Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-11-07
The COMPOSITIONS OF SEWER GAS.

ma
been employed long time by chemists
sanitarians, plumbers and Others to indi
cate the ordinary emanations from sewers
but recently certain gentlemen have taker
exceptions to the term, denying that there
Is any such thing as sewer gas "having
peculiar and definite composition" Thi,
is undoubtedly true, and it is probable that
no intelligent man or educated physician
ever thought otherwise. "What has beer
called sewer gas is composed of air,
vapor and gases in constantly varying pro,
portions, together with living germs-veg.
etable and animal-and minute particles OF
putrescent matter. In short, it is
composed of whatever is suffi.
GENTLY volatile or buoyant to
float in the atmosphere, and in consequence
OF which buoyancy it is permitted to es.
cape through the various sewer.outlets.
The term is, in this sense, well understood
and 1T is, moreover. just as correct as
would be the terms sewer-vapor, or sewer.
air, which some have chosen to substitute
for it. 1t is proper here to add that the
otfensiveness of odors is no test of their in.
salubrity, but that the most fatal germs
are often conveyed in an atmosphere which
Is odorless. The absence of unpleasa ant
doors, therefore, furnishes no proof that
the air does not contain sewer emanations.
Professor Willard Parker, one of our
most distinguished physicians, after listen
ing to the discussions of the Academy,
said " If were to build house, would
not have 1t connected in any way with a
sewer. ] would construct sort of annex, "
Into which, Professor Parker was under.
IN ho hor Ill
and fixtures, water. closets, baths and
wash basins. He further remarked AZ
suppose most of you would object to hav.
ing vault filled with dead bodies few
yards from your house, and connected with
it by pipe. Yet this is practically what
we do. Water is no protection from the
poisonous germs which generate and live in
this foul air. This matter demands our
most careful attention, for we are in a
very critical and unhealthy condition"
Colonel George B. Waring, Jr., sanitary
engineer, addressing the public through
the daily press, gives the following advice ::
Let US take no step backward in the es.
sentlal Improvement of the adjuucts of our
daily life. Let US only lop off luxurious
superfluities, and see that what is really
needed is good. There is no doubt that the
luxury of wide distribution of plumbing
appliances throughout the whole house has
led to great increase of risk and to wide
distribution OF dangerous defects. The
use of stationary wash basins in bedrooms
not Immediately adjoining soil-pipes is to
be deprecated (; and every thing should be
reduced to the simplest elements chat will
give the necessary sanitary control of the
waste matters OF the house"
The special poisons to which now refer
are the gases resulting from detective
plumbing, to which all clssses-the poor
of tenement houses, those who
are able TO command the necessaries and
many of the luxuries of life, and those
who live in the most expensive houses, and
whose riches can buy everything but
health-are alike exposed. None but ply
sicians can know how general this poison
ia, and how positively it explains much of
the disease that they are called upon to
treat, and of the many sad deaths which
follow. When l assert that it is daily
experience with me to see persons whose
general health is suffering from this poison,
as manifested by mataiSe, loss of appetite
and strength, slight febrile symptoms,
diarrhoea, physical and mental depression
and that Fave seen infants, children and
adults suffering from diphtheria, scarlet
fevef>-2f mild type, complicated with
this disease and destroying life those in
vigorous health, students in colleges, ambi-
tious and active young men in the profess
sions or in the COMA rcisl or tiuancialworld,
stricken down with tRonold Teeer,>sone
struggling through the disease and others
dying and that the cause has been DEM
onstrated to be this poison-I only state
facts which are common in the experience
of all physicians in this city. In some
cases this has been the result of ignorance
Of the very unsanitary conditions which
enyironed them. For example, two young
men were stricken down with typhoid fe-
yer, one of whom died. They were not
but occupied offices in the
same building, in the vicinity of Wall
street. On investigation, it was found
that there was not trap in the whole
building In house in which, but a few
months before, several hundred dollars had
been expended to put the building in per.
feet condition, a young man died of ty-
phoid fever, and others of the family be-
came i'll, when it was found that a defect.
i've waste. pipe was saturating the house
with poisonous gas. But such facts as
these are common and so well known to
the profession that l need not dwell upon
Frank H. Hamilton, in Popu.
lar Science Monthly.