The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-08-13
WHAT SANITARY SCIENCE HAS
DONE.

Sanitary science has made greater pro-
gress in our day than any other, if we ex-
cept electrical science, and we are not
sure that the momentum of the latter has
been greater. Preventive medicine has
accomplished wonders, and while it is
the intimate of sanitary science, yet the
latter has an individuality that has more
deeply impressed itself upon the genera
tions and done greatly more to make life
glad.
1t is within the memory of middle-aged
men when the efforts of sanitarians to
better conditions, especially in congested
populations, were looked upon as little
less than insane. Even press and pulpit
inyeighed against interfering with ma
ture" and denounced schemes to compel
people to better conditions in their homes.
streets and business places by observing
natural laws.
The subject is one, if its full history
could be written, that would present an
amazing record of triumphs achieved in
behalf of humanity. In the matters of
ventilation, drainage and disintection
alone the world owes to the sanitarians
Of the century debt of gratitude it can
greater victories to achieve. It is not
even now unopposed. Municipal stupid
ity and ignorance, the stubbornness of
men, the intolerance of fossilism, the
prejudices of the non-progressive, the
cold seldshness of the heartIess, and
what may be termed the fataIism of a
large class of directors, conspire to inn
pede the advance of the science, which,
however, cannot be permanently checked
and really has the friendship of the
mass of the people.
A recent article by Charles +. Wingate
in the Engineering Magazine reviews
sanitary progress in the great American
metropolis. It's a record of wonderful
accomplishment since the establishment
of the Board OF Health in that city twenty
five years ago. Mr.. Wingate says:
The evils that then prevailed were the
crowded and filthy condition of the tene-
ments, the great number Of rear houses and
cellars occupied as habitaIions, the bad street
payements, the proximity OF stables and
slaughter-houses 10 dwellings, the prevalence
OF sewer gas--due to bad plumbing in ali
classes OF dHeilings-and the absence of food
inspection. The new Superintendent set to
work with all q reiormers zeal to clean the
Augean stable. A sanitary code was drafted
ana its provisions vigorously enforced. Tene-
ment houses were torn down; Hght-snafts
Were ordered and transom windows cut to ad-
NIT light and air; cellar occupants were
eyicted; privy-vaults were cleaned and re-
placed by SchoOl-Sinks; slaughter-houses We're
abolished in the downtown sections or near
dwellings, and were concentrated along the
riyer-frontS above Forty-second street: the
driving of droveS of cattle through the streets
was forbiddeu; stables situated near dwellings
were strictly regulated, as well as common
| lodging-houses, markets, offensive trades ETC.
The new broom swept tieTcely and accom-
plished wonders, as was seen in the greatly
reduced death rate, as well as in other practi-
cal evidences OF improvement During the
ten years preceding 1860 the annual death
rate OF New York was 36.66 per 1000 and
for the succeeding five years it was 31.33.
/ IN 1894 the rate was 24.5S. This represents
a decrease in twenty-five years of 5.79 yer
| 1000, or a saving of over $4,000 lives
| for the whole period.
! 1t is further shown that the sanitarians
were not able TO grapple with the plumb
ing question until 1880, when Mr.. Chand-
| Ter succeeded in securing law requiring
all plumbing plans to be approved by the
Board of Health. Other cities followed
the example, and to-day plumbing in
spection prevails in nearly all towns.
In the matter of paving, cobbles have
largely given way to the even-surfaced
streets and consequent greater cleanli-
ness of the highways, due to greater ease
and economy in cleaning the pavements.
Tenement house inspection and en-
forced cleanliness are wholly due to the
persistent assaults of the sanitarians upon
filth as a parent of vice; equally the
multiplication Of breathing spots in great
cities is to be credited to the light shed
by sanitary science to the dispersion of
the shadows of ignorance.
Chemical and other sanitary DISPOSE
tons of sewage, all operating to improve
health conditions, are so recent as to have
their entire history covered by the period
of the last twenty years, and every pro-
cess has been the direct result of sanitary
reform, research and labor. The i'm
proved character of schoolhouses, public