Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-08-10
NEEDED SANITARY REFORMS.
DEATH TURKS IN CELLARS THAT ARE
UNVENTILATED.
Staple Methods of Disposing of Garbage
and Disinfecting Cesspools The
Deadly Coal Oil Can.

signed in writing this article starts out
with the idea that he will not make any
new friends, as the subject is something
like the Commandments said to be given
to US by Moses. As Jews and Christians
we know them well, yet they have to be
repeated constantly, and not even then are
they observed, but are constantly violated.
Sanitary laws are very much the same
but people do not even know the causes
doing harm to them, although generally
wellinformed in other matters. There are
things so simple that child will compre-
bend the danger if properly pointed out.
Take for instance the danger attending a
person using a coal oil can, from which the
liquid is poured to start the fire in the
stove rapidly. Hardly a week passes but
one may read of the young and aged being
saved from the kitchen, and placed upon
slightest danger. Not only that the
petroleum can be used also, if poured out
in tin cup away from fire and then
poured upon the fuel. Other methods
could be used with the same liquids, but
space is not permitted here to point out.
1t ought to be more generally known
that the gaseous mixture or vapor of the
oil with the oxygen in the air is the main
cause of the explosions. This mixture ig
mites at a lower temperature than gun
powder, and is, besides, drawn toward the
fire, owing to air currents produced, conse-
quently when the cans land this includes
your Lamps are nearly empty you hold in
your hand a far worse explosive than a
certain quantity of ordinary gunpowder,
| which at least would be handled with some
caution. Knowing this, keep your lamps
always filled, and pour out away from fire
certain quantities of the hydrocarbon to
be used, and no explosion will follow. In
| connection with this there may be consid-
cradle danger lurking to those who find
pleasure upon our river. An exceedingly
| volatile hydrocarbon is used for fuel in
the propelling of certain small craft
This liquid, when ignited, is not put out
by water, but will burn upon it therefore
the person in charge ought to be provided
to counteract the danger, and ought to
possess some knowledge regarding the fuel
used, or pleasure may be turned to great
sorrow to not few in this city.
AS REGARDS SANITARY MATTER,
| Man may not have such a swift dealing
enemy before him, but as the danger is not
even suspected often he may have far
more subtle one. In the house, and about
it, some precautions may be taken, costing
little trouble or expense, if regularly car
ried out
One of the simplest agents to destroy
germ-life, plainly speaking, is bolling-hot
water in sufficient quantities poured into
sinks and water closets if the drainage
pipes are suspected. By the use of such
| chemicals as caustic potash, red I've, and
| sulphate OF iron (green vitriol), the temper
ature can be increased, besides taking the
part of a disinfectant in the cesspool If
sulphureted hydrogen is present in the
sink caustic potash or red I've is one Of the
very best reagents to neutralize the most
| disagreeable smell. The fact is that even
new houses are liable to be charged with
ill-smelling odors, if certain precautions
are not taken. Wherever it is possible to
keep larger quantities of water out of a
sink in which some vegetable has been
boiled containing sulphur, less the smell
will be. Nearly all pungent vegetables,
roots, garlic, etc, contain more or less
sulphur, which, combined with two atoms
of hydrogen, produces sulphureted hydro
gen.
One great source of danger in a house to
breed or aid certain ailments lies in the
basement, in which frequently, without
proper ventilation or light, all sorts of or
ganic matter is piled to decay. The germs
propagated very often do more harm than
if person had to sleep in an apartment
surrounded with poisons not of a volatile
nature. The physician frequently may
there find lurking the source of danger
! that puzzles him not little. Those per
sons who know our city well must have
noticed that the cellars of our principal
streets are not as pure smelling as they
ought TO be. Some require the removal of
the rotten wood or floors ands filling up
with dry sand. Others require dry sand,
lime, charcoal, etc, for they have been
| used for worse purposes. Plenty of air
ought to pass through them and light adj
mitted. Without air or oxygen, such
cellar must be called suspicious to health.
Some people think because there are
wooden floors over the excavations below,
| it is safe, but gases find their way through
the smallest apertures. In other words
ventilation, as in the butcher shop, is the
safeguard to meat as well as man and
animal. The writer recollects
TWO YOUNG LIVES LOST
In lSS3-84 in Just such house, resting
almost entirely upon the soil, with no
ventilation whatever below. 1t was mostly
through ignorance that those half-grown
children were probably sacrificed. All
houses erected ought to nave ventilators in
in every closet. The cost is just the same,
and the basement ought to have apertures
through the brick foundation, besides the
usual latticework or openings, and plenty
of them too. -
In the disposal of kitchen refuse, etc,
the following is suggested to keep the at
mosphere about the house pure:
l. Taking away every day by some per-
son and cleaning the vessels with milk of
lime as a cheap reagent.
2. Burning direct in cooking-stoye, or
| in large houses, in suitable furnaces.
3. Burning when dried by the aid of our
powerful sun and dessicating air, say sim
liar to hay or leaves.
! The first requires no further explana-
ton, but such substance should never be
utilized in the filling up of some lot upon
which some person may build dwelling
house. The safest, without doubt, is to re-
duce to ashes.
As there is tendency to construct i'm
mense structures in large cities, why
would it not be more profitable to
BURN ALL SOLID MATTER OR REFUSE
Right in the house every day, and thus in
winter-time when the house must be
heated, add fuel TO the flame? Then only
few ashes will be removed.
Secondary family using large cook
ing-stoves can add the vegetable matter,
inclusive of fats and meats, when there is
good fire, and when the water is driven
out the organic matter burns like wood.
| If the substance boiling on the stove has