Sanitation

Sanitation, in the widest sense of the word, is the science of sanitary conditions and of preserving health, and is accordingly synonymous with Hygiene; but the term is usually restricted to the methods and apparatus for making and maintaining houses healthy, for removing waste and nuisance by means of drainage and otherwise, for securing abundance of fresh air, and for the excluding of poisonous gases, especially sewer gas—in short, the province of the sanitary engineer. Sanitary science falls under various heads in this work: a sketch of the progress of sanitary knowledge and legislation is sketched under HYGIENE. Other branches of the subject are treated in the articles on Food and Diet, on Contagion, Infection, Disinfectants, Antiseptics, the Germ Theory of Disease, on Baths, Gymnastics, Hospitals, Nursing, and the Feeding of Infants, on Lodging-houses, the Factory Acts, Slaughter-houses, Nuisance, and Vital Statistics. The relation of churchyards to health, and legislation in that regard, is dealt with in the article Burial, and in that on Cremation. The subjects of Building, Ventilation, Warming, and Water-supply are dealt with under their own heads, and one of the most important subjects in sanitary science—how to remove waste substances without offence to health by drainage, how, by trapping and other methods, to prevent the entrance of poisonous sewer gases into bedrooms and dwelling-rooms through fixed wash-hand-basins and bath-rooms—is treated in the article on Sewage. The diseases that arise from blood-poisoning by foul air, poisonous gases, and lack of precautions to secure cleanliness are dealt with in the articles on Disease, Typhoid and Typhus Fevers, Jail Fever, Diphtheria, Pyæmia, &c.