Sacramento daily record-union., 1883-10-23
TIE LOCAL SANITARY REFORM.

In no well-conducted city is a resident
permitted to render the atmosphere of his
neighborhood unpleasant, not to say dan
gerous to health, by permitting gases from
9Th pits and cesspools to be discharged so
as to sweep into the windows and doors of
houses. The sanitarians Of the world are
agreed that the proper discharge for such
gases is into the upper atmosphere, and
the higher the better Nature there takes
care Of them, and they are resolved into
harmless forms. 1t is for these reasons
that the chimneys of various manufactur-
ing establishments are required TO be car
ried to great hight, that the people may
not be Inconvenience. But the chimneys
of all the factories in California combined
do not emit gases as dangerous to public
health as those that arise from filth pits
and are usually distributed in the lower
atmosphere, and oftener than not escape
into houses. A chimney from a kitchen
stove rising only to the level of the win
dows of a neighboring house, into which
the breeze sweeps the smoke, will unques.
tionably be declared nuisance. Yet it
would not be one thousandth part as dan
gerous to health as the low ventilating pipe
of filth closet or oesspool discharging dis
ease germs into the lower atmosphere, to
be waited into living-apartments. The
Board of Health of this city. impressed
with these truths, required all cesspools
and filth pits to be fitted with ventilating
pipes rising into the upper atmosphere.
The Trustees ratified the order,
and no citizen who has obeyed
fails to testify to the benefits
made Immediately apparent. Yet we are
credibly informed that Trustees Guten-
berger and Nielsen have taken the Health
Officer to task for enforcing the ordinance.
1t seems scarcely possible that they can
have done so seriously. 1t is known that
the few who oppose the ordinance boast
that they will secure it's repeal, and one OF
these yesterday warned one OF the Health
Board that repeal was certain. If stu
pidity and dogged resistance of this char
Aoter is supported by the two Trustees
against the unanimous action of the Board
of Health, it will be signal instance Of
the laws of health and the demonstrations
of sanitary science succumbing to igno-
rance. We are not ready to believe that
the Trustees named are prepared to array
themselves against the sanitary reform in
stituted in this city. But that they have
declared the strict enforcement of the ordi.
nance to be unnecessary is certain.
In the light of that declaration there is
reason to fear that the threatened repeal
of the ordinance has some relation to the
declarations of the two Trustees. Why sc
simple, cheap and unobiectionable means
of promoting the continuance of the cess.
pool system-which should be abolished
uiterly-is opposed, it is very difficult to
understand. Certainly it cannot be on the
score of expense nor on account of its in
effectiveness, because experience gives that
objection the lie; nor yet because it tends
to cleanliness and purity of the atmos.
phere. There remains but one possible
reason it is inconvenient and obnoxious
to those who prefer filth and foul air, dis.
ease and plaques, to the proper sanitation
of city situated as is this, or else prefer
appearances to prosperity and health. Mr..
Nielsen expresses the fear that the place
will be dubbed the City of Chimneys.'
That is preferable to its being known Is
"the City of Cesspools and Fevers."