sanitary inspector and with profit to himself. He could net only save the heavy unitary rate, but make his garden more productive. And this is where the ecenomioal objections to the modern system of drainage come in, We not only incur an expensive rate, but allow a great source of wealth to foul the nearest river to ba ultimately lost in the sea. How many farmers really realise the value is a manure of properly disposed human excreta? They literally bury at their back door what is far more valuable than the artificial manure they buy. All t.nis can b=< borne out by experiment (Bennett and Lawrs). Is not organic manure much more needed ou a porous soil, having so little humus as obtains in this district, than those expensive artificial manures that are likely to be washed into the sub-soil by the first shower of rain, or in dry weather blown to the fear corners of the earth. With auimal manure, if the soil be not ready to take ud tjpe ingredients it requires, it can bide it's time, but with artificial manure unless the soil and climate and surroundings are favourable at the time of application little good is likely to accrue. I first mentioned that it was more expedient or convenient to dispose of excreta and waste waters by what is known as the water carriage though more expensive. And I suggested that it would be better to spend £IOOO per annum on extra scavengers than raise a loan of £20,000 for the drainage of a town. This is so but how would it work? The success of such a scheme would depend in great part on the intelligence and enlightened assistance of the householder. I think it was Lord Derby who said that " Sanitary education should precede sanitary legislation," and never were truer words spoken. Until it is taught in our schools that it is just as filthy for a man t9 tolerate foul surroundings as it is for him to go unwashed, so long will we b« compelled to adopt sanitary measures of an expensive kind. And so long will the scavenger be looked upon as a sort af social pariah rather than ax a benefactor to mankind. A man whose house stands on one-fifth of an acre should be absolutely independent of any sanitary authority. It would take the occupier of such a heuse about five minutes each morning to attend to the sanitary arrangements. (It takes me exactly four minutes,) Surely a man who ia in the habit of giving five minutes to washing his own person would not grudge anether five minutes for the sake of the health of his wife and children. He would feel at the same time he was saving money by avoiding a heavy rate. Of course, owing to the modern conditions of living in our larger towns it is not possible for every man to possess one-fifth ef an acre. But a good deal might be done in this direction even in the larger centres. Light i ail ways, electrip oars, etc., have revolutionised, and are, I trust, still mare likely to revolutionise the oomforts and Moemmodation cf the poorer olasseg ; and I hope the day is not far distant when the workiogman, with belter and cheaper travelling 'co.ommodation, will be able ti journey to and fro from hig work to his small r reehold, his well-stocked gsrdon being ■lis own sanitary author ity. The public fire apt to complain that sanitary laws infriflea on personal liberty. Doubtless that is so, and as time goes on and population increases thoy cannot but tend to become more severe. The remedy lies not so much in beneficent lepislation as in the education and intelligence of the people, One of the advantages of living in a comparatively newly-settled country is that we are, or should be, sh's to profit by the mistakes of older communities, To a certain extent this has been recsgnised, and our towns are laid out with broad, straight stre°ts in place of the tortious *nd sunless defile? that yoq encounter j in SJurop-nn and i}<Btim cities. Buteven in this coleny there h a tendency to oy rcrowd in our larger cin'res, and I need scarcely remind you that sucH overcrowding brings filth and disease among a people who by nature of their surroundings are bound to deteriorate 'n character, and vice consequently becomes rampant. Again, are wa profit ipg by the mistakes of older countriep m allowing our rivers to be polluted by sewage and factory waste? Even •>, . . this custom prevails, and 1 • w o.nlv a question of time and pt>pn■t>V Vhen our raos ' i topsutiful riveo will become sewers like the I. ha n,os or Clyde. I f ee i that l him , i ready trespassed too much on your tuni', although much has remained un said, and will now proceed to report a* to thn liekt, means of draining the two inatitu'ioi'R under your care. When I was nuked some seven years a?o to recommend a system for disposing of the hospital sewage I advised your Board to adopt a modification ef what is

known as intermittent downward filtr tiion. I suggested that means as an inexpensive but temporary measure, feeling eertain that before many years pissed tha Bsraugh authorities would Hhvp adapted some scheme for tbe removal of their sewage. On making my repart I drew particular attention to tlx* that to make intermittent,' ownward filtration a succe«s depended

entirely on the personal supervision ef soma person of ordinary intelligence. AH my recommendations as to th' draining of the subsoil,Jletc,, were not adopted, but it must be allowed thai despite the somewhat perfunctory manner in which the drainage wns supervised, the system answered satis factorily, in fact it exceeded my expectation. It wag only when this system had been in vogue for more than six years that any complaint w.ir made, which, in my opinion, was tinfouuded, although there bad been some culpable negligence in supervision. Now, ho •- ever, you *«k me to advise you as the drainage of the adjoining institution, in conjunction with that 9f tlm hospital. I would not advise that tlin drainage of the Old Men's Home should be allowed to gr.\viUto into the hospital grounds, to ba disposed of as that of ths excreta from the hospital. 1 have already described to y«u a titnpl - and thoroughly efficacinus manner fit the disposal of excratu, but distinctly hesitate to recommend that it be adopted at the Old Men's Home. Far ba it from me to say anything that would be likely to hurt the feelings of these unfortunate members of the community who are compelled to seek aid from your Bo*rd ; but it must be confessed that they are by no means the sort of persons to whom it would be advisable to entrust the management and disposal of their own excreta, espranlly as I understand that this would be expected of them. Standing as it do»? en 3| acres of land thore is ample room for the disposal of the excreta of five times the numVer you expect ti> Accommodate ; the soil, situation, slope of the ground, etc, are all that can be desired for the purpose. The • Septic i Tank ' system is at present the fashionahle manner for the disposal of refuse. It has b»en introduced some three, or four years, and has been much lauded. The mvra f ict that its adoption has beßn sanctioned by the Local Govfiruraent Board of the Unit.d Kingdom i* a sufficient guarantee of i*s excellance, to say nothing of the names of the distinguished scientists who beir tes'imony to its efficacy. Briefly the system is as follows : —The crude sewage, is allowed to puss into an underground tank which is cut e& from any communication with the air. Ia this tank the heavier substances of the sewage fall to the bottom. Fermentation and putrefaction supervene as in snordiaary cesspool. Owing to these changeother substances in suspsnnoa beoom-. soluble and are fitted for mbs-quent purification by aeration, Some of th<> nitrogeneeus organic matters are converted intq ammonia and there is a reduction of some of tie oxidisablo organic matter. The effluent flows over an wrator in a fine stream and finds its way to filter beds made of coke breeze. The ioration allows the effluent to take up oxygen and it is exposed to j nitrifying organisms in the filter. After which it is claimed that the effluent can bo discharged into a watercourse without danper and it is eveu nlaim-d by some that it is fit to drink. Is snid that over 80 per cent of th« oxiiigable organic matter in the sewage is removed and sbiut 70 per cent of tho 'albuminoid ammonia. The advantages claimed by the system, are: - That the effluent is conducted to the filter bid* by automatic action, and it consequently requires very little suspension ; that no chemicals are necessary; that there is very littla sludgn; and thai the effluent can be subsequently discharged into a water cour.-e without polluting it. Personally, I cannot claim t« have any knowledge of this scheme beyond ths reports I see from time to time in the medical journals. So far it reams to have acted satisfactory. But I would lay great! stress on this fact. So much B»ce?sari!y depends on the eonatructi of the tank aerator and liter that 1 would recommend you* 1 Board, in the event of adopting tlie scheme, to see that the worlts are constructed under the personal supervision of one of thaeompany. In the face «f the well kao»p authorities who report favouramy en this scheme, and as I possess no p'actical knowledge of its working, it would be idle for me to repert otherwise than favourably on tn» S ptic Tank system. It has recently been introduced to this colony, and I am even now awaiting teports from the pi ices where it has been installed. If the Septic Tank system is all that it is cltimed ta be, and which I have no le.KiOn to doubt, i: bids fair to revolutionise the whole system of drainage. It is at any rate a convenient system. At the same time 1«n glad to have had the opportunity of bringing to your notice Nature's mean* for the disposal of organic matlei.', for I feel certain that in that field lies tiis health and sanitation of the future.

Sinca writiug the above report I have consulted my colUaguss, Dre, Leatham and Walker, us to the advi - ability of adopting a " pan " system nt the Old Moo's Home. J3oth these gentleman agree with me that, it wou d ba as we 1 to give the " a trial before adopting a system which would involve so considerable sn expenditure aa that of the " Septic T*nk." if pans, however, prove a failura and the reports on the " Saptic Ticks" installed in the colony continue to bp favourable, I would certainly suggest 'ihafc such tanks be ereo'ed to daal with the px"reta of both the institutions under your charge.—l have the honour to ba, gentlemen, Your obedient servant, T. W, A. Valintixb, Department of Public Health.

PA—I hope shortly to show you fa modification of tha "Septic" T-tnk system which might be tried at the Hospital.