regulate the laying of land-drains apply with equal force
in the making of sewers, that is no part of the pipe should be less
perfect, either in material or construction, than that which lies above
it; and where the inclination becomes less, in approaching the outlet,
silt-basins should be employed, unless the decreased fall is still rapid.
The essential point of difference is, that while land drains may be of
porous material, and should have open joints for the admission of water,
sewer pipes should be of impervious glazed earthen-ware, and their joints
should be securely cemented, to prevent the escape of the sewage, which it
is their province to remove, not to distribute. Drains from houses, which
need not be more than 3 or 4 inches in diameter, should be of the same
material, and should discharge with considerable inclination into the
pipes, being connected with a curving branch, directing the fluid towards
the outlet.

In laying a sewer, it is customary to insert a pipe with a branch opposite
each house, or probable site of a house.

It is important that, in towns not supplied with waterworks, measures be
taken to prevent the admission of too much solid matter in the drainage of
houses. Water being the motive power for the removal of the solid parts of
the sewage, unless there be a public supply which can be turned on at
pleasure, no house should deliver more solid matter than can be carried
away by its refuse waters.

The drainage of houses is one of the chief objects of sewerage.

In addition to the cases cited above of the model lodging houses in
Lambeth Square, and of the buildings at Westminster, it may be well to
refer to a remarkable epidemic which broke out in the Maplewood Young
Ladies' Institute in Pittsfield, Mass., in 1864, which was of so violent
and fatal a character as to elicit a special examination by a committee of
physicians. The family consisted, (pupils, servants, and all,) of one
hundred and twelve persons. Of these, fifty-one were attacked with
well-defined typhoid fever during a period of less than three weeks. Of
this number thirteen died. The following is extracted from the report of
the committee:

"Of the 74 resident pupils heard from, 66 are reported as having had
illness of some kind at the close of the school or soon after. This is a
proportion of 33/37 or nearly 90 per cent. Of the same 74, fifty-one had
typhoid fever, or a proportion of nearly 69 per cent. If all the people in