Sanitary Tract, No. 3. 
ON THE 
Evils of the Present Privy 
System, 
ISSUED BY THE 
Sanitary Association of Lynn. 
This Tract is for gratuitous distribution, and copies man he obtained 
by applying to Rev. A. II. Currier, No. 8 Estes Street, or 
II. V. French, at National Cit>i Bank, Lynn. SANITARY TRACT, No. 3. 
In a Christain community we always observe more or less of 
efforts to save life. Witness in our own the life-saving coast 
service to afford aid to ship-wrecked crews ; witness the life 
boats of the Massachusetts Humane Society along our coast; 
witness the laws providing for ready escape from burning 
buildings, and the cloths intended to catch any who may be 
compelled to jump from them. These are but a part of what 
our own community offers. 
With all that has been done a wide field remains, so far, at 
least, as our own city is concerned, almost wholly unexplored. 
The Sanitary Association enters upon it, hoping to save life, 
to prevent disease, and the consequent pain and cost. It 
was once supposed that diseases were a direct infliction 
from God, designed in some mysterious way to work out 
good in the end. Reverently acknowledging an over- 
ruling Providence in all things, we think that disease comes 
from natural causes, and that if those causes can be removed 
disease will be prevented. If one scatters about carelessly 
shavings and matches, a fire is quite probable. So if one 
tolerates a known cause of disease he may expect to suffer 
accordingly. 
We do not intend now to say that all disease is, or ever will 
be, wholly preventable. It suffices for our present purpose to 
say that some prevalent and dangerous diseases arise from 
causes that can be prevented. Modern science has proved 
almost beyond question that a class of diseases known as 
zymotic, or fermentative diseases, are largely produced by 
filth. So well is this fact established that they are frequently 
designated as filth diseases. They comprise, among others, 
typhoid fever, diphtheria, diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera and 
scarlet fever. 
The Sanitary Association believes that these diseases may 
speedily be reduced in our city, and finally be well nigh 
wholly eradicated. It is the belief of competent persons in 
England that the deaths, now amounting to 500,000 annually, 
could be reduced to three-fourths of this number if existing 
knowledge were reasonably well applied throughout the land. 
Not onty do these diseases originate in filth, but they have a 
self-perpetuating power. We need not discuss the various 4 
theories as to how the power operates. It is sufficiently 
well known that it exists, and that these diseases are readily 
communicated, either by contact or by the poison being swal- 
lowed in food or drink, or taken in with the air we breathe. 
Nor need we consider the fact that of persons apparently 
subject to equal exposure, some escape and some are at- 
tacked. The exposure may not he equal, and the suscepti- 
bility of individuals may be very different. 
Many persons declare that they and their houses are abso- 
lutely free from tilth. The carpets have been well shaken, 
the whole house cleaned, every cob-web brushed down, and 
nothing remains to be done. But there is a form of filth 
which may have escaped their notice, to which we wish es- 
pecially to direct attention. We refer to that connected with 
privies. 
First of all, we unhesitatingly pronounce the existing privy* 
system an abominable, disgusting, dangerous nuisance, unfit 
to be tolerated in a civilized community. Measureably safe 
in an agricultural district, where the population is scattered, 
where the collections can be frequently and easily removed 
and utilized on the land, it*becomes, when transferred to 
cities, towns and villages, an abomination of abominations, 
a mark of the barbarism that is yet to be cast out from civili- 
zation. If cities need paved streets, sidewalks, street lights, 
fire departments, drains, etc., which a farming country does 
not, so also do they need some other privy arrangements than 
such as suffices for the farms. 
It matters not at all to say that new arrangements will en- 
tail great cost. We have no right to sacrifice the lives of the 
people to save cost, and it costs more to support disease than 
to support health. Every good citizen has a money value to 
the community in his labor, his influence, and his care of his 
family. If he dies prematurely the community loses. We 
insist upon it, it is more expensive to let people die than to 
help them to live. But saving of life rests upon higher 
grounds than that of cos'. We do not need to present them. 
Idle privy system, a relic of barbarism, a disgrace to civili- 
zation, prevails everywhere; but in many localities the vile 
odors too plainly declare its existence, poisoning the air we 
breathe, fouling the soil from which other contaminating va- 
* In 1876 an investigation showed that there were in Lynn over 4,750 privies, 
and that only one-tenth of these lmd been cleansed, under the supervision of 
the city authorities, in any one of the three preceding years. 5 
pors arise to be breathed, or poisoning the wells which furnish 
water for drinking or cooking. Horrible beyond anything 
we have spoken of, in our own city the extreme degradation 
is reached of using abandoned wells * for cess-pools. Thus 
is the ground water polluted so that while city well water is 
always open to suspicion, ours is now absolutely dangerous. 
Yet many highly prize their well water. It is often clear and 
cold, and these qualities, they think, indicate purity. 'There 
is abundant evidence to the contrary. The famous Broad 
street well in London furnished clear cold water, and was so 
highly prized that persons at a distance sent for it; but, 
nevertheless, a drain was leaking into it at the time, and it 
was shown conclusively to have been the means of spreading 
cholera. 
We have an abundance of other evidence in the same di- 
rection. For our own city (Lynn) we find three cases cited 
in the Report of the State Board of Health for 1877. One 
on Western Avenue, in which the well was sunk down to the 
rock, the bottom being in a basin formed by the rock rising 
on either side. Also the land rose from the top of the well 
on either side. The privy was near the well, and the soil 
mainly gravel. This is an extreme case ; both surface and 
privy drained into the* well. In 187-d, five cases of typhoid 
occurred in the house, and seven more, with one death, 
among persons using the water. An analysis of the water 
was made by Professor Nichols, which proved it to be highly 
contaminated. Statistics show that since the aqueduct water 
has been generally used, there has been a marked decrease of 
typhoid fever, and we know that many of the cases that now 
occur are found in connection with the use of well water. 
Doubtless we may expect this evil to be considered by the 
Board of Health which Lynn is now wise enough to sustain. 
But this is their first year, the subject is new to most per- 
sons, and neither the Board of Health nor the City Govern- 
ment can go far beyond public sentiment, it is with the 
people themselves that the first effort must be made. If they 
are once aroused to the evil that exists, there is little doubt 
that the remedy will be found and applied. 
Happily the world is not without some valuable information 
on this subject. Other communities have considered it, and 
we have the result of their investigations. 
* The attention of the City Government, anil of the Board of Health, is re- 
spectfully called to the necessity of pninediately stopping this practice by 
limiting the depth of any excavation used for a privy vault or cess-pool. 6 
The point to be aimed at is nothing less than that all ex- 
crement of human beings shall be removed to a safe place as 
speedily as possible ; or, if removal is delayed for a time, it 
be a comparatively short time, and that, until removed, it 
shall be rendered harmless by some process, and that the 
storage of it on the premises, week after week, and month 
after month, shall be absolutely prohibited. 
The speedy removal is already carried out by many who 
have connection with the city sewers. As it must be years 
before these can be extended to all the thickly settled parts 
of the city, some other plan must meanwhile be adopted. 
Some who cultivate land comply well with good sanitary 
rules bjr frequently removing the contents of the vaults, and 
utilizing the same on the soil. This is the natural way. 
Nothing so effectually disposes of this substance as the roots 
of plants. The wonderful chemistry of nature converts 
things utterly repulsive into fruits and flowers to supply 
man’s wants, and to delight the eye. 
Another class must be cared for by some public system of 
speedy removal. The Rochdale system seems to be superior 
to any now known. It takes it name from the town of Roch- 
dale, England, where it was introduced in 1868. It retains 
the privy and abolishes -the vault. Under the seat is placed 
half of a kerosene barrel, (selected for its strength). This 
is technically called “the pail,” and may be furnished 
with handles for easy removal. This is removed weekly, 
and in special cases oftener. At the time of removal a tight 
cover is fitted on, and a disinfected pail is put in its place. 
“The process of removal is quite inoffensive,” and is sys- 
tematically performed. 
The population of Rochdale in 1871 was 67,000, living in 
14,000 houses. In that year this pail system was used by 
12,000 persons, living in 2,000 houses. In 1874 the persons 
using it had increased to 43,500, living in 7,300 houses. Mr. 
Radcliffe, medical officer of the Privy Council of England, 
says that this system had been thoroughly approved by all 
who had had experience of it, and that it had not failed 
under the most varied circumstances, having proved equally 
efficacious in the highly rented houses, in the lodging houses 
where great numbers resided, and in the factory and work- 
shop. 
The system also includes the removal of “dry dirt” and 
ashes. At a proper place out of the town, the contents of the 7 
pails are properly mixed into the dry dirt and ashes, and by 
the addition of sulphuric acid are made in five weeks into an 
inodorous manure, containing 80 parts of excrement to 35 of 
ashes. Under the old privy system in Rochdale the removal 
cost, for 1,000 persons, $355 per year. Under the new sys- 
tem it was only $05 ; and the resulting manure sold for three- 
fourths the cost of collecting and preparing it. The cost of 
each - pail” was $1.14. 
“As to the working of the pail system, the moveableness 
of the pails is their great recommendation — the facility 
which the system gives for frequent thorough removal being 
enormous.’” 
“In this connection, it is impossible not to be struck with 
the advantage that the pail-system has in relation to diseased 
excrement. The facility and thoroughness with which any 
required chemical disinfection can be done, and the way in 
which the excrement can be wholly got rid of, leaving none 
of its products behind, nothing soaking into the ground, or 
hanging about midden-pits (vaults) or sewers, obviously 
suggest most important powers to prevent the spread of ex- 
cretnental diseases.” 
A few words may be appropriate here in regard to cess- 
pools, used mainly by those who have not access to sewers. 
It is perfectly well known that some of these have been used 
for two, three or more years without becoming tilled. The 
contents filtrate into the soil. Admitting that the soil has 
some purifying power, we claim that this power is far less 
than is generally supposed. The result can only be to poison 
the soil for a great distance in their vicinity’. When it is 
considered that a well ordinarily’ draws its supply of water 
from an area included within a circle whose diameter is fifty’ 
times its depth, the lines running from the circle to the bot- 
tom of the well, we can see the danger arising from vaults 
and cess-pools. 
Tne only remedy for the evil arising from cess-pools seems 
to be to extend the sewers as fast as possible, and to prohibit 
any new cess-pools from receiving any excrement. Any 
further connection between water-closets and privies or cess- 
pools should be prohibited. If it be argued that this inter- 
feres with the rights of individuals, we reply that any other 
course interferes with the rights of the community ; and that 
the only principles upon which a compact community can 
exist, includes the restraint of individuals for the good of 
the whole. 8 
The Rochdale system has an evident adaptation to onr 
city. Even if the tirst cost of the new system be borne by 
the city tieasury, and also the whole cost of removal, it 
would appear economical, and certainly an immense improve- 
ment over the present outrageous practice of storing disgust- 
ing tilth near onr dwellings, leaking in most cases into the 
soil and poisoning it. 
Excellent as the Rochdale system is, it may not supercede 
water carriage, but it would certainly be worth adopting and 
continuing where there are no sewers ; and possibly for some 
portion of the population even where sewers are available. 
An easy mode of introducing it would be for the City Gov- 
ernment to provide the needful facilities as soon as a certain 
number of families, in any defined locality, would agree to 
adopt it. Once introduced, it would probably increase as its 
merits became known ; and this gradual introduction in de- 
fined localities would prevent the costs of sending carts over 
a large territory to do a little work. 
There is much else that might be said in this connection, 
but it must be left for another occasion. The Sanitary Asso- 
ciation earnestly invites the attention of all good citizens to 
the subject, as being one on which a correct public sentiment 
should be created preliminary to any reformation of the 
present system.