Having shown the necessity for discarding brick drains underneath a house, Eassie next considers alternative clay-derived materials, such as pipes formed of baked clay, after the latter has been worked to a consistency which would not naturally allow of an escape of their contents. There are, however, two or three subdivisions of this class. First of all come those kinds whose ends are merely abutted together, and not, as at the present day, socketed at the joints. These are almost equally faulty with brick drains, because when once they are poisoned and become the habitat of life-destroying germs, their normal tone cannot possibly be recovered. The only kind of earthenware drains which ought to be permitted inside a house are glazed socketed pipes, well formed, well kilned, and properly laid down, the whole of the pipes having been set on a concrete bed, and afterwards covered over with properly made concrete, so as to prevent any possibility of sewage reaching the subsoil, and especially water-tanks. It is not every glazed socketed drain-pipe that is fit for laying down, for the most abominably shaped pipes are often met with. There are many makers beyond reproach, and there are scores of pipes showing patent methods of jointing more or less complicated. The majority of the improvements refer to the fast seating of the ends of the pipes in cradles, well covered in cement, and one especially much in use, Stanford’s, provides a ring of material fitting truly upon a ring of similar material in the socket of the pipe, so that when the two ends are put together, with a little grease or resin between them, the pipes fit closely in every direction, and require but little other luting. These pipes are generally adopted for use under a house, and ordinary socketed pipes for outside.