New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-03-01
Dg.Tu UrDEu GROUND.

7, reoi,v il il the most insaiubTious locality OF
America. if we are 10 believe the evidence oil
death.ratcs as compared with population. This
/, simply unnatural. With our magnificent
Hu: on flowing on one side, the noble East
River on another, the Harlem channel uniting
both, the ocean tides aud breezes minglng WITH
oil, it is not only unnatural, il is also criminal.
Rome was not built in day" New-York
was! Hence a substantial difference between
the two cities. Rome was, to a great extent,
located on marshy lands bordering the Tlber.
The bases of her Seven Hills were swamps, fed
by .sin.vashings and ryelire oycrGoys. To-
make a foundation for urban wor.s it became
necessary to drain these low lands thoroughly, !
and that was done by constructing sewers Of
masonry so indes ,ruc,iblc that Gas remarked by
Niebuhr) "ncither earthquakes, the weight o!
buildings, nor the neglect of fifteen hundred
years has been able to displace a single stone
Of their vaults Thus the builders Of Rome
began By subsoil preparation for the splendid
capital which they subsequently erected. Inus
Ncw-Ycrk did not begin; aud We discover the
fact in our present defective drainage.
In Ike menucr with the Romans, heir Car
tbaginian rivals excavatcd and cemerted on ac-
qucdlct, fifty miles long, to bring water to their
city; and they constructed immense reservoirs,
whence cleansing streams were disper j
through mason-work sewers. Egypt, with her
massive system Of Nile irrigation and he's ample
drainage through artificial lakes; Babylon,
whose wondrous hydraulic forces watercd her
hanging gardens and made the EuphTaies wash
her streets; Venice. born in beauty, like Venus,
from the ocean foam her marble piers resting
on piles, her mosaic payements covering boggy
dcep'. once pcstilential. but redeemed, By drain
age, from all malefc Influences st. Peters
burg that modern marvel Of architecture, built
after Now-York had been long settled, and
planting is broad foundations on soil reclaimed
from marsh and quagmire AL these stupen-
dous evidences of what may be accomplished
by subsoil work are a stern rcbuke to our own
metropolis, which, with unsurpassed natural
advantages, yet lags behind both ancient and
modern cities in attention 10 the commonCst |
principles Of municipal hygiene. Had proper
knowledge and application Of those principles
forcrun the growth Of New-York in population
and buildings, we should not now be burdencd
with social grievances that Cypress Us like n
nightmare Had suitable sanitary laws been
enacted and enforced fifty years ago, it could
not now be said of our Queen City" as Of Liy-
erpool, that she was "created in haste by Com
merce, and by men too intent on immediate
gain;" that she is 3" nourishng, while her work.
ing-people are deeaying in CELLARS" and "has
been severely taught the lesson, that a portion
Of the community cannot suffer without involy |
ing the whole in calamity"
Fever, it is observed, "makes itself at home
in the neighborhood of ccss-pools and badly
constructed drains, and takes especial delight |
in the increase of gully-holes." Mortality in !
undrained ncighborhoods doubles that Of dis !
tricts properly severed. To prove this, we need
not institute comparisons between MURRAY
Ill.," and the "Fiye Points," We may take
the illustration Of single row of houses, whore
a portion are exempt from disease, and another
portion rife with typhoid fever; and on inquiry
we find that "the infected dwellings, and those
only have been exposed TO the action of sewer
gases and the miasma from ccss-po0l matter
which had soaked into the soil" We are told
that in Paris regular system of sewerage
has converted sickly and almost abandoned dis
tricts into those now known "a the Faubourg
Montmartrc, the Chaussec dAntin, and the
Fanbourg st. IIonorc, which are remarkable !
wealth of their inhabitants" We learn from
experiments that 1.-THE course of typhoid fever
in town may be tracked BY that Of neglected
sewerage"
The yellow fever has broken ont five times ut
neghborng points in Philadelphia, either near
the exposed outlet Of Il large sewer on the Della
ware River or in Dock-St., where a former creek
was chokcd up. So, likewise, cholera Is found
springng up almost spontaneously near open
sewers, and ravagng localities whose drainage
is faulty. Certain districts of London, on the
Thames, have been repeatedly smtten by the
most malignant type of this epidemic, and tho
cause has boon traced invariably to defective
drainage and foul sewers. The London Board
of Health shows by reports of its medical in
spectors, that wherever cholera has become To-
Called, there will be found its active principle
cngcndcred by open bitches and exposed
receptacles Of filth Louisville, In Kentucky,
was at one time center Of bilious and in
.evnilteut levers; but thorough subsoil drain