The daily gazette., 1878-12-31
DlsEAsE-BREEDING CULvERTs

At intervals, which are becoming more
and more frequent, son thing serious
happens to recall attention to the subject
of drainage and sewerage In their rela-
tion to diphtheIia, typhoid fever ,zymOtic
diseases and others, which are being sig
niticantly grouped under the general
classification OF "iilth Diseases" not be-
cause they especially attack persons of
unclean habits, but because they are be-
lieved TO be generated or prOpogated
by decomposing organic matter. Some
times the occasion tor renewed attention
Is an outbreak of typhoid, then fatal
spread of diptheria, as few months ago
in Pittsburg, OF widespread of yellow
fever, az more recently along the Missis-
sippi Valley. We have had our occa-
| sional anxioties here in Philadelphia
| also, az was the case year or 30 ago,
when IL was the talk among some of our
medical practitioners that typhoid and
diphtheria cases were traceable to our
| 10 wers, and were found in some costly
| houses with sewer connections, in more
than ordinary proportion. On all these
occasions, and many more, there was ac.
| tive discussion of our cuverts and house,
hold arrangements for drainage into the
culyerts, the ,nadequacy of the Craps"
IN the drain pipes, the absence of venti-
htiOh iOi thC OuiNCftS, IuO IOul anu
choked-up condition of some of them,
| anu general conclusion n that "something
| ought to he done" Then the subject
would be dropped to remain quiescent
| until some fresh calamity brought it
once more to public notice, and 80 moth
ing has ever been done here in the way
of corrective.
IL comes up again at this time by rea-
son of the publication OF Dr. Benjamin
| Lees pamphlet giving the "Address in
| Hygiene" before the Medical Society CT
the State of Pennsylvania at its session
of 1877, and the Report of the Philadel-
phia County Medical Society on Meteor
ology and Epidemics. 1t is the former
| OF these two papers that invites remark
in this connection. In the year 1877
there was an epidemic of fdiphtheria in the
city of Pittsburg, increasing To great Sc
verify in the month OF August. In the
first half OF the year there had been a
number of fatal cases, but not 50 many as
to cause much alai III. There were in
January, Sin February, i'll March, in
! April, 5 i'll May, 3 i'll June, and in July,
but IN August there were 81, and in Octo-
Der, 267.
There had been but Sc deaths from dip
iberia in all of the first seven months OF
| 1877, whilst in the next year eight months
from August Isl of that year to April lst,
| 1877, there 465 deaths. This heavy IN
crease of morality not only excited
alarm, but diligent inquiry into the pro-
bablr cause 1t was observed that, OF
| the 445 deaths in the whole city, no less
than ia, or about thirty-eight per cent,
were In one limited and toett-defned tocdt-
ity in the southern part of the CITY; ana
then it was found that the portions oil
that 10 eality most severely afflicted were
along the line of single culvert and its
branches. The culvert had been buiit In
1851; was so constructed as 10 DC very
imperfect in its drainage; mad never been
cleansed in twenty.six years; had become
choked up with a mass of filth from one
TO three feet In Depth" which filth had
recently been stirred up by an attempt
TO "unchoke," so t o speak.-Ledger.