AN EXPLANATION

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 35, 9 August 1930, Page 8

AN EXPLANATION

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Ke lecture on -main drainage o£ towns. My attention has been called to a letter which appeared in your issue o£ Thursday, the 7th instant, signed "Civis," in which I am alleged to have make an attack upon the monks of the Middle Age* in the cfjurse of an address which I made in Wellington under the, auspices of th« Workers' Education Association on Saturday, the 28th July. It is further alleged that I took the opportunity in delivering a simple lecture oa a technical subject to make the same a vehicle for attacks of a character which give offence to a large section of the commuuity. The subject or my address was "The Main Drainage of Towns," with some incidental reference to the drainage of the City of Wellington ia particular. The address comprised a resume of th« developments through which the problem* involved in a modern system of the drainage required by a municipality had passed in the process of evolution contemporary with the changes in the conditions of Ufa and knowledge dating from the periods of early civilisation, and reviewing the sanitary measures which were adopted in the past periods of time when the cities of Carthage, Jerusalem, Nineveh, aud Rome were in the zenith of their power, and reviewing the practices of-the dark'times of the Middle Ages, and tracing the rapid developments and improvements which, have been adopted in modern times contemporary with great advancement ia scientific knowledge which the researches in biology have established in connection with the science of sewage purificatioa and disposal.

The letter states "that I am reported to have made the following statements in referring to the monks of the Middle Ages, viz., "that they were the slaves to filthy habits, and then resorted to shrines wher« they prayed for relief from the plagues of their own filth and degradation." I wish to state that I did not make suck a statement, nor was I aware that I had been reported to have done so. The fact« are as follow: When referring to the destruction of the Boman power and the advent of the Goths and Vandals into Italy, I stated that contemporary with, that change there came a period when the benefits to be derived from sanitatioa seemed to have been forgotten and ignored, and that the people sank into the lowest depths of sanitary neglect, resulting in epidemics and plagues throughout th« long periods in the Middle Ages; In this connection I stated that the late Sir Lyoa Playfair, then Dr. Playfahy stated in an address in Glasgow in the year 1874, whea he made reference to the sanitary neglect of the Middle Ages, after giving many instances of the squalor which prevailedia that period, "that filth instead of being abhorred was almost sanctified, and that the monks imitated the filthy habits of the hermits; that men ceased ;to connect disease with uncleanness, and resorted to shrines for cures for maladies which were produced by their own physical and moral degradation." No attacks were made by me nor had I any object in mind, say* that of speaking of cause and effect ia relation to the contest of my address. The quotation which I gave from Dr. Lyon. Playfair's address has been in print ever since the year 1878, and can be seen by reference to the book published on "Sanitary Engineering," by the late Baldwin' Latham, Esq., M.lnst.C.E., published ia London by Messrs. E. and F. N. Spon. I should regret most profoundly, either directly or iudircetly, to be the medium of giving offence to any section' of or persoa in the community, and trust that this ex« planation and correction may remove from the mind of your correspondent or any other person any view that the occasioa of this address was used by me as a. vehicle for making any form of attack of a nature which could possibly give offence to anyone.—l am, etc., GEORGE A. HART, M.lnst.C.E., . City Engineer. Bth August.