In the foregoing pages it has been the aim of the writer to give a few
facts and supply a certain number of ideas which, in the mind of any
person who has thoroughly understood them and who thinks for himself,
may be safely left to ripen into schemes adapted to his own wants and
surroundings. How many resources a man armed with correct views may find
in the simplest appliances the reader may judge for himself by consulting
Chapters IX, X, and XI of Dr. Vivian Poore's very interesting volume on
rural hygiene. Whether the means for utilizing household wastes there
described and adopted by him would be adequate outside of a limited
territory of our own country, I am not prepared to state. For the same
reason no definite suggestions can be made in these pages, owing to the
wide diversity in the climatic and other conditions obtaining over the
vast territory of our country. The writer has, furthermore, omitted all
statements of detail which properly belong to the sanitary engineer. The
works referred to will, however, supply those more directly interested
with the facts and figures desired.
The principles to be kept in the foreground are the disposal of sewage
in the superficial layers of the soil in not too great quantity, the
disinfection of the stools of the sick with lime before such disposition
is made, the digging of wells in places kept permanently in grass and at
some distance from barnyards, and, above all, their thorough protection
from contamination from the surface and from the soil immediately below
the surface.
In every community there are public-spirited citizens who could do much
good by taking hold of the simplest and safest methods of disposing of
sewage and refuse, putting them into practice, and showing the rest of
the community just what good can be accomplished and what harm avoided
by a little continuous attention to sanitary matters. In this way many
may be led to undertake improvements who, with no definite knowledge of
the expense involved and with misgivings as to the final success of the
undertaking, would otherwise hesitate to make a beginning.
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