Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-08-15
PROGRESS IN THE HEALING Art
-s.sEWERS AUGMENTATION


1t is TO the credit of the medical
profession that they show signs Of
mental activity and a desire to advance
in useful knowledge. w. T. Gold.
smith, Ii. D., Of Atlanta, has a very
sensible article IN the Constitution, Of
the llJh inst, under the heading "Sew.
ers an Abomination, F." which indicates
little progress in sanitary science
since the CIOaca Marina of Rome was
constructed some twenty centuries ago.
Writers on modern sewerage overlook
the material fact that when the system
originated IN ancient times, not only
such cities as Rome, Carthage and
Babylon, were fenced in by high
walls to keep out robber armies
and besieging plunderers, but all
other cities IN Europe, Asia
and Africa had recourse Il the same
means Of self-defence. Then, with
hostile army, hungry as wolves, outside
OF the walls, deep cess pools, covered
drains and sewers beclme a necessity,
and their daily use a fixed habit in the
people within. Now, the high walls of
cities no longer exist, there Is no use
for them, and the question may well he
asked, whether privies. water-closets,
cesspools and sewers charged more or
Less with decomposing matter, be the
most health-giving remembrancers
which advancing civilization can cher
ish Of the roJber age Of human society.
That such an age extended through a
thousand generations Is more than
probable; but is there to be no end to
sewers and To the wantom sacrifice of
human life?
DR.. Goldsmith cites DR.. Bowling, Of
this city, as saying: If a stink be
above ground with the only true disin-
fectaDts operating on its cause
- the circumamEicnt air and
gorgeous sunshine - there can
be no reason but one Of folly, for
expanding money To place this same
filth beyond the reach of the Olsen.
fecJauts Of nature, with breathing
holes for the escape Of poisonous mol
some emanations.' SAID Dr. Bowling:
What do yo1 want to tap that infer
nal sum of all villanies and depository
u mingled stinks right at my door
for?" Il want 70 LEI the water from
the gutter along the east side OF High
street into the great sewer" But
son can't Jet the water in without let
ting the stink out. Why not let the
" ter run along the gutter down hill,
and clean the cutters with its tor
rem
To d. SO would violate the fuudamen-
tai idea Of the sewer system Of drainage,
still followed as a tradition and duty,
involving the sacrifice Of thousands of
children carried off by bowel CON-
plants, diptheria, scarlet fever and
other epidemics. The mortality of
children under five years of age has an
efficient cause IN almost every city; and
that cause is a frst-class hot-bed for
propogating the seeds Of the diseases
that kill babes and others of feeble
constitutions. For seventy years men
of science and true philanthropy have
labored to break up these reeking hot
beds Of infection, but without even
patient hearing, much less any ap.
proach to success. Did not the Moab
King sacrifice mis- son and heir to his
kingdom on the walls of his cityf A
mistaken sense Of duty took the life Of
the youth. We take the lives of chill
dren IL the same way.
In early times, when human beings
were comparatively few, where they put
one to death in obedience to some ven.
Grated tradition, we with our vastly
crater numbers now put to death a
thousand by our pcstilence breeding
sanitary" arrangements. No student !
of sanitary science denies this preg-
nant truth, yet reform Is found to be |