, 1877-07-15
AN 0DORIFEROUS SUBJECT


AN 0DOR1FEROUS SUBJECT.
There are good many stencil nuisance
about Chicago, and, as rule, the Healt
Commissioner should be included anon
them. When the stenches assert then
selves, he asserts himself; they ar
nuisances, he is nuisance; they are Al
wrong, and he is all wrong. What Chicag
evidently wants is Health COMMISSIONS
with more brain tissue than olfactory nerves
Pretty much every new City Administratio,
Introduces new Health Commissioner, an
every new Health Commissioner complacent
" ignores all the fruits of past experience
and treats the stencil question in dogmati
way that leaves the city as badly off as i
WAS before. There was a visitation the
other evening Of the mephitic odor peculia,
to Chicago, which defes rivalry in noxious
| ness with any stencil ever generated in til,
| history of the world. Health -Commissi onel
DEWoLF, whoha been in Office q few months
was visited. Of course, he knew ali abou1
it. 1t didn't come from Bridgeport, nor ths
t fertilizing establishments around the Stock.
| Yards. Certainly not. It nll came from the
! south fork Of the South Branch, and from
| the Stock Yards canal. ALI of which show.
that the Health Commissioner doesn't know
anything about it. We presume that he,
like all his predecessors, thinks that nobody
else hes ever given this matter any thought OF
investigation, and that ali he has to do is to
lay the blame on some stagnant stream or
| pool, and there let it rest. It may surprise
Health-C Commissioner DEWo1F to learn that
his complacent theory was advanced by
RAucH, and MILLER, and JoHSsoS, aud Nc
V1cKAH, and several other Health Commis-
sloners, and as often exploded Sometimes
it Was laid on the South Fork, sometimes on
the Ogden Slip, sometimes on the Healey
Slough. The stencil came from ono about
as mnch as the other but it didn't come from
any of them.
We presume Health Commissioner De-
WoLF's error arises from the same cause as
that Of his predecessors, rs,-nanely, from fol-
lowing his nose instead of making scientific
Investigation Of the subject. There is less
excuse in his case, however, because SO many
Health Commissioners noses have deceived
them in the past. The rule of your average
Health Commissioner, whenever there is any
complaint about stencil, is to take buggy
and ride to some suburban slough, or ditch,
or slip. Arrived at the banks, be finds a To-
cal smell, which can always be found ct a
stagnant pool near city, and he Immediately
concludes that he has discovered the stencil
which is the cause Of Chicago's woe. On his
way home, he drops III at rendering estab-
lshment, where he finds no local stencil, and
that confirms him in his notion that
it is the aforesaid ditch and not the render
ing establishment which is guilty. Now, if
the Health Commissioner exercised the func-
tions Of his bruins instead OF those Of his
proboscis, he would know TINT, if Tho stencil
came from the ditch, or slip, OF canal, it
would DO continuous instead of spasmodic.
It would smell in daytime as well as night.
It's odors would constantly diffuse themselves
over that portion of the city to which the |
wind was favorable. But it is notorious that |
this isn't the case. If the astute Health |
Commissioner would deign to bring his judg- |
ment to bear upon the subject he would also /
ind, after shifting the disagreeable ditch
smell and turning up his nose thereat, that |
be could not smell it after getting 500 feet
away from it on his way home Then how
S it that this ditch smell travels miles into
he heart of the city in nomadic and spook-
ike fashion at the dead OF night? Come;
ye may expect little bit Of logic even from
Health Commissioner.
Before giving the rendering establishments
clean bill Of henIth, DR.. DEWo1F ought to
i've some attention to what his predecessors
Eere driven to discover. OF course, there is
70 local smell about these establishments,
or the simple reason that they take care to
ass the smell over into the city to infect
he sitting-rooms and sleep1ng-rooms
f the residences at the time all the
amily are sure to be ut home. Com
Missioner DEWo1r evidently, does not
uderstand how this is done; but it Is done, t
evcrtheless. Most other people who have
YER gwen the matter any attention know
lat the rendering is done with huge tanks,
ito which mass Of otfal of all kinds is
umped and set n-boiling. This process
enerates the noxious gases. They eau
g passed off under ground by first
'oling through running waters or /
rge basin constantly replenished with q !
esh supply Of water; but this costs some
ling, and some Of the rendering establish
ents, do it while others don't, and some of I
lem do it part Of the time, and fail to do it ,
hen they think their lapse will not be dis !
'vered- When they neglect this deodoriz-
6 process, they simply pull the valves at
70 top of the tanks md let the gas escape
to high chimney and go into the air,
here it sc smells to Heaven" The gases,
ing hot, remain at the height at which
ey are emitted, very much as pressure Of Il
eam is let off from boiler, and float along .
rhaps quarter Of h mile then, begin =
ng to cool, they gradually settle down till =
ey reach nearly the surface of the earth, ii
which time they have arrived at the,resi- o