HOSPITAL DRAINAGE AND VENTILATION.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 6204, 1 May 1890, Page 4

HOSPITAL DRAINAGE AND VENTILATION.

(TO THE EDITOR),

Sib, —I shall be obliged if yon will allow me space to review Mr Merchant's report on the drainage and ventilation of the hospital buildings. After a short preamble on the buildings generally he says: —“ The wards are connected with the drains somewhat imperfectly, inasmuch as the water seals in the various traps are the only barriers to the admission of sewer gas into the buildings, and are not disconnected from the drains on the approved modern system of free ventilation between the drain syphons and the traps in the building. Tfie drainage of the new buildings, for which we are responsible, is so constructed that no sewer gas pan enter the building under any circumstances,” The first part of this paragraph is partly correct, but the final portion is simply untrue, for in no part of the buildings perhaps is the faulty drainage more conspicuous 5 in fact the old portion never was so very faulty until Mr Marchant erected the additions and crowned it. This I will prove by the following facts. When sometime ago I was called in by the authorities to rectify and put in working order the hot water service put in by and under the instructions of Mr Merchant, Dr Bwart, the then resident surgeon, and Mr Jowsey, complained to me of the abominable stench which constantly arose in their new apartments, and asked me my opinion on the cause, and what remedy I could suggest. I examined the premises, and very soon found out the cause. It appeared that each time the doctor used his cabinet the stench repeated itself with double force below in the steward’s bath room. They also informed me that when the wind blew from the north and west most unpleasant odours permeated these rooms. (They are part of the new building.) I pointed out the defects, and pledged myself to remedy them at very little cost, but said that I should have to undo all Mr Merchant's work. They promised to obtain leave from the board, but the matter was allowed to rest until Dr Lawson’s advent,when things having gone from bad to worse a fresh move was made. Now I do not wish or expect my opinion to be taken in this matter, but I beg to submit the I following words from one of the greatest sanitary engineers of the day, Mr W. P. Buchan, who had the honour of putting in working order the drainage of Sandring- ■ ham House, the illness of H.R.H. the Prince 1 of Wales being attributed solely to its defects: —“ No soil or sewer ventilating pipe should ever be placed inside a building if it can at all be avoided, and all soil pipes should have a special ventilating pipe, independent of the sewer ventilating pipe, with either an Archimedean screw ventilator or one of Mr Robert Boyle’s silent ones, which will thus carry off any gaseous exhalation which may arise from off the interior of the pipe. The ventilation sewer pipe should tap the sewer or drain a little above its inception with the house drain. I understand that some persons imagine that by putting on a ventilating trap at the bottom of their soil pipe, a separate ventilating shaft is rendered unnecessary. It is a meaps to encourage the undertaker and the doctor. The plan may work well; but surely human life is heir to sufficient ills already.” Now the defects here alluded to, are the very ones which are to be found at the hospital. No doubt that most scientific experiment of testing the efficiency of this masterly system with oil of peppermint and hot water produced the astounding results said to have been produced by Mr Marchant. By looking over the plans of the drainage laid down by Mr Marchant, apd to be seen at the hospital, the Board will observe that most of the syphons, the principal ones especially, are all completely sealed by being buried under ground. This is another great blunder and the cause of much of the nuisance. Again I beg to lay before the public and the Board the following scientific facts, demonstrated by Dr Andrew Fergus at the meeting of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science. The report says:—“All sorts of imaginable syphon traps made of glass were tested. Gases passed through some in half an hour, others took several hours. With unventilated syphon traps the gas passed through quickly, but when the outer side was ventilated, however, it passed more slowly.” When examining one of the buried syphons at the back of the new kitchen (Mr Merchant's), I found it completely choked with fasces; yet if the eye (as it ought to be) had been brought up to the surface and grated, this never could have occurred, and I have no doubt that had I continued my investigations I should have found most of them thus filled up. Allow me once more to quote spine words of Mr W. P. Buchan : —“ No syphon

to a house drain should be buried, for it locks off all ventilation or fresh air and thus all provision is shut out to prevent the lodgment and accumulation of floating fasces. The necessity and advantage of placing the ventilating eye to the trap is that it may be fixed at will, and thus by this simple and yet efficient style of ventilation the foul gas from the sewer is not only kepi back, but it serves as a ventilator to the house drain.” * * # # “It follows, therefore, that by properly ventilating the syphon, supposing the drain inside the bouse to be leaking, the fresh air coming in through the eye dilutes any bad gas in the drain greatly, and makes it less dangerous. Various theorists prophesied that to leave the eye of a syphon open to the surface would never work, as bad smells, so they said, would come out at the surface grating, but these theorists seemed not to be aware that the house drain is a furnace on a small scale with the soil ventilating pipe as a shaft. When, therefore, a ventilating grating is provided to the eye of the syphon a draught is caused by the weight of the fresh air above the grating being greater than that of the foul air, or warm air, within the drain or soil pipe." If these scientific statements are [correct, (and my successful adaptation at the convent—a much larger building than the hospital—and at several private residences in Timaru are there to prove it to any member of the board who wishes to see for himself) the system adopted by Mr Marchant is wrong from beginning to end. But the greatest blunder, and the one which really requires the most attention is the position of the sewer or drain ventilating shaft pipe near the kitchen. The position of the pipe is wrong to begin with, but the most serious part is that he has only carried up its height to the level and within a few feet of the servants’ bedroom windows, when, according to Mr Buohan, “it ought to be carried up right above the highest part of the building,” and to use his forcible words, “any one wilfully acting in defiance of this, may find that he may perhaps leave' the way open for a charge of manslaughter."— [Vide Transactions of the N.A.P.S.B.] So far for the drainage question. The ventilation of the wards is another important point, but too lengthy to attempt to deal with in this rather long letter, but to any one at all informed on the subject some of the remarks and comments in the report are enough to excite the risibility of the moat seriously disposed. I must therefore leave this subject to some future day, but if my remarks induce the board to go and see and inquire for themselves before they allow any farther expenditure, my purpose will he served, «. .1 I shall consider that I have rendered the public a service. I am, etc., M, db H. Duval, Timaru, April 30th.