Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1886-01-02
VICTORIA SANITATION.

tlons issued by the municipality to Mr..
Pickering, Of the firm of Pickering s.
Crompton, engineers, Whitehaven, Eng
land, to journey to this city and examine
thoroughly the local surroundings, and
make the necessary surveys to obtain
general design, furnishing all the re-
quired data tor an efficient and lasting
system OF city drainage. The council
have thus taken the steps to get the frs.
essential, plan drawn up from personal
examination and engineering knowledge
and having procured such plan, will be
in no-wise committed to any contractor,
but in position to receive, and intelli-
gently discriminate between tenders when
they are called for the work. Bat the
commencement, not to speak OF the COM
ple,ion OF what will be the most inpor-
tant civic work ever under taken here, must
naturally be q question of time, and, speak
ing subject to correction, three more
years will probably have passed ere svs-
TEN of underground sewerage will be in
vogue here. By tins calculation, then,
three more dry seasons will have to come
and 90. and to prevent the possible re-
ulicncc OF the syniotic diseases, "irect-
ly traceable to inssritsry sonlitions'
which became so prevalent during
the summer asd fall Of 1884 and the
spring of 1885. Without giving
scientific definition of tho term zymotic it is
sufficient here to say that diseases coming
under this head are due to certain prin~
clpals unfavorabie to human lite, and
which comuhicate infection by ternen>
tation, during which they throw off
spores or germs. Among these diseases
are clas.ed smallpox, measles, scarlet fe-
yer, whooping congh, diphthsria, typhoid
fever aud diarrhes The first four
diseases are very oaprious in their ap-
pearance and decline, and are not abso-
lutely preventable by any known con-
ditions Except that in smallpox the
greatest safeguard is general and efficient
vaccination). Still these four sicknsses
are dependent Tor their greater or lesser
vlrulence upon the surroundings of the
patient, healthtull or otherwise. Pneu-
monia, bronchitis, rheumatism. headache,
neuralgia, aud the majority Of acute
diseases even dysnepsia--Ne,
though-not claSsed rs zymotic diseases,
again and again caused 0y the inhalation
Of impure air. But the latter three OF the
seven zymotic diseases first named,
viz, dipthera, typhoid fever and diarrhea
are preventable diseases, and Eheir presence
is unmistakable evidence oil insani tary
conditions. Prevention is said to be
better than cure, aud while doctors III
some cases may cure these diseases. it is
the duty and in the power of the city
council to prevent their advent. How
this can be done is clear, the knowledge
Of the cause pointing out the remedy,
Fcrmenting garbage, stagnent pools, shiny
and blocked-up cutters into which the
overflow rom: closets has been allowed
to run, the system of cesspools, over
crowdiug (as obtains among Chinese) and
protection of the people by the public
authoritic, from contamination and adul~
teratinnc Of food and drink;-given cor-
rec,ion OF these causes and the diseases
known ss typhoid, dlphtheria, diarroea,
and that uondcscript one which has for
want Of b.tter name been know as
"mslaria," will be unknown IN our midst.
Though it is more difficult to connect the
prevalence of typhoii and diarrhoea with
imperfect drainage than it is in the case
of diphtheria, yet the intimats relation Is
known and admitted. 1t has. however,
other and equally prolific sources of COM
municatinn, such as milk, and especially
water in which has been stepped decayed
vegetable matter. DiarrhOea also.
though frequently caused By eating un-
ripe or unsound fruit, has teen proved in
many cases to have been directly produced
by sewer gas, while the toul and decom-
posing refuse, animal or vegetable, that
vn. rvating sickness which permeats the
! whole system and is know
a. malaria is invariably due. In
England the mortality from the three
l - hac hnop urn0uAIlV