Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-12-10
DEBRIS.
NrNErggNTH DAY OF THE sLIcKENs
CASE IN COURT.
Interesting Evidence of Medical Experts
as to the Elects of Debris on the
Health of Sacramento City.


Interesting Evidence of Medical Experts
as to the Elects of Debris on the
Health of sacramento City.
The slickens case-The People of the State
of California vs.. the Gold Run Ditch and
Mining Company-was resumed yesterday at
$3.50 a. NJ, in Department Two of the Superior
Court, Hon. Jackson Temple presiding.
B. n. Bugbey resumed the witness stand
Ito Mr.. Cadwalader)-T surface of Negro
Bar is covered with washed quartz similar to
the sample shown. II made It's appear.
ance since 1862.
Gross. examination 10y A. P. Catiin)-I
mined on Condemn, Big Gulch and Negro
Bars. Those quartz pebbles did not show
themselves on those bars prior to 1862. Be.
fore that time they were very scarce. Fer
eighteen months had an interest in some
tunneling mines at Folsom. Until within
year I have been engaged in Embarrassing.
For many years was engaged as a viticult.
urist. Here witness was examined at cor.
siderable length regarding the different bars
ON the American river, and the North Fork
canal The quartz pebbles brought into
Court came down the river. Very few quartz
pebbles are found in tie original workings
near Folsom. Texas Hill was about one and
Quarter miles, and about forty rods long.
Il now has the appearance of one large cobble
bed. The sluices from that hill dumped into
the river.
GEORGE n. swINGLE
Sworn-I have lived since the spring of 1858
on the line of the California Pacific Railroad
three miles and half this side of Davis.
vile. The water in the tule last winter was
eighteen inches higher than it was in 1862,
extended from one to three miles further
west, and covered great deal Of land that
had not been previously flooded. | attribute
the high water in that basin to the amount
of sediment and sand deposited in and along
tie Sacramento river and on its west side.
This deposit in some places is two miles wide.
A food one foot more. in hight than that of
last winter would cover many thousand acres
west of me that has never been flooded.
Cross-examination 10y A. p. Catlin)-The
railroad embankment causes the water to
rise on the north side about twenty.six
inches higher than the water on the south
side. The land is equal in value on both
sides of thu railroad between Sacramento and
Davisville. Here witness was examined at
length regarding the Yolo tule basin, GER
roborating the evidence heretofore given.
DR. C. L. SIMMONS
Sworn Ito Mr.. Hart)-I am a graduate Of
Harvard, and have been practicing physi-
clan and surgeon in the city of Sacramento
E. 4 q Ho1.
in 1850. | have been member of the City
Board OF Health from very early date.
Have also served on sewage and drainage
committees. The sipage has gradually raised,
and is the result of the raising of the river
beds. It has induced disease by bringing to
the surface elements that lie in the sub-soil.
The sewage is slower in current than pre-
viously, and the solid matters and unhealthy
materials contained therein become deposited
along the margins of the sewers or canals and
PRODUCE DISEASE.
The fevers were formerly intermittent, mild
and easily cured. This type has given away
to fevers OF o typho.malarial character that
are more fatal This change has been pro-
duced to great extent by the sipage and
imperfect sewerage. understand sipage to be
water in the ground, and the result Of the
hight of water in the river. The de.
outfsn of our sewage canal. This
fsvers have changed and become more vir.
ulent. These changes of disease COM
msnced about ten or twelve years ago, have
not been confined to the city, but extend NJ
and down the river as far SIS my practice ha;
extended. Typho-malarial fevers have beer
gradually increasing for ten or twelve years
Cross-examined 10y W. G. Belcher)-f was
engaged as druggist ia Sacramento when
| her I - !
cine in Sacramento and afterwards entered
Harvard University, from whence I gradu
ated in 1856. Soon afterwards [ engaged IL
practice here. The Board of Health of Sacra
meDto was organized some eighteen years ago
| [ do not know that these changes of fever
! have taken place in other portions of this
State. [ am native of Massachusetts,.
| Here the witness was examined st d
great length as tc the prevailing fevers in the
United States and the causes that produce
| them. This city is filed with cesspools and
vaults, and the rising of sipage brings their
poisonous matter up into the surface soil.
The floods that swept over our city would
affect these cesspools and vaults similarly
They were filled with water several times,
and the effects produced then were similar to
that caused by sipage. The vault system
came iuto use about 1866. The depth of the
vaults depended on the hight of the sipage
l think the sipsge was always somewhat be-
low the surface of the water in the river
The water in these vaults rises and falls with
the different stages of the river. The sipsge
from the river would not affect that portion
of the city near the ridge, or in the reighbor
hood of Suffers Fort. include in the term
sipage all the water from whatever source
within the city. There are vaults in Sacra-
mento city that have not been cleaned out
for twenty years. The soil took up and ab-
sorbed all the material.
cEsspooLs
For kitchen drainage are dug to depth of
about eight feet. Most of these cesspools
ara made with open brick work, which ad-
Inits of the contents being largely absorbed
by the subsoil. If other conditions had not
been present to bring those foul elements so
near the surface, these cesspools would have
produced no malarial effects. The sewage of
the large hotels and other buildings are di.
rectly connected with the sewers. The sewers
of this city empty into the drainage canal
1t is natural channel, and has been i'm
proved at different times. That canal con-
meets with
SYSTEM OF LAKES
South of the city. The drainage is not so
good as formerly. The surface of the lakes
into which the canal drains has been raised.
l Go not know how much. The system
of lakes formerly had a nstural outlet
into the river. The raising of the river
bed has partially destroyed that out.
let. Do not know the death rate in 1850.
That was the tine of the cholera epidemic.
and the death rate was very large The
cholera was brought here by early immi-
grants. They had come srouad the Horn and
across the plains, and being veal,
and debilitated, were easily affected
by changes of food and water, Ia
$500 there were some sloughs within the
city limits. l remember that north of the
American river in 1850 there was 10 water.
was not acquainted in Placerville at The
time cholera was an epidemic. It has hesh
observed in relation to cholera that all towns
situated at the confluence of rivers have 9
more aggravated form than towns more ele.
waited. The death rate has latterly been de-
creasing. The rate for the past few years has
been less than it was between 1855 and 1860.
The death rate for the last FIVE years has
been less than at anv nrevious time in tha