There are two ways of supplying the water-closets in the upper part of the house with water. The one is to have what is called a spindle valve in the cistern, which fits a hole in the bottom of the cistern, and which is raised by a ball lever being pulled by a wire, which arrangement necessitates a contrivance called a valve box, which has a small air pipe, and with this arrangement there is liability for foul water to be jerked in the cistern. Moreover, the pipe from this valve box passes into the pan of the water-closet and becomes full of air, which air is liable to get into the valve box in the cistern. This arrangement, therefore, is decidedly bad. But there is another, in which the valve which supplies the water-closets is under the seat, and the pipe from the cistern is full of water; and that is now becoming the more usual plan. With that plan there is nothing like so much danger as with the other method; in fact, so little, that many people hesitate to condemn this arrangement. However, to put it on no other grounds, it is clearly desirable not to have cisterns supplying drinking-water and the water-closets direct. It is better to lay down a right principle, and abide by it, than to see how you can avoid it. The best rule is that water-closets should not, for the reasons stated, under any circumstances be supplied direct from the cistern supplying the taps; Prof. Corfield lays down the rule that _every tap is a drinking-water tap, because any one may draw water at it_. _Housemaid’s Sink._--The housemaid’s sink is often placed in a small closet just under the stairs, without any window or any sort of ventilation whatever (and we know what kind of things are kept in the sink!), so that in such a position it has not by any means a very savoury odour. The housemaid’s sink should under no circumstances be in such a position. It should be against an outside wall, and have a window. As a rule, the material used for the sink itself is lead, wood lined with lead. Now lead is not a good material. Grease, soap, and so on, have a tendency to adhere to lead, and it is very difficult to keep such sinks clean, and it would be better to have the sink of glazed stoneware.