Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-16
CITIZENS WILL MEET
To Arouse the State Board Of Health
Against the Schindery.
TIE Law AGAINST EUISANCES.
The sOuthside Medical Society May Take
Up the Matter.
WHAT DOCTOR RERsMAN HAS TO SAY

The next move on the Southside against
the Beck's run schindery Is a proposed
public meeting Of citizens for the purpose Of
laying the matter formally before the State
Board Of Health. The people have con-
cluded that the schindery is a nuisance;
that it is source of disease, and that it
ought to be removed. The committee repre-
senting City Councils, to which the matter
was referred, will attend to its duties and
make an investigation this week, but it is
generally accepted that the city has no juris-
diction in the case.
As soon as the committee goes as far as
they can, and perform all they can do in the
matter, the citizens will then take up the
fight, and lay their complaint before Secre-
tary Lee, Of the State Board of Health.
There are many reasons why the Southside
would be the healthiest portion of the city,
if they had a pure water supply, and the
public spirit in the citizens is beginning to
assert itself to such an extent that no hin
drance to the public health or public good
will hereafter be allowed to survive.
LOOKING FOR AN ACT.
It is stated by some who seem to be keep
ing posted on the matter that there is an
act OF Assembly prohibiting schindery or
anv similar establishment from locating
within seven miles of any infuent pipe of q
water works by which the citizens of city
or town are supplied with water. If such
an act is in existence it will be an easy
matter to have the Beck's run schindery
removed, as 1t is less than two miles away
from the tAfonongahela Water Company's
inhuent pipes, and Beck's run, which Is
said to be constantly contaminated
by organic matter from the establish
ment empties into the river within
mile of the pipes. An effort was made to
unearth the law referred to, but as yet no
such an act has been found. There is plenty
of law against nuisances. IF the city can
prove that the schindery is nuisance the
proprietors, when found guilty, are liable to
fine or Imprisonment or both, according to
the discretion of the Court, under the cir
cumstances of the case, and where the nuis-
ance is in existence at the time of the con-
vietiOn the Court may direct the defendant
or the Sheriff to abate the same at the ex-
pense of the defendant.
DOCTORS STIRRED UP.
The Southside physicians will probably
discuss the matter at the meeting of their
medical society. The doctors, at least the
majority OF them, are very loud in their
condemnation of the schindery and are
willing to lend their aid to have it
abolished. DR.. Hersman, Secretary Of the
Southside Medical Society, said last even
ing:
ut ought to be removed. The people
along Beck's run have often told me that
the odor arising from the place is at times
almost unbearable, and there is more
typhoid fever along that hollow than in
any other section of the city. Besides the
Monongahela river would feed us with
enough filth, without the schindery. Every
thing coming from that place, if it does
not become completely oxidized before it
reaches the pipes, is injurious. Animal
matter is purified by oxidation if it floats
far enough, but the theory of self purifca-
tion cannot always be relied upon, and the
material is more or less dangerous until it is
thoroughly oxidized.
"W6at proportion, or what kind of or
ganic matter undergoes a change by being
exposed to light and air?''
''It is not known exactly. 1t was at one
time generally accepted theory that water,
polluted by sewage, purified itself in IL
miles, but recent observations have upset
| this idea. Of course, some of the
poisons may be precipitated to the
body and some to the sides of the rivers. A
portion probably forms a chemical combi-
nation with other suspended matter and
changed into compounds that might be
| volatile and pass into air, or they might
form in soluble precipitants, and the farther
it runs the more diluted it becomes, which
makes it less perceptibls. 1t is hard to tell
how many diseases may be affected and
materially aided by the organic matter from
the Beck's run schindery, but l am satis-
fed that typhoid fever is intensified by it.