injury to health from decomposing matters than there would
be in hot, moist, or close positions. In the country generally there
is less risk of injury than in close parts of towns. These
considerations show that the same stringency is not necessarily
required everywhere. Position by itself affords a certain degree of
protection from nuisance. The amount of decomposing matter usually
produced is also another point to be considered. A small daily product
is not, of course, so injurious as a large product. Even the manner of
accumulating decomposing substances influences their effect on health.
There is less risk from a dung heap to the leeward than to the
windward of a barrack. The receptacles in which refuse is temporarily
placed, such as ash pits and manure pits, should never be below the
level of the ground. If a deep pit is dug in the ground, into which
the refuse is thrown in the intervals between times of removal, rain
and surface water will mix with the refuse and hasten its
decomposition, and generally the lowest part of the filth will not be
removed, but will be left to fester and produce malaria. In all places
where the occupation is permanent the following conditions should be
attended to:

1. That the places of deposit be sufficiently removed from inhabited
buildings to prevent any smell being perceived by the occupants. 2.
That the places of deposit be above the level of the ground--never dug
out of the ground. The floor of the ash pit or dung pit should be at
least six inches above the surface level. 3. That the floor be paved
with square sets, or flagged and drained. 4. That ash pits be covered.
5. That a space should be paved in front, so as to provide that the
traffic which takes place in depositing the refuse or in removing it
shall not produce a polluted surface.

In towns those parts of the refuse which cannot be utilized for manure
or otherwise are burned. But this is an operation which, if done
unskillfully, without a properly constructed kiln, may give rise to
nuisance. One of the best forms of kiln is one now in operation at
Ealing, which could be easily visited from London.

_The removal of excreta from houses._--The chief object of a perfect
system of house drainage is the immediate and complete removal from
the house of all foul and effete matter directly it is produced. The
first object--viz., removal of foul matter, can be attained either by
the water closet system, when carried out in this