The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1847-09-10

mittee to enquire into and report what effect on
the health of the city the system of sewerage
lately entered into, and which we hope will be
prosecuted to the fullest extent, has, and may
have, on the general health Of the city.
There is no city in the world that possesses
the facilities which New York does for drain
ing. With river each side, there is beau
tiful slope towards their shores from the centre ;
and 1t needs but sewers, properly constructed, to
drain every drop of superficial water which now
Is allowed to remain, causing impurity and sick
ness in our very midst.
We hope that the committee will institute a
searching inquiry into this matter, and not make
their report until they have Investigated the
subject thoroughly. They ought to direct their
attention to the most feasible means of draining
the cesspools attached to private dwellings, as
well as to that of taking off the superficial water
We do not know how many dwelling houses
there are in the city, but should say that they
number seventy-ive thousand at least, if not
more. Connected with each ofthese is private
cesspool, so that within the of the city there
are seventy-fve thousand cesspools, the effluva
arising from which in the summer months, when
the thermometer ranges from seventy to ninety
degrees of Farenheit cannot but be preJudicia
to the health OF the inhabitants. If, therefore,
we had sewers underneath the streets, with
drains leading to them from these private
cesspools, we should be saved all liability to
ckness and contagion, particularly as we have
such an abundance of Croton water.
Our people are not alive to the necessity of
having the city thoroughly drained, if they de-
sire to have it healthy. II is well understood,
however, on the other side of the Atlantic, and is
deemed there to be of the first importance. In
Dublin, Liverpool, London, and other cities,
there is no such occupation as that of nightmen.
Every private cesspool is connected with the
street sewers, and never causes the offensive
smell which those in New York do. In two of
the seven districts of London there are three
hundred and fifty miles in length of sewers, and
OF drains leading to them and We suppose in the
whole seven districts the aggregate len tn of
sewers and drains considerably exceeds one thou
sand miles. In this city, thus far, we have only
about thirty four miles of sewers, and very few
private drains.
/ Some few years since committee of the
English House of Commons was appointed, to
examine the subject of sewerage, and report on
the influence it exerts on the health of largely
populated cities. The commissioners had the
advice of the most eminent medical men on the
subject, whose testimony, derived from expe-
rience, proved that it is impossible for city to
be healthy, unless it is properly and thoroughly
drained. The celebrated DR.. Smith, of the
London fever hospital, one of the medi-
cal men examined by this committee,
stated in the course of the investigation,
that when contagon existed in London,
its locality might be determined by an inspec-
ton of the map of the city. Where the fever or
contagion is, he says, there the sewers are not,
and where the sewers are, there the fever is not
No stronger proof of the influence of sewers on
the general health of large cities could be pro-
duced than this. And let US bear in mind that
il this remark applied to city, where the mer
curry rarely rises higher than eighty degrees,
how much more does it apply to this city where,
for weeks and months, it remains at from ninety
to ninety-six, and frequently reaches as high as
one hundred and where we have vessels arriv-
ing from Europe in the hottest weather, laden
with death and disease in their worst form. Who
could have stopped the ship or typhus fever,
in case it had got footing here this summer,
and what prevented it from doing sol We are
at loss to know, except we attribute it to the
wisdom and mercy of all-wise Providence
But we must not be criminally negligent Of the
means within our power of preventing its spread
among us.
II is within the recollection of many of us,
that our city was nearly decmated some years
since by the yellow fever, and more recently by
the cholera. When these diseases prevailed
here, it was the universal opinion of our medical
men, that in one case it would not have attained
footing here at all, if our city was properly
drained, and in the other, that the ravages would
not have been nearly so violent Yellow fever, it
Is well known, cannot exist in healthy at
mosphere. 1t lives on foul exhaations, from
stagnant and putrid water. We have evi.
dence of this at home. New Orleans is annual
ly visited by this scpurge, and the reason is be.
Cause the city 10 built on low and marshy ground.
The moment, however, that the frost sets in, it
vanishes. In New York the heat is intense
tits in that city, but city is not built as
low ground, if it were, we should be no better
than the inhabitants of it are. But at the pre-
cent increase ofour city,we would in few years,
without thorough system of drainage, be AZ bad
off as New Orleans, for the aggregate quantity
of standing superficial water would produce as
much malaria do the low grounds of New Or
leans. We really wish the people of New
York would direct their attention to this
matter 1t is the interest of each and
all of us to do so; we must not court disease
I'VE must not allure by our negligence the yell
low fever, or some other deadly disease, among
u.s. Our noble city can be made, at a trihing
expense, the healthicst-we say it without hesi-
tation or fear of contradiction--the healthest
city in the world.
As we before said, we have two noble rivers,
With q gradual descent 10 each frsm 'he esnws