Daily State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1865-03-18
from The New York InbuI
LOW LIZ III NEW YORK.
Dwelling Caves of the ueiropoIi,

Twenty five thousand bodies and souls i'm
INJURED in the cellar tenements OF New York city
Denied the light of heaven and the breezes OF
earth. absorbing through their pores the humid
masms. and receiving into their lungs the foul
gases, that perpetually exude from ieculent soil
above and around them, these wretched beings
endure slow but sure process Of decay. They
may be said to suffer physical and moral decom
position while yet alive; and especially is this
true of the children, whereof from fifty TO sew
enty per cent perish durir infancy. Those who
survive become prey to various maladies. more
or less acute or chronic, according to the dura-
ton of suffering TO which they may be doomed
10 their underground prison-houses. And the
children are but mere fragile types Of their puBy
genitoTs: wilted leaves from the blighted stems
which they call their parents; those wretched
men and women whose cadayerous frames are
miidewed in life by their grave like surround
ings.
The cellar population dwells under influences
as certain il not so swift 20 produce death as il
the atmosphere OF ssagusut marsh The gases
which escape from, soil drainage and sewerage
are actively destructive to animal life. The
sewerage of New York, as of other cities, is made
up Of kitchen offa street washings, factory
dregs. putrid animal aDd vegetable garbage, ex-
crementitious collections and waste water. The
mass Is quickly decomposed aud evolves is foul
gases, whether il be stagnant OF IN motion The
constituents OF sewer carnations are carbonic
acid gas, suIphnreted hydrogen, and ammonial
gas; and all these fatal in their action on liv-
iug bodies. Dr. Barker, experimenting with
them ia London, hung cage containing mouse
within three inches of cess pOol: the animal
persisted in less than FIVE DAYS Dogs exposed
to sewer emanation were attacked with diarrbea,
febrile symptoms, thirst aud vomiting 4 puppy
subjected TO breathe air impregnated with scarce
ly two per cent of sulphureted hydrogen died in
two minutes and half The Ammonia of sew
erage Is volatile fluid. much lighter than com
mon air. IL escapes from the decomposed i'm
pnrities, aud, rising on the atmosphere. conveys
outrefacton 10 great distances. lt is dangerous
ly subtitle, entering the lungs, liquifying the
blood. and inducing a receptivity of the system
oftyphoid and other form Of fever.
Ammonia, remarks DR. Letherbv, 3" is The
purveyor of the miasms of infected districts -
The "organic vapor" of sewer gases is described
by this chemist as F" matter in a state of decom-
position" and be tells Us that, when acting on a
living "animal body" il il productive of the
most terrible consequences Even when much
diluted by atmospheric air, the sewer gases are
virulent poisons TO the human economy; and
when the habitants of cellars are constantly eI-
posed to them they sink rapidly, under successive
symptoms of their presence. 1.-The appetite
fails. the bowels become disturbed. - and the suf
ferer, worn out BY exhaustion" falls into low
fever, and soon succumbs TO its ravages. Even
when not directly poisoned by the continued in
halstion Of q corrupt atmosphere, always chsrg-
ed with these gaseous forces" says DIR. John
Bell, of Philadelphia, the people thus exposed
have their vital energies so much reduced that
slight change in ordinary conditions of the at
mosphere, or diminuton of accustomed food,
serves n spark 10 ignite into febrile fire their
weakened and susceptible frames"
Such atmospheric peril is the ever present coz
comitant TO cellar life. Our troglodytes, contn-
ually IN breathing aud absorbing the toxical
particles OF diseased matte: which prevsde their
dwellings, become themselves repositories of in
fictitious venom, that may AZ any moment be lib
Grated on the wings Of ammonia. TO take sub
stance in some local pestilence The three fold
monster of filth, malaria and disease, which lies
coiled in every den beneath our pavements is
worse than any tabled dragon; more voracious
than any mino.aur Of classic story, which was
satisfied with stated yearly tribute of human
lives. Our sacrifices 10 il are reckoned not by
hundreds but BY thousands. The waste of infant
life in Easements aud cellars is enormous. There
the still born are multiplied Cellars are the
very holes in our moloch statue into which we
thrust the children of the poor.
But perhaps death is mercy 10 offspring
which. when born into life, must be born into an
Inheritance Of misery. The children of our
cave-d welers, inh4ling with their earliest breath
the zymotio virus engendered by underground
emanations, become almost certain victims OF
Group, chOlera-infaltum, erYsipeias, whOoping
cough. scsrlitina thrush or measles Ons-
quarter Of these wretched little creatures never
reach the second year oftheir poisoned existence.
more than third die before the 9Th year: less
than hall arrive az twenty years of age. An
army OF deadly enemies encamped about the
mothers womb. IN the forms of malaria starva
ton, Intemperanee and vile humors, attacks
each child at It's birth, and assaults thereafter ev
cry hour of its being, till death or some humani.
tartan release il from thraldom The zvmo,ies
those intimate shapes Of diseases inseparable
from the cellar in which the child opens its ewes
will assuredlv torture is infancy, II they do
net at once.cgt short the brittle thread OF life
and even II manhood be reached It's term can
not prove healthy one.
Cachexy AID scrofala sill generally cling 10
a system vitisted by early disorder; sbscess and
ulcer will often Turk atently IN ears and nasal
organs, and that dreadful affection, opthalmia
invading sight, Will become manifest soon in is
TOO common and reuUisive features Amid sun
less ahysscs OF the Mammoth Cave, n kentuky
a naturalist discovers fishes without ewes, the
darkness Of those subtefrsnean deeps forcing the
visual organs. II they ever exist, 10 conform 10
The results OF disaso. aud become extinct, be-
cause Unnecessary. Troglodytes Sin psst ages,
have always beer terrible IN sight Persons
dwelling habitually IN dark chambers. miners ac-
customed 10 toll Al tie bottom OF shafts in the
earth. and prisoners confined for years IN gloomy
dungeons, grow incapable Of distinguishing OBJ
jects a. mid DAY. and. like bats and moles -
quire shadow or darkness for the exercise of
vision
IN like manner our cellar GwelleIs. living in
obscure abodes. become subject 10 disease Of the
eve. and transmit susceptibility 20 blindness
What other result can we look for. when hun
dreds OF our dwelling caves are similar 70 one