Consider drains, for instance. In this day it is taken for granted that no one buys or rents a house without being assured that the plumbing is in perfect order, as well as having been of the best quality in the beginning. I say that this is taken for granted, and yet I feel I should modify this statement, recollecting homes in which I have been a guest where the plumbing is obsolete and neglected to a degree which would be dangerous with even the most up-to-date fittings. When such carelessness exists relative to the old-fashioned closed plumbing with the cheapest and least scientific of traps and stop-cocks, one gains a rather alarming notion of the hazards to which householders recklessly subject their families. Let me state here that the absence of evil odor is no proof that drains and traps are in excellent order. The deadly sewer-gas is practically without smell, and persons can be badly poisoned by it with no warning on the part of their olfactory nerves. There are tests which will demonstrate the presence of noxious vapors, but these must be made by sanitary engineers or specialists in this line. Unless the dweller in any home is positively assured that the drains, plumbing, etc., are in perfect condition there should be no delay in making such tests and in proving the good or evil state of the house-fittings. This is not sufficient, however. The drains must be kept clear, not only for such a simple hygienic reason as the desire to guard against disease, but also because a greasy or dirty pipe soon means a choked pipe, and this in turn brings the inconvenience of a sink which cannot be used, of a backed-up overflow of waste water, with the possible accompaniment of injured floor-coverings, walls, and ceilings. The expert may be required to decide as to the perfection of drains. The veriest beginner in housekeeping needs little education to know how to keep them free. In the first place she should see that nothing is thrown down a waste-pipe but the things it is meant to carry off. When wads of paper, broken pasteboard boxes, rolls of hair-combings, and similar refuse are flung into the mouth of even a wide and generous waste-pipe there is pretty sure to be trouble sooner or later. When grease and particles of food, tea-leaves, coffee-grounds, and collections of dust are dumped into a sink, or a corresponding amount of debris is permitted to try to make its way through the pipe running from the wash-basin, no one but the person guilty of such gross carelessness may be to blame, but the whole household is likely to suffer for the offense.