The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1884-01-03

is lieutenant in the navy. General McKen-
rie has been taken to Bloemingdale asylum at
New York. His injury is said to have been
from spent ball which struck near the spine,
and mentally shocked his nervous system.
General Mckenzie has never spared himself
in any way, and his nervous system has been
shattered by draughts made upon him. Cen
sral Grant and General Sheridan always spoke
Of him as one Of the greatest military men.
They have always believed that il an oppor-
tuniy came he would prove military genius"
FOLLOWING on the publication Of Major
|. Humphries' report on the question Of city sew
ersge, the following from the Sanitary Engi-
neer will be read with interest, and shows
most conclusively that the Waring system
would be much more practical: "When q
natural water course traverses town, and its
banks become built upon, the easiest way Of
getting rid Of filth and house wastes is to
throw them into the stream. Every mans
instructive impulse is to get rid OF what annoys
him, and not to mind how his neighbors will
be affected. After awhile, when the water
course has become sufficiently nasty, the peo-,
pie come to a realizing sense of what they
have brought upon themselves, and then they
try to devise remedy. In this they begin
usually at the wrong end. They look on the
stream as creating the nuisance, snd don't
consider that il is their abuse Of the stream
that is the source Of the trouble. So they go
to worl; and cover the stream up and call II a
sewer. What is the results Simply that the
stencil OF the foul matter in the old channel is
bottled up somewhat, to be vented through
every manhole, every inlet and every house
drain, and probably do more real injury than
when the rotting filth was exposed to the air
and the sun, and diffused its aroma through
the whole atmosphere. The channel of a
small natural stream through a town or village
ought never to be converted into a sewer for
house wastes. This will strike a good many
people as an odd doctrine, but still il is sound
doctrine. The functions Of natural stream
and Of sewer are so diverse that one can not
be made to do duty for the other. A natural
water course serves for the drainage
banks can not be made water-tight without
obstructing the natural progress OF the water in
the soil and backing il up and retaining it
where it ought not to be retained. A sewer,
on the other hand, is intended to carry of
foul matters which must be gotten
rid Of as quickly as possible, and the
channel for conveying them must be abso-
lutely impervious, so that nothing can soak
through it to the soil. AS the level of the
water in the soil rises and falls with the sea-
son and the amount of rain, an open. jointed
or peryious channel would sometimes admit
water from the soil and sometimes permit
fluids flowing in the channel above the level
Of the ground water TO flow out, and thus pol
Lutte the soil and the air in the soil.
Again, a natural stream draining consid-
cradle territory is subject to great variations in
its volume. A channel to carry its extreme
discharge in foods must be many times larger
than can ever be necessary for the carriage of
the greatest amount Of sewerage that can be
brought to it. A larger channel is not suited
to the rapid removal OF small flow of filthy
fluids, and, moreover, costs great deal more
than a sewer of the proper size. Even if the
large channel for fluctuating stream is built
through a village, the sewerage from the
houses should not be turned into il unless the
minimum volume OF the natural flow in the
dryest season is large enough 10 keep the
channel thoroughly secured. There are
good many small towns which have for years
gotten along without sewers, and have arched
over natural water courses running through
the heart of the town, but are now impelled
by the SANITARY revival to construct sewers
for removing household wastes. The first
impulse is to utilize the covered streams to
save the expense of constructing "a few hun
bred feet OF sewer. They should be very
careful how they proceed. 1t is better to
spend little more money and be safe, than to
economic in first cost and spend ten times
the saving in doctors fees and undertaker's
bills"