Social Problems And Their Peaceful Solution.

vided to prevent the admission of dust , etc ; this should be glazed , if of earthenware , to prevent evaporation otherwise than by the porous sides of the pot , which slight evaporation will have the effect of cooling the water . The apparatus should now be

set in a stand ( a sort of rough threelegged stool , through the board of which the pot can be placed , will answer admirably ) , of such a height that the water oozing through the lower sponge may have a drop of about two feet . This fiill

through the air will replace in the water any oxygen that it may have lost during the processes of boiling and filtering , and so correct that peculiar disagreeable flatness so noticeable in filtered water . The total cost of this filter need not exceed

one shilling . The charcoal and sand will of course require occasional renewal , but this will not be often if the upper pot be kept thoroughly clean and its sponge be frequently taken out and washed . Hardnessso-calledof waterwhenever it

, , , exists , may be remedied by the addition of a small quantity of bicarbonate of potash before use ; we recommend potash rather than soda because it does not give the

water the same disagreeable taste , whilst , what is of more consequence even than this , it is more soluble in the stomach . Whilst discussing the subject of water iu connexion with the house-supply , our mind , intent upon the greater comfort of our cottager friendssomewhat naturall

, y turns to that greatest of all discomforts" Washing-day . " AVe see , even as we write the detested word , the little house reeking with steam , filled with a mingled and execrable odour in which soap predominates , and choked with smoke from

the faulty copper flue , the entire upper part of the room a perfect network of wet , dabbling clothes , and the bottom a mingled chaos of baskets , dirty clothes , buckets , and small children ; add to this a wife—well , slightly irate and very

disagreeable from over work and worry , and no dinner ready , and can we wonder that the poor man sighs , turns his back on his home—if now for the first time , almost certainl y not for the last—and wends his way to the taproom that he has but just now manfully passed . And all this misery , for misery it is and greater misery it will be in the future , might be

prevented by erecting a public wash house for the entire population . If , again , to this public wash-house , good baths could be added , what a boon would be conferred upon the public , what a long way traversed on the road to securing public health .

But one thing remains to be noticed , and that is the spread of epidemic diseases , which may be introduced , generated they can hardly be , if the foregoing directions shall have been followed . Should any infectious disorder then manifest itself , the

case should be completely isolated at once . The best moans of doing this is by the establishment of a small cottage hospital in every place , such as a village , where no public provision is made , entirely for infectious and contagious disorders , to which the sufferer should be instantly removed .

Oue such , the site of which should be airy and removed as far from ordinary dwellings as possible , should be maintained in every village . After the first outlay the cost would be but trifling , and might he regarded entirely in the light of a

healthinsurance premium . Besides removing the patient , steps should be taken to thoroughly disinfect , by means of fumigation and otherwise , all bedding , furniture , and the like with which the person suffering from disease may have come into

contact . Should there be no possibility of removing the patient , then all healthy occupants of the house beyond those required for nursing , should leave the house , with which no more communication than is absolutely necessary should be maintained . Disinfectants should be freely used ; all refuse from the sick room should bo

burned ; whilst the doors through which anyone must pass should be covered , by way of curtains , with sheets or other hang ings saturated with some disinfecting fluid . These suggestions may be crude , yet to try them is a step in the right direction .

The start is the main thing , for the " vis inertia ; " is great indeed . Surely , however , there is at least one person in every parish , however small , who has sufficient leisure and enterprise to embark upon such a sanitary crusade as we have sketched

out , whose spare moments might well be whiled away in seeing to such of these matters , as oue of the public would be per-2 II 2