and Miquel, and a score of other scientists abroad, whose investigations have added so much to our knowledge of specific dangers to health and the means of overcoming them? And how many have heard of the careful and painstaking sanitary work of able scientific authorities in the United States? The labors of Waring and Putnam and Pumpelly and Smyth have been no less valuable, but the records of their investigations and experiments, although of great popular interest, are not widely known. No one can speak or write intelligently on sanitary topics without familiarity with this literature; but the writers who have arraigned sanitary science so severely are those who are most ignorant of its methods and its principles.
Let us consider the popular notion already alluded to—that we can not safely have plumbing fixtures in our houses. It is evident that the present requirements of comfortable living demand a reasonable number of convenient baths, closets and basins, and all the usual apparatus of this kind which modern civilization has introduced into the houses of the well-to-do. We can hardly consider these as luxuries. They are, in fact, absolute necessities; and to dispense with them would cause great inconvenience and inconceivable loss of comfort, and even of health. In compliance with the demands of a high civilization, sanitary science has been directed persistently toward the perfection of means to obtain all possible conveniences for free and frequent ablutions, as well as for the immediate and complete removal of household wastes. What evidence is there that science has failed in this particular? It is said that costly houses fitted with elaborate and expensive appliances for luxurious living have been often invaded by disease and death, and that the cause of this has been sewer-gas. These facts can not be disputed, but it is absurd to claim that science is at fault in this matter. The unfortunate results of such cases are invariably due to ignorance and empiricism.
In his census reports. Dr. Billings estimates that, in the United States, one hundred thousand deaths occur every year from strictly preventable diseases alone. This is unquestionably a very moderate estimate, and, if there are reckoned also twelve cases of serious illness for every death, we see what a great amount of suffering results from ignorance of sanitary principles.
But how is this ignorance manifested? Are not our architects competent to deal with the problem of household sanitation? It will be said, perhaps, that it is the province of the architect to direct the entire work of house-building, and to arrange every detail of the fittings. But it should be considered that the science of sanitation is broad and comprehensive. Years of study and of experience in sanitary work are necessary for a proper under-
