MODERN DRAINAGE.

Hastings Standard, Volume XI, Issue 5553, 26 July 1907, Page 2

MODERN DRAINAGE.

(By E.F.H.) j Specially written for the Hastings : Standard. Looking backward down the pages of history, one cannot help being . struck with the remarkable strides made by science during the past three 1 ' hundred years or so, but still more < remarkable is the progress made within the century that has lately gone by. And in the many and varied ' branches in which science can be divided, there are few perhaps in which greater strides have been made than 'n those of sanitation and hygiene. The full force of this statement cannot be thoroughly appreciated until one lias taken into consideration the ifeath rates at the present time in"th.jse countries where the standard of civilisation is high, and where the highest principles of modern sanitation are observed, and compared these rates with those of countries which continue to run in the same old groove as their forefathers, and where sanitary laws are to all intents and purposes unknown. To fully appreciate the benefits derived from modern sanitation, one . has but to look back 10 the year 1665, when the Great Plague swept over England. This, owing to the absence of proper sanitary precautions, carried all before it, sweeping away Over 100,000 souls. To-day such a state of affairs, in temperate climes, would be practically an impossibility, and yet there are a number of people still tc be found who are ready to sneer at what they are pleased to term useless and unnecessary precautions, claiming at the same time that their " fathers and grandfathers in years gone by did very well without such high falutin nonsense, and why shouldn't we to-day." However, it is gratifying to know that the public as a whole are at the present time alive to the fact that one of the first things tobesonght after in a young town is a thoroughly efficient and up-to-date system of drainage. They realise to the full that it is not a question of pounds, shillings and pence when the lives of themselves and those near and dear to them are at stake. They insist, and rightly so, too, that those in authority should provide them with the most up-to-date sanitary arrangements possible. And what is the best and most up-to-date system ? This question I shall endeavour to answer in the next issue.