THE 
Work of the Sanitary Engineer 
IN TIME OF EPIDEMICS, IN TIME OF WAR, AND IN 
SUDDEN CALAMITIES IN CIVIC LIFE. 
BY 
WILLIAM PAUL GERHARD, C.E., 
Consulting Engineer for Sanitary Works, 
36 Union Square, E., New York. 
[From The Sanitarian for June, 1895.] 
New York: 
BURR PRINTING HOUSE, 
18 Jacob Street, 
1895. THE WORK OF THE SANITARY ENGINEER IN 
TIME OF EPIDEMICS, IN TIME OF WAR, AND 
IN SUDDEN CALAMITIES IN CIVIC LIFE. 
By William Paul Gerhard, C.E., Consulting Engineer for Sanitary Works. 
In the present age of keen business competition, and in the 
stern realism of modern life, one is far too apt, in choosing or 
in pursuing a profession, to consider purely the business aspect 
involved, or, in other words, the expected financial gain, and 
one generally forgets the humanitarian side incident to every 
professional man's career. In the every-day life of a nation, 
of a State, or a community contingencies are likely to arise 
at any time which require the exercise of the faculties acquired 
in the pursuit of a business, trade, or profession in order to 
apply them-at such times-in the interests of humanity. 
Among such contingencies are outbreaks of epidemics, war, 
and great disasters in civic life. 
I propose in the following to discuss briefly what services 
and aid the professional man, who has chosen " sanitary engi- 
neering' ' for his calling, can render in such extraordinary events 
to the cause of humanity. 
I. Work of the Sanitary Engineer in Case of Sudden Outbreaks 
of Epidemics. 
" Mankind is accustomed to the ceaseless and regular work 
of death, to the slow removal of human beings from its midst. 
One may compare it," says a German writer, " to the leaves 
of a tree, which, after changing color in autumn, drop off one 
by one as the winter comes. So also, one by one, will men 
sink into their graves, while new generations arise, only to 
meet the same fate in the end. This is the inevitable decree 
of destiny, of the order of things in nature. But the aspect 2 
of death changes when an epidemic breaks out. It is then 
more like the sudden uprising and uproar of a storm, which 
in its mad fury breaks off delicate branches and twigs and 
uproots strong and healthy trees. It is death, again, to be 
sure, which we see all around us when an epidemic rages, but 
death in a different form, clad in a strange and dismal raiment, 
which shakes the nerves of the strongest and bravest men. " At 
such times the people begin to feel that perhaps the wholesale 
dying need not have taken place, that the causes which led to 
the calamity might have been avoided-in short, that death 
in epidemics, far from being a dispensation of Providence, is 
the result of man's own carelessness or neglect or indifference 
in sanitary matters. 
When an epidemic threatens, the work of the sanitary and 
municipal engineer consists principally and first of all in 
measures of prevention. He should pay particular attention 
and care to all hygienic municipal work, such as the public 
water supply, the sewerage, the scavenging and street clean- 
ing, the sewage and garbage disposal, the public bath and 
wash-houses, market-houses, abattoirs, and public water-closet 
conveniences. Increased cleanliness is required for all public 
conveyances, hacks, cabs, street-cars, elevated and steam rail- 
roads, as well as ferry-boats, and stricter attention should be 
paid to railroad depots, stables, to hotels, and to public lodg- 
ing-houses. It is well, at such times, to institute a sanitary 
survey of the city, including a house-to-house inspection, with 
particular regard to the tenement districts. Hospitals for the 
reception and care of infected patients should be planned, 
located, and arranged. Speaking broadly, the problems which 
in such a case arise for the sanitary or municipal engineer 
consist in stricter and closer attention to the sanitation of the 
soil, the air, the water, the food supply, and the dwellings of 
a city. 
In case the epidemic actually breaks out, the extraordinary 
duties of the sanitary engineer embrace mainly the following 
work-viz.: 
1. Measures for the protection of those who are not sick. 
2. Measures for the proper care of the sick. 
3. Measures for prompt and safe removal and disposal of 
the dead. 3 
While some of the work to be performed is of a medical 
nature, not a little of it, particularly as regards preventive 
measures, belongs to the province of the engineer. Both the 
physician and the sanitary engineer should therefore work 
hand in hand, and assist and supplement each other. Phy- 
sicians, however, are rarely sufficiently educated in technical 
details of sanitation, and it seems at least doubtful, if it would 
not be a serious mistake, to put all the preventive measures in 
the exclusive charge of health officers. A division of the 
work would be, to my mind, far preferable, and would offer 
considerable practical advantages. 
Among measures for the protection of those who are well, 
the preservation of the purity of the drinking water is of great 
importance. Regular periodical chemical and bacteriological 
examinations of the water supplied by the city water-works 
should be instituted. The sanitary engineer must have a suffi- 
cient knowledge of the noxious components of water, and of 
the methods of detecting these impurities or contaminations, 
in order to be able, if not to perform the analyses himself, at 
least to interpret the results of the chemist's and microsco- 
pist's work correctly. In addition to this, it is essential that 
all public wells in streets or squares, as well as those in private 
grounds, be watched with care. It is advisable to close up at 
once all suspicious wells. Likewise should all rain-water cis- 
terns be cleaned and purified, and where filters are used, the 
filtering material should be sterilized or renewed. It is better, 
however, to avoid entirely during epidemics the use of filters, 
and to make it a practice to boil all water used for drinking 
purposes. Finally, the ice supply should be watched, the sale 
of all impure ice or ice cut from contaminated ponds prohib- 
ited, and the householder cautioned to use the ice which is 
intended for the cooling of beverages in vessels with separate 
compartments, so that the melted ice cannot mix with the 
water. 
The sanitary engineer should look after the city sewers, and 
should take the necessary steps to insure that they are well 
flushed and ventilated, and that the catch-basins and street 
gutters are kept clean. If necessary, he should apply disin- 
fection to the sewers. Medical men should make it a strict 
rule that all discharges of the sick are disinfected before they 4 
are thrown into water-closets or slop-hoppers, to pass away 
through the house sewers. The police and sanitary depart- 
ment should prohibit during epidemics the throwing of any 
evacuations into rain-water inlets, gutters, catch-basins, or 
privy-vaults. Where there is a sewer in the street, the con- 
nection of all houses to the same should be made compulsory. 
Houses without sewerage facilities, depending upon privy- 
vaults, earth-closets, and cesspools for the liquid wastes, re- 
quire at such times more than ordinary attention. Old or 
badly constructed sewers, generally filled with a mass of putre- 
fying deposits, are particularly capable of propagating an infec- 
tious disease through the house connections, the street catch- 
basins, and the open or ventilating manhole covers. Such 
sewers will need a thorough disinfection, with either milk of 
lime or with sulphur. Next to a system of water-carried sew- 
erage, a well-arranged system of dry removal by pails is the 
best during an epidemic ; but the removal must be well organ- 
ized and occur regularly, and the pails should be well cleaned 
and disinfected. It is better not to empty privy-vaults or 
cesspools during an epidemic, except where their contents are 
first thoroughly sterilized by germ-killing disinfectants. 
Where the town sewage is regularly purified before dis- 
charge into a water course, the sanitary engineer must watch, 
with care the sewage field or the chemical precipitation tanks. 
All sewage should reach the irrigation field before it has begun 
to putrefy. In the field it should be evenly distributed, and 
all stagnant pools of sewage should be removed. 
The utmost cleanliness must be maintained in the streets 
of the city. All paved surfaces must be regularly swept clean, 
and the cleaning up of back and front yards, of courts and 
alleys and street gutters, should not be forgotten. The streets 
should be moderately sprinkled to lay the dust, which if scat- 
tered may carry disease germs into dwellings ; if necessary, 
disinfectants should be added to the water in the watering- 
cart. 
All street dirt, house refuse, and garbage must be removed 
with particular regularity, for they may contain the germs of 
the disease. Householders may assist the municipality by 
burning litter and refuse in the house fires whenever it is pos- 
sible to do so. Manure pits of stables require careful atten- 5 
tion. In times of epidemics, the destruction of the city refuse 
by cremation appears to be by far the safest mode of proceed- 
ing. The disposal of the garbage by removal offers consider- 
able difficulties even in ordinary times ; but during an epi- 
demic the question of removal is apt to be particularly embar- 
rassing, for the very act of removal may cause a further spread 
of the dreaded disease, and quarantine laws will in many cases 
render removal out of town utterly impracticable. On the 
other hand, the sanitary engineer must avoid at such times 
the accumulation of large masses of putrefying garbage and 
offal at any point within the city limits ; hence sanitation by 
fire seems about the only solution of the problem. 
The battle against filth diseases always requires the main- 
tenance of absolute purity of the soil, the air, and the water. 
While general cleanliness, light, air, and water are the best 
available general means of disinfection, it is necessary, during 
epidemics, to provide well-appointed places for a proper dis- 
infection by steam of all wearing apparel, and of the washing 
of those who have been taken sick. Disinfecting stations for 
persons, such as were used in Stettin in 1870-71, and exhib- 
ited by Professor Petruschky, of Kbnigsberg, at the Berlin 
Hygienic Exhibition of 1883, are also to be recommended. 
In these the persons take an ablution with antiseptic soap 
under a shower or rain-bath, while their clothing is disinfected 
for about twenty minutes by steam. Following the douche, 
bath attendants wash the whole body of the bathers thor- 
oughly with permanganate of potash solution. 
If proper care is exercised in the maintenance and manage- 
ment of public baths, it is not always necessary to close these 
places when an epidemic occurs, for this would deprive many 
people, who have no facilities for thorough ablutions at home, 
of the chance to keep their bodies clean, a measure which in 
itself tends to prevent infection. The public wash-houses, 
however, should be closed, and physicians should insist that 
the dirty linen of all patients is sent to the disinfecting station. 
The municipal engineer must also see to it that all public 
water-closet conveniences and public urinals are kept scrupu- 
lously clean, well flushed, and disinfected, while the sanitary 
engineer in private practice will be kept busy with inspections 
and tests of plumbing work in dwellings, office buildings, 6 
stores, and institutions, and with the more or less extensive 
alterations of the plumbing and drainage, with a view of mak- 
ing the same safe from a hygienic point of view. 
A sanitary survey of the city and a house-to-house inspec- 
tion will enable the sanitary engineer to know beforehand the 
actual condition of the worst city districts, generally the tene- 
ment quarters of the poor population. Efforts should be made 
to improve the obtaining conditions, particularly in regard to 
overcrowding and cellar habitations. Public lodging-houses 
should be put under close surveillance. In hotels those rooms 
which may become infected by a patient ill with the disease 
should be properly disinfected, and the carpets, furniture, and 
bedding must be destroyed. Attention should be paid to 
public vehicles, particularly to cabs in which patients may 
have been transported from the houses to the hospitals. This 
should always be avoided by providing separate ambulances 
for the infected. 
As a further measure to protect those who are not sick, it 
is advisable to close, at the very beginning of an epidemic, all 
public halls and places of amusement, likewise the public 
schools, colleges, and boarding or private schools. If the 
epidemic spreads, it may be better to close up the factories 
and workshops. The shipping of freight should be stopped, 
travellers' baggage must be disinfected, and railway-stations 
and railroad-coaches as well as ships inspected. 
Then, again, there must be efficient measures for the isola- 
tion and care of the sick : first, in order not to endanger those 
who escaped the scourge ; second, to cure the sick. An 
efficient ambulance service should be organized, largely com- 
posed during epidemics of volunteer aid corps, like firemen, 
policemen, militia soldiers, as the regular hospital service of 
a city will at such times prove insufficient. The sanitary en- 
gineer may be called upon to provide temporary tent or bar- 
rack hospitals, where the city hospital accommodations do 
not suffice to care for the sick. As the school-houses are 
closed, such buildings may be utilized for hospitals. Military 
barracks and stables may often be used for the same purpose, 
while theatres and churches are not as suitable. The tem- 
porary barracks, while constructed of woodwork, should be 
arranged in a manner to keep out the cold. Besides pro- 7 
vision for heating, they should have hot and cold-water ser- 
vice, bathing facilities, sewerage, and electric lighting. The 
location for hospital barracks should be carefully chosen, and 
in case of an epidemic it is far better to keep them within 
short distance of the crowded city districts, rather than locate 
them at the outskirts of large towns. 
Finally, the dead must be cared for. These should be 
quickly removed from the hospitals and from the poorer and 
crowded city districts, using extra precautions during removal 
and transportation against infection. During epidemics, the 
final disposal of the dead bodies by cremation offers important 
advantages. 
In case of sudden pestilence, many people who are able to 
do so leave the infected city and fly to camps of safety, 
erected with refuge huts and refuge tent hospitals. In these, 
too, the sanitary engineer may find opportunity to assist in 
maintaining sanitary conditions, by attention to those require- 
ments which at other times form together what is known as 
"camp hygiene." Such "tenting out" always necessarily 
involves more or less exposure to the vicissitudes of the 
weather, and may cause sickness of a preventable nature. 
Wherever possible, one should prepare beforehand for the 
emergencies likely to arise during an epidemic. When the 
writer was in the Prussian military service, twenty years ago, 
as a volunteer in an engineering regiment of the Imperial 
Guards at Beilin, he was ordered for a few weeks to the head- 
quarters of the general military staff, under General Moltke, 
and he well remembers how he assisted then in preparing 
beforehand the railway time tables required for the quick 
moving of the bulk of the German Army to either the French 
or Russian frontier in case of a future war. Similarly should 
the sanitary engineer and the health officer lay out beforehand 
all the plans required to assist in the fight against infectious 
disease, so that when an epidemic does occur, it may not find 
them unequipped and unprepared. 
II. Work of the Sanitary Engineer in Time of War. 
In case of an outbreak of war, the civil engineer will be 
chiefly concerned with the provision of proper means for the 
speedy and safe transportation of large masses of troops, in- 8 
eluding their necessary ammunition ; with the laying of tem- 
porary railroad tracks and the erection of temporary bridges 
or the construction of pontoons over streams ; or with the 
destruction of the enemy's railroad lines or rolling stock and 
the burning of bridges. The work of electrical engineers will 
consist in the erection of signal stations, the laying of mili- 
tary telegraph lines, and the provision of portable electric- 
light apparatus for the search of the dead, the aid of the 
wounded after a battle, and for the disinfection of the battle- 
field. 
The duties of the sanitary engineer in time of war will em- 
brace something like the following-viz.: 
1. Providing proper facilities for the temporary housing of 
soldiers, and selection of proper sites for militaiy camps. 
2. Enforcement of cleanliness in the camp ; examination of 
sources of water supply ; purification of water and provision 
of an ample supply for the troops and horses ; drainage, re- 
moval of wastes and garbage, and erection of latrines ; also 
safety measures against fire. 
3. Provision and transportation of a proper food supply. 
4. The first aid to the wounded on the battle-field and at 
the dressing stations. 
5. The care of the wounded ; erection and fitting up of tem- 
porary field hospitals, and means for heating and ventilation 
and electric lighting; transportation of the wounded from the 
battle-field, and organization of a field ambulance service. 
6. Care of the sick in tent or barrack hospitals. 
7. Sanitation of the battle-field and care of the dead soldiers ; 
also the cleaning and disinfection of camps, the destruction of 
temporary hospitals, and the disinfection of putrefying battle- 
fields. 
The sanitary engineer, through his practice in times of 
peace, is rendered particularly qualified to assist in the hous- 
ing of an army of troops in the field, to give aid in the care 
of the sick and wounded, and to prevent in military encamp- 
ments war pestilence, or diseases and deaths due to deficient 
sanitary conditions. 
Statistics record the fact that for every soldier who dies in 
or after a battle, there are two who fall victims to disease, 
and that for one soldier discharged as disabled and wounded, 9 
there are three who are more or less permanently disabled by 
disease. At the Shipka Pass, during the Russo-Turkish War 
in 1877. the daily losses from bullets were far exceeded by 
those from frostbite. Ours is not a military nation, and dur- 
ing peace we do not keep a large standing army ; but those 
European nations who are obliged always to be on a war 
footing pay, since the Crimean War, a great deal of attention 
to sanitation. After the battle of Balaklava and during the 
siege of Sebastopol, in the Crimean War of 1854, the English 
Army suffered immense losses from sickness in the camp. It 
is stated that of 100 sick soldiers in the hospitals, only 11 were 
soldiers wounded in battle ; 46 per cent of the sick died from 
fevers. It was then that England sent the well-known Miss 
Florence Nightingale with 40 assistants to the seat of war, 
and she succeeded in reducing the mortality of the English 
troops by enforcement of practical measures of sanitation. 
Military camps should offer to the soldiers shelter against 
sun and heat, against rain and damp, against wind and storms. 
In order to be healthful, such camps require an elevated site 
and a dry subsoil, with good drainage facilities and means for 
a pure water supply. In choosing and locating camps, the 
sanitary engineer can render efficient service by making pre- 
liminary topographical surveys and avoiding all unhealthy 
sites, the neighborhood of marshes or swamps or alluvial river 
bottoms, subject to overflow, which tend to foster malarial 
conditions. If compelled to erect a camp in such a situation, 
it should be placed well to windward of all suspicious grounds. 
Old camp grounds had better be avoided on account of the 
likelihood of a previous soil contamination and the possible 
incidental danger of infection. Hills and woods serve as pro- 
tection against winds, and the woods also for shade in warm 
climates. 
Cleanliness and healthful conditions must be maintained in 
camps. Dryness of soil is essential, hence the first care of the 
sanitary engineer should be to arrange for proper surface 
drainage, and to provide against floods or excessive rainstorms. 
He should also make provision for a good water supply, 
arrange for the disposal of slops and waste water, and erect 
suitable latrines or plain earth closets. Facilities for perform- 
ing bodily ablutions, including simple bathing arrangements, 10 
should be contrived, as well as means for washing the under- 
wear and cleaning the clothes and blankets of the troops. 
For although the out-door life of military service, and the 
camping out under the open sky tend in general to favor 
healthful conditions, the want of cleanliness, particularly in 
the field or during and after long marches, may be a fruitful 
cause of disease. 
The camp should be inspected daily. A regular system of 
scavenging should be instituted, order and cleanliness must 
be maintained, and the danger of fire must be guarded against. 
The latrines must be carefully looked after, and likewise must 
all kitchen refuse be removed to a safe distance. The stable 
manure of cavalry or artillery encampments should be carted 
away regularly, and dug into the ground. Soil pollution by 
the voiding of urine in other than the designated places should 
be prevented by strictly enforced regulations. Finally, a 
small field hospital should be erected, either of log-huts or of 
tents, to care for the sick. 
When a battle has taken place, humanity demands the early 
search for, and the immediate first aid to, the wounded, to 
friend and foe alike, and considerations for the health of the 
surviving as well as piety require the burial or disposal of the 
soldiers who fell in battle and of the horses killed. Warm 
weather and moisture combine to create very soon conditions 
of war pestilence dangerous to health, unless immediate atten- 
tion is given to the sanitation of the battle-field. 
After the battle of Solferino, on June 24th, 1859, n°t ess 
than 40,000 wounded covered the field, laying exposed to the 
hot summer sun, which soon changed all into a mass of putre- 
faction and pestilence. Henry Dunant, a citizen of Geneva, 
Switzerland, witnessed these shocking sights a day after the 
battle, and described them in his book, " Un souvenir de 
Solferino," which gave the first impetus to the founding of 
the Red Cross Society, at Geneva, on October 26th, 1863. 
Colonel Naundorf!, in his book, "Under the Red Cross," 
gives a similar vivid description of the horrors of the Kbnig- 
gratz battle-field. It took, after the battle of Gravelotte, in 
the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, four days to remove the 
wounded and dead, and after the battle of Sedan it took six 
days to accomplish this. Nowhere, however, have the hard- 11 
ships of war and the horrors of the battle-field been depicted 
with a greater master hand, more vividly and realistically, than 
in Verestchagin's world-famous war paintings, the scenes of 
which are taken from the Russo-Turkish War. The sights 
which he saw in actual military service were so forcibly im- 
pressed upon his mind, that the paintings which he created 
after the war speak eloquently for themselves. The message 
conveyed to us by his works cannot fail to teach a lesson and 
to awaken sentiments in opposition to warfare ; at the same 
time they point to the urgent necessity of civil aid upon the 
battle-field. 
What may be accomplished at such times by civil aid has 
been well illustrated in the excellent work done by the United 
States Sanitary Commission in the War of the Rebellion of 
1861-64. The barrack or pavilion system of hospitals was 
originated by this commission, and has had a powerful influ- 
ence in changing the general plan and arrangement of hospi- 
tals, and in emphasizing the importance of securing ample 
ventilation to such structures. The well-known German sur- 
geon, Professor Frederick von Esmarch, made a powerful 
appeal for civil aid in his famous essay, " The Battle of 
Humanity against the Horrors of War," published in 1869. 
In England John Furley founded in 1877 the St. John 
Ambulance Association of London, and Esmarch followed 
soon after in Germany by the establishment of " Samaritan So- 
cieties," which he aptly calls the" Pioneers of the Red Cross.'' 
In addition to the aid given on the battle-field by volunteer 
aid corps, the regular military hospital and field ambulance 
corps attend to the wounded during and after a battle. It 
is usual to distinguish three series of stations-viz., the first, 
dressing station, near the line of battle, where the wounded 
receive the first aid, and where the temporary bandaging of 
wounds is done ; second, the field hospitals, composed of 
tents or barracks located from two to three miles behind the 
line of battle, to which the wounded are removed in field 
ambulances, and finally the general war hospitals, which are 
stationary but usually temporary structures, located at greater 
distance from the seat of war, and to which the wounded are 
transported by hospital railway trains or sometimes by hos- 
pital ships. 12 
After the battle the dead must be cared for, generally by 
interment in large common graves, and sometimes by crema- 
tion. The introduction of the movable electric-light wagons 
in the military service has aided greatly in accomplishing this 
more quickly ; at the same time it may render useful services 
in the early disinfection of the battle-field to avoid war pesti- 
lence. 
HI. Work of the Sanitary Engineer after Sudden Calamities, 
Catastrophes, and Great Disasters in Civic Life. 
Many opportunities offer themselves to the sanitary engi- 
neer for rendering useful services in case of accidents or sud- 
den calamities, like earthquakes, floods and freshets, de- 
structive conflagrations, tornadoes and cyclones, forest fires, 
collapse of buildings, machinery accidents, boiler or powder 
explosions, railway disasters, and accidents in mines. 
After a storm flood, caused either by river overflows or by 
the breaking of dams or water reservoirs, the entire flooded 
district must be drained, and its habitations must be rendered 
healthful by artificial drying ; but as this requires considerable 
time, it is often necessary to erect temporary barracks for 
shelter, as many people will suffer from lack of homes. All 
dampness must be removed, disinfection applied whenever 
necessary, and in houses with deafened floors the wet filling-in 
material should always be removed, as it may breed disease. 
After deplorable calamities, such as the flood at Johnstown, 
Pa., May 31st, 1889, caused by the breaking of a dam above 
the town during an extraordinary rainfall, and the almost en- 
tire destruction of the city of Szegedin, in Hungary, in March, 
1879, by a river freshet, both of which caused much loss of 
life, the services of sanitary engineers can be put to good use. 
Similar aid may be rendered after destructive earthquakes, 
or great conflagrations, or devastations by tornadoes. Panics 
and fires in theatres, or in orphan asylums or hospitals for 
insane, are terrible calamities, often accompanied with appall- 
ing loss of life. Here, again, the knowledge of sanitary engi- 
neers can be applied and efficient services rendered, first of 
all, in providing measures for preventing the recurrence of 
such catastrophes ; and, second, in rendering aid when such 
accidents have happened. 13 
Then, again, we have a large number of accidents, such as 
collapse of buildings or grand stands, railway disasters and 
bridge accidents, injuries in industrial or manufacturing estab- 
lishments and in workshops, due to unprotected machinery in 
motion or to defects of hoisting apparatus ; blasting acci- 
dents, fire-damp explosions in mines, caving in of trenches in 
earth excavations for sewers or water-pipes, suffocation by 
escaping illuminating gas in laying gas mains, collapse of tun- 
nels ; steam-boiler explosions, and explosions of gunpowder 
or dynamite. 
In the construction of architectural as well as engineering 
structures, accidents to the superintendents, to masons, brick- 
layers, roofers, and other workingmen are of frequent occur- 
rence. There are injuries due to falling stones, brick, or 
timber, falls from scaffolds or ladders, derricks and hoisting 
accidents. In carrying out large railroad or canal enterptises, 
it is usual to provide beforehand temporary barrack hospitals 
for the care of those who may become in any way injured or 
who succumb to disease. 
In view of the frequency of accidents in architectural and 
engineering works, a general course of instruction of first aid 
in emergencies and accidents has been introduced at all the 
German Polytechnic Schools. While it is true that the knowl- 
edge of how to render the first aid in injuries until a surgeon 
arrives, should be a part of every man's general education, and 
while it is by no means claimed that the engineer is specially 
qualified to render such service, the matter is mentioned here 
because, through the nature of his work, he is apt to be fre- 
quently present at, or to be brought into immediate contact 
with, such accidents when they do occur, and it is desirable 
that he should in such emergencies know what to do to make 
the injured person as comfortable as possible until medical aid 
arrives. 
The engineer should, therefore, know the rudiments of 
anatomy and physiology of the human body, and be conver- 
sant with fractures, sprains, dislocations, contusions, crushes 
and lacerations, and bleeding or poisoned wounds. He will 
meet cases of torn limbs, of splinters, wounds, and hemor- 
rhages, sun and heat-strokes, frostbite, foreign bodies in the 
eye, as well as cases of drowning, of suffocation with smoke 14 
or illuminating gas, or bad gases at the bottom of wells or 
vaults. He may be called upon to treat burns, scalds, or in 
chemical works cases of eschars or poisoning. He should also 
be familiar with the extemporized means of transporting in- 
jured persons, when accidents occur in places far away from 
doctors, as in surveys in the woods, in the climbing of moun- 
tains, on the ranches in the far West, on board of ships or 
trains, or in mines. 
No one has done more efficient service in popularizing this 
useful knowledge than Professor Esmarch, who founded the 
German Samaritan Society, and in February, 1882, delivered 
his first course of lectures on first aid to the injured, which 
have since then been time and again repeated by others. In 
Vienna a Volunteer Aid Society was founded a day after the 
terrible fire of the Ring Theatre, on December 8th, 1881. 
In England valuable work is being done by the St. John 
Ambulance Association, founded by John Furley, Esq., and 
in Scotland a similar society exists and is known as the St. 
Andrew's Ambulance Association. 
In New York City the Society for Instruction in First Aid 
to the Injured was founded many years ago, while in Brook- 
lyn a similar society, known as the Red Cross Society, is doing 
excellent work. 
It is a matter of gratification to record the fact that, after 
the formation of a United States Committee of the Inter- 
national Red Cross Society, whose work was until then con- 
fined to civil aid on the battle-field and in the war hospitals, 
it was proposed and advocated, largely by Miss Clara Barton, 
that the usefulness of the Red Cross Society might be in- 
creased by relief work in cases of calamities other than war. 
This accepted amendment to the constitution of the Red 
Cross Society is known as the " American amendment," and 
by it the aid of the society is now extended to sufferers by flood, 
pestilence, tornadoes, and other great disasters in civic life. RECENT PRACTICE 
9 
IN THE 
Sanitary Drains® of BiiMis, 
WITH MEMORANDA ON THE 
COST OF PLUMBING WORK, 
BY 
Wm. Paul Gerhard, C. E 
Consulting Engineer for Sanitary Works, New York City. 
Second Edition, 18mo, Bound. Price Fifty Cents. 
CONTENTS. 
Architecture and Sanitation. 
Recent Progress in House Drainage and Plumbing. 
The Drainage of a House. 
Maxims of Plumbing and House Drainage. 
(a) Rules regarding Location of Plumbing Work 
in Dwellings. 
{b} Rules regarding Proper Construction of the 
Work. 
(r) Rules regarding the Proper Care and Manage- 
ment of the Work. 
Memoranda on the Cost of Plumbing Work. 
Suggestions for a Sanitary Code. 
The Maxims of Plumbing and House Drainage con- 
tain in 48 pages all the requirements of a Complete 
Plumbing Specification, and will be found a very 
useful help in preparing a detailed specification for the 
plumbing work in all classes of buildings. 
D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, 
Ipubltebers, 
23 Murray and 27 Warrren Streets, N.Y. 
*** Copies sent by mail on receipt of price. Third Edition, cloth bound. Price, postpaid, One Dollar. 
A GUIDE TO 
SANITARY HOUSE-INSPECTION; 
OR, 
HINTS AND HELPS REGARDING THE CHOICE OF A 
HEALTHFUL HOME IN CITY OR COUNTRY. 
BY 
WILLIAM PAUL GERHARD, C.E., 
Consulting Engineer for Sanitary Works; Corresponding Member American 
Institute of Architects; Member New England Water-Works Asso- 
ciation, American Public Health Association, German 
Technical Society of New York, etc. 
AUTHOR OF " HOUSE DRAINAGE AND SANITARY PLUMBING J " " HINTS ON THE 
DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF DWELLINGS ; " " DIAGRAM FOR SEWER 
calculations;" "the disposal of household wastes;" 
"SANITARY QUESTIONS "THE PREVENTION OF FIRE 
" sanitary drainage of buildings ; " " THE 
DRAINAGE OF A HOUSE ; " " DOMESTIC 
sanitary appliances;" "gas- 
lighting AND GAS-FITTING," 
ETC., ETC. 
CONTENTS. 
Necessity of Sanitary House Inspection. 
"Skin" Buildings. 
Essentials of a Healthful Home. 
Inspection of City Houses: 
Surroundings and Soil, Cellar, Yard, Structural Details, Sewer- 
age, Plumbing, Water Supply, Garbage Disposal, Warming, 
Gas-Lighting, Ventilation, Bad Odors, Prevention of Dust, 
Safety Against Fire. 
Apartment Houses. 
Inspection of Tenement Houses. 
Inspection of Country Houses: 
Choice of Site, Foundations, Cellar,Walls, Roofs, Rooms, Heat- 
ing Apparatus, Plumbing Work, Water Supply, Disposal of 
Wastes. House Surroundings, Removal of Storm Water. 
Summer Boarding Houses and Summer Resorts. 
Necessity of Periodical Inspection. 
JOHN WILEY & SONS, 
Scientific Publishers, 
53 East Tenth Street, New York City. 
1895. NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 
"The special points insisted upon are calculated to give us 
healthier homes."-Scientific American. 
"Like all Mr. Gerhard's books on sanitary subjects, this one can 
be highly commended."-Manufacturer and Builder. 
"The text is clear, concise and sufficiently brief to be read through 
at a single sitting."-N. Y. Medical Times. 
"The book is admirably written, the style being simple and clear, 
and the subject being presented in an interesting manner throughout." 
-Inland Architect. 
"The eminent character of the author for thoroughness and intel- 
ligence in the treatment of this subject guarantees an excellent work, 
as, indeed, it is."-Good Housekeeping. 
"Mr. Gerhard's hand-book is a timely production." 
-Engineering News. 
"Mr. Gerhard is an authority on sanitary matters." 
-American Artisan. 
"As a guide to architects, sanitary inspectors and householders, 
the author's little summary will be found of much service." 
-London Building News. 
"It is a small volume that gives in clear and concise language the 
main features of an important subject." 
-Northwestern Architect and Improvement Record. 
"What we like about Mr. Gerhard's book is its simplicity, clear- 
ness, terseness and practical character. The keen observation and 
thorough training of the author are shown on nearly every page." 
-Mechanics. 
"Mr. Gerhard is one of the best known of American writers on 
sanitary subjects, and a sanitary engineer of very wide experience. 
This book contains an unusual amount of information for its size, and 
ought to prove a valuable hand-book."-London Sanitary Record. 
"Mr. William Paul Gerhard's reputation as a civil engineer, no 
less than as the author of sanitary books and as a contributor to the 
journals of the country on sanitary subjects, is well known. His very 
convenient little hand-book is certainly worthy of commendation." 
-Sanitary News. 
"It is a matter of very serious importance to any one intending 
to occupy a dwelling to insist upon a thorough sanitary inspection of 
his new home. Mr. Gerhard has furnished us with an invaluable guide 
for this work. His work is simple in style and systematic in arrange- 
ment, and shows not only a thorough knowledge of the subject treated, 
but a familiarity with the most advanced requirements in sanitary 
science."-American Architect.