The Portland daily press., 1879-09-23

growing plants which evidently had not been
molested for the year.
1t certainly can not be considered unreasona-
BILE to require that any apparatus should not do
the things which it was especially designed
to prevent; but our culvertS can not respond
successfully to any such demand. Those when
are of recent date are not very obJectlonaDle
structurally; but functionally they are eXecra-
Bile. They are intended to stop sand ON Its way
to the sewer, and gas on its way to the gutter
They do neither; and in this failure, they ire
quently interfere with 4 performance of the
first office they were planned to fulfil, namely,
the conveyance to the sewer of the surface
water of the streets
ELS rRIvIEs. -
The following is the latest revised ordinance
IF any person shall erect or set up, or cause
to be erected or set up, or shall continue any
necessary or privy within nine feet OF any street.
lane, or alley, court, square, or pubic place. or
within like distance of any adjoining lot,
dwelling house, shop or well, or any public build
ing, such person shall forfeit and pay five dol
lars, and further penalty of five dollars for
every month the necessary or prlVy shall con-
tinue and so remain. PrOUjded, that these pen
alties shall not be incurred in any case where
there is a necessary or privy ALREADY erected, or
where one may hereafter be erected, with vault
under such necessary the size of which shall be
not less than six feet deep and contain not less
than one hundred and twenty-eight cubic feet,
and enclosed with bricks, well LAID in waterproof
cement.
Der of those which relate to the pres
ervation of the health of the city; but 1t
could hardly have more powerful IN,
tiuence in the opposite direction, if it had
been constructed by an ingeniously malicious
foe to sanitation. To one not thoroughly famil-
lar with the study of public health it seems to be
repete Nth wise provisions; in reality it is full
of the most dangerous errors. 1t implies that no
privy erected before the passage of this law is of
so injurious character as to need correction;
conveys the impression that a new privy, built
at any distance greater than nine feet from GER
tain specified ways and structures, however
slight the increase may be, is not likely 10 be
harmful to the community and concludes with
requiring the vaults TO be, at the very least OF
size many times in excess of their proper capaci-
ty. Bad as all this is, it falls far short of the
banefulness of the actual condition of affairs;
the practice is even worse than the precept. If
is certainly wise to limit their power for evil in
one direction by having the vault made with
walls of some material which will offer consid
cradle obstacle to the outward passage of its
contents. That is the one point in the law which
is not utterly wrong, but it is habitually and
generally ignored. Fully one-half OF the vaults
have merely plank walls; others are lined with
stone or brick, sometimes loosely laid, at
others with intervening layers of some
adhesive substance to lmpart greater
ever the material may be, the prime object
apparently is, not to prevent the escape of the
contents, but to keep the earth from caying and
filling the pit. 1t is extremely exceptional to
find a vault with sides and bottom of we-laid
brick, and lined completely with waterproof
Many privies are carelessly built that they not
only can not bold their legitimate contents, but
even allow the accidental introduction of lain
and water from the surface of the ground, thus
putting the solid matters in more complete solu-
Jion or suspension, and facilitating their escape
through the crevices of the walls.
The vaults are more or less covered, each with
its building, and are often provided With ven
tilatng tubes which rise few feet above the roof
OF the structure, just about high enough to bring
the efuvia from the pit up to level with the
windows of the bed-chambers of the adjacent
houses. The offensiveness of these emanations
is such that the privy is usually placed at dis
house, though often it is put directly in the house
itself.
The condition of many of these privies is so
horribly foul as to almost beggar description.
The vaults are usually made of sufficient size to
hold the accumulated eXcrements of a large
household for series OF years, TINS saving
great part OF the expense and all the annoyance
of frequent emptyings by the common method.
The vault once having been filled, every portion
of its walls is satuated with the concentrated
vileneSs which has so long been in contact with
them, and the very texture of the superimposed
building is permeated through and through with
the mephitic gases which continually arise from
the putrefying filth. 1t is then impossible to
cleanse the privy. Though emptied; it will still
emit its nauseating stencil, and the difference
between this condition and the former is simply
one of degree.
The matter of emptying the privies is worthy
of attention. They are emptied not at stated in
tervals, but only as often the proprietor of the
premises on which they are located chooses,
which is as rarely as possible. Some vaults re-
main fifteen or twenty years without an attempt
at empty1ng them being made. AS rule, their
contents are removed not oftener than once in
four or five years. With most householders out
many take no thought of the condition of their
necessaries until the subject forces itself upon
their attention by the threatened or actual over
flow of the ordure onto the surface of the
ground. Certain parties are licensed to open
and clean vaults, but not allowed to do so in
any case without special permit from the City
Marshal, acting as the agent of the committee on
health According to special ordinance, "no
such permit shall be granted between the first
day OF July and the first day of October, and no
vault shall be emptied between these dates,
cept by express order of the committee on
health" Presumably the citizens know of this
law, but practically very little attention Is paid
to it,. vault gets full to the top and perhaps is
running over. No dou bit the owner ought to
have had it attended to seasonably, but he did
weather be most sultry, and all the jewellers in
considerable area of which this privy is the cen
ter must tightly close their windows, and for
hours suffer from excessive heat and lack of air,
or else be sickened by the appalling stencil of the
gases set free in the process of removing the
night soil. Thus it happens that in the three
hottest months vaults are emptied almost every
night, this very year one hundred permits hay
ing been granted in July and August. The night
soil is carried in covered carts, which are sup
posed to be watertight, to various points in the
towns, is deposited in shallow ex-
then covered with earth and allowed
to remain until a perfect and even mixture has
been made, and this forms particularly valua-
BILE manure. Exceptions to the rule that the
night soil is deposited outside of city limits
probably infrequent, but occur occasionally.
One of the licensed privy-cleaners admitted that
he had, in previous year, deposited load on
the dump, thinking it would do no harm as it
was "kind of thin stuff and few citizens of
agricultural propensities empty their vaults up
on their own land, to the serious annoyance
Of their neighbors and the advantage of their
crops.
The number of privies has greatly diminished
since the Introduction or Sebago has at
forded facilities for substituting water-closets;
but all parts OF the city are still infested with
'hese cherished denominations. AS nearly as we
IAN ascertain not less than twelve hundred loads
II night soil were moved last year. an average of
about four each working night. This fact gives
an approximate idea of the extent of this meth
I'd of disposng of human excreta
The effects OF the privy system upon the pub
tic health certainly are not appreciated, one
might almost say are not even suspected, by the
people, or they would not endure it with such
patience and complacently approve the passage
Of ordinances the effect of which is to encour-
age its perpetuation. The greatest of English
'anitarians says, "Of all the filth influences
which prevail against human life in this country
England), privies OF the accumulative sort OPP |
,rate undoubtedly to far the largest extent
md in this opinion he is sustained by the united
Judgment OF sanitariaus everywhere. When we |
consider that notable number of maladies of
peculiarly virulent type and of great frequen-
y, such as typhoid fever, scarlet fever, measles,
mall-pox, cerebro-spinal meningitis, diphtheria,
roup, the diarrh9al diseases, and erysipeas,
re now thought to be either produced by, or to
certain extent dependent upon filth influences,
We get some idea of the emphasis which Dr. ST.
non intended to throw into the sentence quoted
bove. All the other agencies of this nature, the
-arious other detilements of air and water, and
oil, fall behind this one, which is easily first
mong the foremost. Sewers steaming with rot
en- refuse. factories beclouding the sky with
heir sulphurous fumes, slaughter-houses reek-
ng with putridity, are all out-ranked in their
ethal capacity by this time honored institution.
SUIT how, it may be asked, do privIes unfayOra-
ly affect the health of the peOple-in what way
rst place, they permit the liquid portion of their
ontents to escape through the pervious walls
nd bottoms of the vaults, and saturate the
round for great distance, around, thus polut-
Dg wells, making people drink that which is of
IL filth the thiest, and render ing the land unfit
)r sinking well for all coming time; and, in
ne second place. the gaseous products of the pu-
,ifaction of the excreta are allowed to enter the
r and not only make it offensive to the sense of
nell, but also frightfully dangerous to breathe.
often orGure at its best is bad enough, and pro-
uctive of much sickness; but the priyies do
heir very worst work in tavoring the dissemina-
on of the products of pathological action
Inch are the specific vehicles of disease. Thus,
yphoid fever, which has as its characteristic le-
on an liberation of the small intestine, is pro-
agated by the transfer of the contagion parti-
es from the bowel discharges of the sick to the
mentary canal or respiratory passages of the
ell. The deposit in privy-vault of the excre-
from such a patient affords the disease germs
le best possible opportunity for continued exis.
ence and also, it is believed, for multiplication.
re can never be sure that they will not escape
ears afterwards, and through water air, eff
ect an entrance into the system of some healthy
ian, and there establish the disease which they
POLITICALLY represent.
rrI,o III.