Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-01
ii Goes Recommended.


are known to be destructive to vegetable
life, while not specially inimical to animal
life, should be employed to e1terminate the
cholera germ. I have to suggest the ap-
plicabiity of natural gas in Pittsburg
especially for this purpose, reference being
made here to its application in therapeutics
when the dres ded symptoms of the disease
makes its appearance in a given case That
natural gas is peculiarly hostile to vegetable
lie we are not left in doubt, as common OBJ
seryation will teach any one who walks
along the route OF gas main i'll the country
The manufactured gas has the same effect,
but it would scarcely be advisable to inhale
1T, as II is sometimes actually poisonous
Natural gas upon the other hand may be in
haied without serious consequences for
some time, and is probably never fatal to
life excepting when inhaled TO the entire
exclusion OF air or oxygen. Its pre-
hmlnary effects preceding unconscious
ness are stated to be ewhat like
those witnessed in the administration
of laughing gas, though from directly op-
posite causes The last epidemic of cholera
to visit Pittsburg was in 1864 1t is TO be
noted that it confined itself to the South
side and the region of the Monongahela
Valley, not reaching at all the Allegheny
river side of the city. At that time the
crude oil and thousands of barrels OF it
were piled upon its wharves, while the
shores above the city reeked with oil refuse
from manufactures. 1t Is not an over
drawn inference to connect the exemption
from the disease of those living upon and
using Allegheny river water at that time
with the presence OF the oil, etc, as stated.
Anything, in tact, which consumes the oxv-
gen in water prevents putrifcation, and
putriication is nothing but the propagation
OF anamalcula-bacteria-m of which is
harmless, but in times like a cholera epi-
demio we cannot afford to let matters rest
without inviting putriication, or, as we
might term it, oxydization of any impurities
IN our waters
An Invitation TO Cholera.
The proposition to drain the Davis Island
pool and expose the bed of the river to the
action OF the atmosphere, after it has had
deposited upon it the refuse of the city for
number of weeks would be an invitation
70 cholera if any existed in our midst.
The disease, which is known to be exceed
ingly lmpolite, making calls without anv
formality, would not be slow to appreciate
and improve upon this cesspool. 1t is a
gross exaggeration to say the Monongahela
river is ioul IN our city harbor below Lock
No. L. Net less than 35 600 cubic feet of
water per minute, and if anything more
than this is now pouring over dam No. /,
leaking through it, or consumed in making
lockages This is equal to 80, O,OOO, 900 cubic
feet or $4,000, 600 gallons of water daily
passing the city and considering the average
section of the river represents a new lake
about one mile long of the rivers width
filled to the depth of tensfeet everv day.
1t is impossible to conceive all this quantity
of water being daily contaminated BY the
comparatively small discharge from the |
few sewers. 1t is true the shores ana water
near the sewer outlets are very offensive,
and no doubt the bottom of the river, and |
the river banks below water level in their |
vicinity contain much putrid matter, but |
drsing the pool will not clean the bottom. |
This leads to the concluding remark in
the sanitary report of the State Board of |