Q. In a recent number of your valuable paper, Mr. J. W. Hughes, of Montreal, objects to a hush-pipe in water-closet cisterns, as it forms a syphon when the supply-pipe is full. Will it? He recommends fitting the ball-cocks above the water and using a deafening-pipe, the construction of which I do not understand; what is it?

Would it not be desirable, if water-supply were abundant, to have a constant light flush for water-closets, thus tending to keep the soil-pipe freer from foul deposits, and would not such a flush offer an obstruction to ascending sewer-gas that might form in the house drain?

Will you briefly recapitulate the reasons why a rain-water conductor should not be entered into a soil-pipe?

Do you think it desirable to ventilate under the seat of a water-closet when the plumbing is well trapped and otherwise well ventilated? There would be very little odor, and that might be removed through the ventilating system provided for the room.

What is a bidet?

A. In some circumstances we think the danger of syphoning, to which Mr. Hughes' letter referred, might exist, and it is therefore desirable to fit up the ball-cocks, as he recommends, above the surface of the water. The "deafening" or "hush" pipe is a pipe fitted to the ball-cock and carried below the surface of the water in the cistern, so that the cistern will fill noiselessly, the discharge taking place under water, and open at its upper end so it can serve as the short leg of a syphon.

A "constant light flush," if we understand you aright, would be useless, for a driblet of water does not wash away anything in its course. Nothing can be useful for flushing short of a body of water that would completely fill the drain-pipes.

A rain-water leader should not enter a soil-pipe by a tight connection, because it is difficult to keep its trap supplied with water during a dry time, and, if not so trapped, the chamber-windows may receive the air from the drains or sewers through the upper end of the leader or through leaky joints. It is better to connect the rain-water leaders with the drain over the main house-drain trap, just outside the house, where the rain-water can pour into a tunnel in the manhole-chamber, by which access is had to this trap, and without a closed connection.

A good air-draught from under the seat of a water-closet is a desirable thing, but not so essential to health as many others. It is better to remove disagreeable odors directly at their source than to suffer a whole room to be tainted by them, and trust to any general ventilation of the room, the proper operation of which would require one hundred times as much air to be removed as is required for the special purpose referred to.

A bidet is a small bath-tub used in bathing parts of the body when a complete bath is not wanted.