Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-03-28
The Danger of Plumbing Houses.

Editor Morning Ne1oS; would respectfully
commend to the attention of our citizens
generally, and to our ssnitarians especially,
the annexed article fem the Springfield
Republican of the 18th instant.
Formerly summer and autumn were our
sickly seasons, and the fevers then preVa.
lent were of bilious remittent form, the en-
demic of the palu iial districts OF all hot
climates, in Europe, Africa, the East and
West Indies, as well as in our Southern
States. But of late years there has been
marked change in our sanitary conditions
and in the character Of our diseases; win
ter and spring now taxing the skill OF our
medical experts, continued fevers, princi-
pally of typhoidal forms, predominating.
For these changes there must be causes;
and are not these causes to be looked for in
the increase Of our artificial wants and the
means required to crafty thems
Hutchinson's island, dangerous for five
months in the year, during the
prevalence of northerly winds, and all
the other swamp lands around the city,
within a radius of several miles, should un-
doubtedly be reclaimed; but are there not
more insidious and dangerous enemies to
health existing within our city limits indi-
Gated in the article l send you? Science is
busy with the solution Of the problem, and
its developments, so far, are leading to
more correct views of domestic architecture
and Of public sewerage; both subjective
primarily to climatal phenomena, tempera-
ture, moisture, etc, and to locality.
Savannah is now, | contend from my ex-
perience and not from prejudices of citi-
zenship, one of the healthiest cities in the
United States, If only ordinary rules Of pru-
dence in diet and exposure to night air are
observed, and its healthfulness can be still
fv,n0 Frvo oil
and the INDECENT who cannot avoid expo
sures, as well as for the prudent, by RENE
dying the malarial poisons exhsling from
our swamps and from SeaCGge H. G. w.
CDR. Frank H. Hamilton lectured before
the New York Academy of Medicine, Thurs
day evening, on The Struggle for Life
Against Civilization, AN ominous title,
suggesting that some of the modern i'm
provements do not improve our chances of
life. He made the cheerful statement, in
contraveDtton of Mr.. Wingate, the expert,
that plumbing could not be made safe by
auy means. Not only is water no protec-
tion against sewer gases, but no metal of
which the pipes may be composed is per-
manently impervious to these gases, and
most of them are not so at all, and that
though the fact of leak may be discov-
cred by the use, for instance, of oil of pep
permint, the place of the leak cannot be
found. He could suggest nothing that
would be of any value except the proper
use OF chemicals renewed daily. He cited
DR.. Fordyce Barker as saying that were he
building, he would not have the pipes of
the house connected with the sewer, and
for himself commended the isolation of all
piping entirely outside the house. To this
conclusion the most judicious physicians
and sanitarians are surely coming. The ap-
probation Of the evils of sewer pipes open
ing into sleeping rooms is already pretty
general; some of the best houses are now
built without any plumbing In these rooms,
usage of ewers and basins for the ablutions
of their guests"