The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

:
24 The Hkalth JJllletin January, 1927
before he leaves the court room. The
instances of failure are exceedincly
rare, and every case in which the defendant
is not converted is charged up
against the inspector as a failure, regardless
of having won the case and
secured compliance with the law. When
analyzed sufliciently, there are exceedingly
few instances in which faulty
diplomacy or salesmanship on the part
of the inspector will not be discovered.
Controlling Factors of Practical
Privy Design
Tlie
Technical Factor
1. No privy is more sanitary than the
character of maintenance which may
be expected for it under normal conditions.
2. The probable and practical result
that may be expected, taking privy
psychology fully into consideration determines
the merit of a privy.
3. The scientific correctness of the
principle upon which the design of the
privy is based is not a true indication
of the public health protection its installation
tvill, not may, afford.
Many types of privies have been proposed,
which IF properly maintained
might well be considered to approach
the millenium in privy sanitation. Such
privies may serve fairly well for individual
isolated community campaigns.
provided. Jwicever, that the person conducting
the campaign gets out of town
fairly readily after the installation is
completed. For effective results, however,
on a permanent basis, maintenance
is the true test, and in this, privy
psychology is a major factor.
The Human Factor
There are certain reactions that are
common to both white and colored, to
the high and to the low
1. All privies that are not free from
odor will be improperly maintained.
Defective maintenance was formerly
considered the cause and odor the
effect, but the conditions are, as a rule,
reversed.
2. Any privy which is not comfortable
to the user will be abusM. In earlier
privy work, self closing lids were considered
practically impossible because
they were generally found torn off. The
trouble was that the lids were not
properly constructed for the comfort of
the user.
3. No class of people takes any pride
in or has any respect for a privy which
is not neatly constructed and well proportioned.
The Relation of Maintenance to the
Combination of These Factors
In any kind of community, the maintenance
of privies in which these three
factors are not taken fully into consideration
will be uniformly poor. On
the other hand, if the privy is free from
odor, is comfortable to the user, and
is well proportioned and neat, the user
will take a great pride in it and will
not abuse it, but will keep it clean
and in good Condition. This is not
supposition. We have over one hundred
thousand (100,000) shining examples
of the proof of this fact.
Experience With the Several Types
of Pi'ivies
Tilpes Recommended
At first the pit privy was not especially
encouraged, but the septic, concrete
vault and chemical privies were recommended.
On account of the cost, these
types of privies had little favor with
the public except that due principally
to the activities of privy salesmen,
septic privies were accepted as a general
standard by the cotton mills and
large numbers of the chemical tank
privies were installed in the rural
schools. A few schools were equipped
with septic privies. The box-can privy
was not encouraged except in those
communities where this system had
already been installed.
Chemical
Privies
Today practically all of the chemical
privies have been eliminated by the
consolidation of rural schools. These
new modern buildings are in practically
every case equipped with plumbing and
sewerage. The chemical privies proved
fairly satisfactory. There are now, exclu.sive
of schools, 425 chemical tank
privies in service.
Septic Privies
The septic privy, however, is nothing
less than an aggravated nuisance under
the condition of the usual maintenance
received at schools. Practically the