The number of cases in which repairs to old plumbing-work have recently been found to result in mischief, by making open roads around the traps for foul air to enter houses, suggests the need of doing such plumbing-work especially by the aid of carefully-prepared drawings. It is often very difficult to foresee by simple inspection the result that ventilating the traps of old plumbing will lead to. The only safety lies in carefully tracing out the course of the piping as it is, and drawing the modifications on a sheet where the effect can be easily seen. When the alterations have been satisfactorily arranged and sketched the workman should be expected to carefully follow his drawing in making his alterations. We do not at all overstate the necessity for this course, as will appear by consulting the numerous illustrations we have published the last few months. Some of these have been seized upon by the opponents of trap-ventilation to bolster up their views, but we think any intelligent reader will see at once that the trouble is not in trap-ventilation, but in the botched way repairs are too often done. Our suggestion aims to substitute careful work for slipshod methods in this important matter.

What we have said of alterations suggests also the great usefulness of preparing working plans for all original work as well. It seems to us that this should be a duty in all plumbing shops. Plans of the piping, position of fixtures, etc., for all work, should be made, and after use filed away for permanent reference. Then any future changes in the work can be made with less trouble and disturbance, and with more certainty and safety. This is a matter which master plumbers should at once give attention to. Modern plumbing has become of too much importance to be done except as all other important works of construction are executed - namely, in accordance with carefully-prepared detailed drawings.