that a coach-house and stables are part of a house within the House meaning of the Act, and that the owner was liable. The defined. measurement was to be made from house to house, which means not the house only, but the house and buildings occupied therewith. In some stations of society, the Court said, the coachhouse and stables are as much part of the house as a coal-hole would be in other stations. In the argument a case was cited (2 Chan. Rep.) to show that a garden is not part of a house; but in the present case the Court said that it was unnecessary to determine whether a garden is part of a house within the meaning of the Act. (1) Where under a Local Improvement Act a rate was imposed upon all houses within the parish, the Court held that buildings and yards used for the purposes of business did not come within the description of "house," unless they were also within the curtilage of the house; but gardens or orchards subordinate to the occupation of the house as a residence, and occupied with the house as ancillary thereto, were to be included in the term "house." A mill which opened into the yard adjoining the house, and had internal communication with the out-building and house, was therefore held to be part of the house, and properly included in the rate. (2) Under the 92nd section of the Lands Clauses Act, 1845, (8 Vict. c. 18), a piece of land occupied in connexion with a public-house, but between which and the house was a paved public footway, was held to be part of the house, as being of the curtilage. (3) As to land forming part of a building within the meaning of Land. sect, 92 of the 8 Vict. c. 18, the cases of Grosvenor v. Hampstead Junction Railway Company (4) and Reddin v. Metropolitan Board of Works, (5) may be consulted. With regard to the use of drains, it has been held that a User of person entitled to a limited right, who exercises it in excess so drains. as to cause a nuisance, cannot maintain a right of action for an obstruction of the original right of easement until its exercise has been reduced within its original limits. Thus, if a man has a limited right to the use of a window, and he enlarges it considerably, the only way in which the person who is annoyed by the enlargement of the window can prevent that nuisance is by erecting a barrier, and stopping the whole up. So if a limited right to the use of a drain exists, such as to send clean water only through it, and the person claiming that right sends dirty or foul water, the person having the property in the drain may stop the whole of the water from flowing until the use of the right is brought within its original limits. (6) (1) Reg. v. Warwickshire JJ. 15 J. P. 417. (2) Hole v. Commissioners of Milton, Watson v. The Same, 31 J. P. 804. (3) Marson v. London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company, 37 (4) 26 L. J. (N. s.) Ch. 731. Right to use deodorizing disinfectants. Disinfectants. As to the right of adjoining proprietors to the use of a drain in common, see Pyer v. Carter, Suffield v. Brown, Ewart v. Cochrane, and Lee v. Stevenson, ante, pp. 137, 138. As regards the use by Local Boards of deodorizing disinfectants, the following case may be useful to note in this place. A patent was entitled "treating chemically the collected contents of sewers and drains in cities, towns, and villages, so that the same may be applicable to agricultural and other useful purposes." The description of the process stated that, for the purpose of precipitating the matter, the patentee preferred to employ hydrate of lime; and he claimed the precipitation of animal and vegetable matter from sewage water by the means before described. It stated that the invention consisted in the use and application of a chemical agent for the purpose of precipitating the solid animal and vegetable matter contained in sewage water; and that what was claimed was the precipitation of animal and vegetable matter from sewage water by means of the chemical agent before described. In an action for an infringement of the patent it appeared that the defendant, who was sued as the clerk to a Local Board of Health, had applied the proces of the hydrate of lime for the purpose of deodorizing sewage water, in the course of which some precipitate of animal and vegetable matter was produced, which, however, the defendant did not use as an article of value, but bona fide rejected as an article accidentally produced; and it was held that this was no evidence for a jury of the infringement of the patent. (1) The following extracts from a memorandum by the Barrack and Hospital Improvement Commission, on the use of disinfectants, are important. They say : A great variety of disinfectants have at different times been manufactured, some of them gaseous, some fluid, some solid; and the effect, more or less, of all of them, when properly used, is to destroy odour, either by bringing about a chemical change in the odorous particles, or by arresting the putrefaction of substances giving rise to odours: certain of them appear to act in both ways. The first question which arises out of this fact-the destruction of smell-is, to what extent (if any) would disinfectants be useful in protecting the public health, when applied to the destruction of odours proceeding from decomposing substances? In replying to this question, it is necessary to state that smell proceeding from decomposing matters is intended by nature as a warning against danger: that the true use of the warning is not merely to destroy the smell and leave the substance, but either to remove the offending matter to a distance from human dwellings, or to get away from it. It has never been shown that organic matter, after being deodorized, has ceased to be dangerous; while on the other hand, it is known that the (1) Higgs v. Goodwin, E. B. & E. 529. generation of diseases has been promoted by effluvia from Disinfectants. organized matter in a state of decomposition while the effluvia were little, if at all, appreciable to the sense of smell. Disinfectants, as a means of preserving health, are of doubtful efficacy, and their use for such purpose should not be sanctioned. This being our opinion, they say, it remains for them to consider whether disinfectants can be used with safety for merely temporary purposes. No disinfectant can compensate for the necessity of frequent removal of the matter, hence, if it were proposed to use any disinfectant merely to render frequent cleansing and removal less necessary than it would be if the offensive smell were allowed to remain, they recommend that no disinfectants be used, but that cleansing at short intervals be imperative. The Medical Officer of the Privy Council, in a memorandum on disinfection, dated July. 1866, states as follows: : "It is to cleanliness, ventilation, and drainage, and the use of perfectly pure drinking water, that populations ought mainly to look for safety against nuisance and infection. Artificial disinfectants cannot properly supply the place of those essentials; for, except in a small and peculiar class of cases, they are of temporary or imperfect usefulness. That no house-refuse -not only no excremental matter-but also no other kind of dirt or refuse, should remain on or about inhabited premises is a first rule against infection. That the air within the house should never in any part of the house be stagnant, but should always be in course of renewal from without by uninterrupted and abundant supplies of fresh air, is a condition of equal importance. And that all water meant to be used for drinking or cooking should be drawn from sources which cannot have been polluted by any kind of refuse-matter, is a third most important rule for the avoidance of infection. "If dwelling-places have within them any odour of drainage, particular examination should be made (1) whether the filth which house-drains are meant to carry away is retained in or near the premises in ill-made drains or sewers, or cesspools, or perhaps is leaking from house-drains within the house; and (2) whether, inside the house, the inlets of drains and sinks are properly trapped; and (3) whether the drains and sewers are sufficiently ventilated outside the house. All water-closets within houses should have free openings for ventilation from and into the outer air. Of a cesspool, the only true disinfection is to abolish it. In country places where proper drainage is not provided, the nuisance of open privies may be best avoided by the use of the so-called earth-closet. "If a sewer is much complained of, as stinking into the public way, generally the presumption is, that from original illconstruction or some other cause, it does not properly fulfil its object, but has filth accumulated and stagnant in it; and such Disinfectants. a sewer, besides occasioning nuisance in the public way, may be the source of serious danger to the inhabitants of houses which drain into it. It is most important that all sewers should be well ventilated at points where their effluvia will be least ininjurious; and ordinary drain-pipes may be used to conduct the effluvia to a distance. Erecting houses with out water closets, etc. 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63, s. 51. "For artificial disinfection on a large scale-the agents which most commonly prove useful are quicklime, chloride of lime, carbolic acid, sulphate of iron, perchloride of iron, and chloride of manganese. The following are also efficient disinfectants, but, as being dearer, are less suited for large operations; sulphate of zinc, chloride of zinc, chloride of soda, and permanganate of potash. In certain cases chlorine gas, or nitrous acid gas, or sulphurous acid gas, may advantageously be used; and, in certain other cases, powdered charcoal or fresh dry earth. "Quicklime ought to have been recently burnt, and may be used either in the form of dry powder, or stirred up with about ten times its bulk of water as milk of lime. Chloride of lime is best used with water, and thoroughly mixed with it, in the proportion of a pound to the gallon; or, of the solution, as commonly sold, about two pints may be mixed with a gallon of water. Carbolic Acid (in the fluid form in which it is commonly sold) should be dissolved in about eighty times its volume of water, with which it must be mixed by strong shaking in a closed vessel. Sulphate of iron should be dissolved in ten times its weight of water, a solution which is best effected by employing hot water and stirring. Of perchloride of iron and chloride of manganese, the common concentrated solutions may be used diluted with ten or twelve times their bulk of water. Sulphate of zinc should be dissolved in about ten times its weight of warm water. Of chloride of zinc, the common concentrated solution may be diluted with eight or ten times its bulk of water. Of chloride of soda, the common solution may be used like that of chloride of lime. Of permanganate of potash an ounce may be dissolved in a gallon of water. All disinfectants must be used in quantities proportionate to the amount of matter or surface to be disinfected. When the matters requiring to be disinfected have an offensive smell, the disinfectant should be used till this smell has entirely ceased; and as often as the smell recurs, the disinfectant must again be used." Houses cannot be erected, or rebuilt when pulled down to or below the ground floor, without a sufficient water-closet or privy and an ash-pit, furnished with proper doors and coverings, under a penalty not exceeding £20; and if at any time, upon the report of the surveyor, it appear to the Local Board that any house, whether built before or after the time when the Act is applied to the district in which it is situate, is without a sufficient water-closet or privy and an ashpit, furnished with c. 63, s. 51. proper doors and coverings, the Local Board is to give notice Provision of in writing to the owner or occupier of such house, requiring water-closets, etc. him forthwith, or within a reasonable time to be specified, to II & 12 Vict. provide a sufficient water-closet or privy and an ashpit, as the case may require; and if the notice be not complied with, the Local Board inay cause to be constructed a sufficient watercloset or privy, and an ashpit, or either of them, or do such other works as the case may require; and the expenses incurred Recovery of in so doing are recoverable by the Board from the owner in a expenses. summary manner, or may, by order of the Local Board, be 29 & 30 Vict. declared to be private improvement expenses, and be recover- c. 90, s. 54. able as such. Where, however, a water-closet or privy is used in common by the inmates of two or more houses, or if, in the opinion of the Local Board, a water-closet or privy may be so used, the Board need not require them to be provided for each house separately from the other. By 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 34, post, the Local Board may make bye-laws as to water-closets, privies, &c. The Local Board are not empowered to purchase land on which to erect the conveniences contemplated by 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63, s. 51, if, as has happened, no land is attached to the premises and unbuilt upon. The 51st section of the Public Health Act 1848, is, by the 31 & 32 Vict. c. 115, s. 4, extended to the district of every sewer authority in which there is no enactment of any public or private Act of Parliament to the like effect in force. Ib. Any enactment of any Act of Parliament in force in any Earth-closets. place requiring the construction of a water-closet shall, with 31 & 32 Vict. the approval of the Local Authority, be satisfied by the con- c. 115, s. 7. struction of an earth-closet, or other place for the reception and deodorization of fœcal matter, made and used in accordance with any regulation from time to time issued by the Local Authority. The Local Authority may, as respects any houses in which Ib. such earth-closets or other places as aforesaid are in use with their approval, dispense with the supply of water required by any contract or enactment to be furnished to the water-closets in such houses, on such terms as may be agreed upon between such authority and the persons or body of persons providing or required to provide such supply of water. The Local Authority may themselves undertake or contract Ib. with any person to undertake a supply of dry earth or other deodorizing substance to any house or houses within their district for the purpose of any earth-closets or other places as aforesaid. The Local Authority may themselves construct or require to Ib. be constructed earth-closets or other such places as aforesaid in all cases where, under any enactment in force, they might construct water-closets or privies, or require the same to be constructed, with this restriction, that no person shall be M |