One other important question common to all towns is that of the collection and disposal of the ashes and refuse of the households.  It is one which is becoming daily more difficult to deal with, especially in those large communities where the old privy and ashpit system has not been entirely abolished.  The removal of such ashes is at all times a source of nuisance, and if they cannot be disposed of to the agriculturists of the district, they become a source of difficulty.  In purely water-closeted towns the so-called dry ashpits cannot be kept in such a condition as to be entirely free from nuisance, especially in the summer months, inasmuch as the refuse of vegetable and animal matter finds its way into them, and they are, in close and inhabited districts, necessarily too close to the living apartments of the dwellings.  The tendency therefore now is rather to discourage the establishment of ashpits by the substitution of ashbins, to be collected daily or weekly as the case may be, and I think there can be no doubt that from a sanitary point of view this is by far the best system, harmonizing as it does with the general principle applicable to town sanitation of removing all refuse, likely by decomposition to become dangerous to health, as quickly as possible from the precincts of human habitations.

The difficulty of disposing of the ashes, mixed as they must necessarily be with animal and vegetable matter, is one that is forcing itself upon the attention of all town authorities, and the days of the rich dust contractors of the metropolis are practically numbered.  Destruction by fire seems to be the ultimate end to be aimed at, and in this respect several towns have led the way.  But as this is a subject which will be fully dealt with by a paper to be read during the meeting, I will not anticipate the information which will be brought before you, further than to say that the great end to be aimed at in this method of disposing of the ashes and refuse of towns is greater economy in cost of construction of destructors, as well as in cost of working them.

The progress in sanitation on the Continent, America, and the colonies has not been coincident with the progress in England, but these countries have largely benefited by the experience of the United Kingdom, and in some respects their specialists take more extreme views than those of this country in matters of detail.  This is, perhaps, more particularly the case with the Americans, who have devised all sorts of exceptional details in connection with private drainage, in order to protect the interior of the houses from sewer gas, and to perfect its ventilation.  In plumbing matters they seem also to be very advanced, and to have established examinations for plumbers and far-reaching regulations for house drainage.