The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-21
MENACES TO THE CITY.
DIR. LIE HARDYs REPORT TO TdE
SANITARY ASSOCIATION.

| Evils to be hemedied-Danger spots
On All Sides That Threaten the Pub
lie Health-A Warning to the Off
| cials-The Associations New Board
OF Officers.
The annual meeting Of the Citizens Sani-
tary Association was held last night at the
associations Office.
There was a fair attendance when Presi-
dent Blum called the meeting to order.
After reading the minutes. the report Of
Medical Director DIR. J. G. LeHardy was
submitted. His report is as follows:
| Since the last annual meeting the association
! committee on public health has had its regular
| weekly meetings. 10 han endeavored to bring
| to the attention Of the city authorities and OF
| the people all things detrimental TO health
| which had come to its notice. The meetings OF
| the executive committee aud OF the association
| have not been as regular or as well attended as
| a due appreciation Of their object and the moral
| obligations of members would justify.
| During the year the city has been exempt
| from very serious epldemics. Indeed, the
| spring and early summer were quite healthy.
| This Is due not to any diligence OF the city or
| county authorities in carrying out needed sani-
| tary works. but TO the very favorable meteoro-
logical conditions existing at the time the rain
| fall and heat of the sun being much below TIE
| average OF the past twenty years believe
| this to be the case because, as soon as the
| a broiling sun, adding this element to the filth
| accumulated in the city. sickness increased rap
| idly, eliminating in an epidemic OF typhoid and
| continued fevers, and which continued through
the fall and winter until 1t was checked by FROST
YEAR OF GDLENEss.
| lam panied to report that nothing has been
| done to remove the sanitary evils pointed out
| to you last February. All the drains around the
| city, dug by convict labor at so great a cost to
| the county, are now perfectly worthless be-
| cause they have not been cleaned for several
| years. Hundreds Of acres of land are covered
| with green slime and stagnant water breeding
fevers and other diseases. All this land can be
made perfectly healthy by simply clearing the
| old drains regardless Of the Casey canal, and it
| is to be hoped that the new board will lose not
a day in start ing this most needed and impor-
/ tant work.
To the neglect In cleaning these drains may
be attributed the great increase III sickness and
| deaths among the inhabitants OF the surround
| ing country, and many physicians believe that
| the malarial fevers which prevailed here last
| season were due TO the same cause, but there
| was great deal of stagnant water in the drains
| aud on the surface Of lands owned by the rail
| road and other corporations. and the slopes
| east and west Of the city were wet and sobby
| To this must be credited share In the causa-
| ton of malaria.
| Within the city limits the innumerable privy
| vaults, the cesspools, the Shiny brick sewers
| the detective house drains and bad plumbing
| are undisturbed Their condition is growing
| worse every day and We are liable to suffer
from scarlet fever. diphtheria, typhus or any
| other filth disease until provided with u good
| system of house drainage, until every vault and
cesspool is filled with sand and our brick sewers
| are thoroughly cleansed and used only for rain
water.
THE DEMAND FOR HOUSE DRAINAGE.
We live in the hope that the present admins.
tration will confer these blessings upon US with
out delay. In letter received recently from
Col. George E. Waring, one of this country
best sanitary engineers he says that the most
| important part Of the work for house drainage
could be done by the beginning of next May. If
| the money can be raised why not start the work
at onceS We cannot gain anything by delay,
| and everybody knows that house drainage is
needed here to secure the health and prosperity
| of our city.
| If house drainage cannot be put In operation
this year the pail system ought to be used in the
| meanwhile to prevent the accumulation of hui
man ordure after filing the vaults with sand
| It has been tried extensively and has given sat
| isfactory results in cities where it has been
| adopted. 1t Is cheap and simple in its opera
| ton, and when properly handled it is free from
| smell and other objections.
By the use of two or three wagons with tanks
| smaller and lighter than those for watering
| streets, Stops could be collected from every
yard and emptied in the sewers doing away
with a dangerous nuisance at a trfng cost
Whether the fermentation going on all the
from sewers, defective drains and bad plumb
ing, the emanations arising from streets COW
cred with shells or from soil laden with slops
are or are not the causes which produced
typhoid fever or scarlet fever among US com
mon instinct would, it seems, prompt us to get
rid of that which we know is dangerous. Who
will swallow the milk if assured that it contains
the germs of diphtheria? What parent will send
his children in house where smallpox or
scarlet fever is known to exist?
PRESERVE THE PUBLIC HEALTH.
| 1t is economy to spend time and money fer
the preservation of the public health for, after
all. it is upon this that the prosperity of any
city, town or village depends. Every increase
of population necessarily brings with it an in
crease of filth, and provisions must be made for
its removal The quicker this Is done the better
will be the results.
The most dangerous Of all filth is human ord.
ure and, in the progress of civilization new
methods have been devised for its removal
That which accompanies 1t by means of run
ming water through system of pipes made for
the purpose have so far proved to be best, when
done properly. If the pipes are laid to make
water run up hill as many are in this city it
will prove failure; if, on the contrary. the
mains are laid with regular fall, every foot of
1t can be kept perfectly clean and free from
sewer gas or filth by flushing at short intervals.
Such system allows the rapid aud complete
removal Of every kind of liquid filth and focal
matter at a safe distance.
To prevent the deleterious effects and accu-
mutation of other filth in well regulated cities,
Strengthening, rendering and other industries
dangerous to health are forbidden, public sta
bles and cattle marts are not allowed In the
center of population, the garbage is removed
regularly before it has time to smell and is de
stroyed. The streets are paved and they are
watered and swept every day. The yards are
kept dry and free from rubbish. To prevent arr
pollution streets are made wide and owners
required to leave an open space proportionate
TO size Of buildings. Dwelling houses and pub
lie buildings are carefully ventilated The
plumbing is under the supervision of experts
paid by the city. OvercroWding in houses is
prevented.
SAVED BY SANITATION
In the past fifty years Paris, London and
other great cities have greatly reduced the
i ratio Of mortality and heightened the lives of
their inhabitants. This was attained by
promptly using sanitary appliances, giving
greater air space, purer water, wholesome food,
etc. At the present moment Great Britain
relies upon the sanitation of her cities and
ports as the best preventive against Asiatc
! cholera
New Orleans perhaps affords better example
of what cleanliness can do as a preventive than
any other southern city, and is also a good
illustration Of what help a sanitary association
can be in securing the health and prosperity of
a city. In that city the mortality from yellow
fever between 1889 and 1852 numbered "a 446
while between 1859 and 1879, 1855, diminution
of 1851, due entirely to sanitation.
| During the war, when military rule prevail ed
and every citizen was under the scepter of tae
ignominious Ben Butler. New Orleans had be-
come a bed of filth ana very sickly Fearful of
his own precious skim he called TO his aid Dr.
Elisha Harris of New York, a noted sanitarian
and, under the direction Of this able man sue.
ceeded in getting the entire city clean as it was
possible, in a remarkably short space of time
two weeks) and the yellow fever which broke
in the shipping fronting the city did not make a