Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-07-26

The city. Az q LEGAL NEWS PAPER and Ad-
vertfsisw Medium IL has ne competitor.
Always deeply interesting is the question
Of local healthfulness. a topic Of supreme
Importance and one that IL intellgently
discussed and properly applied would make
this city, beautiful and clearly as 1t Is.
much more desirable from purely san
ttary standpoint than any other center
OF population on the continent. This sub
ject. under the title OF Municipal SAM
tation in Washington and Baltimore" Is
debated lengthily and with much valuable
detail In the Forum for August the writer
being DR.. John 9. Billings. eminent In all
that pertains to hygienic theories and prac-
tees. He weighs even the minutiae and
although 1t was hardly his intention to
strike a balance he has nevertheless
given this city-hampered as 1t has been
by Congressional inattention-reason for
expressing at least comparative satisfac-
ton. Making plain some Of the conditions
that had TO be considered, DR.. Billings
shows that greater proportion Of the
persons doing business in Baltimore live
outside the city limits than Is the case
here. We have about two hundred and
ffty-fve miles Of sewers, but with a con-
siderable number of unconnected dwell
ings, while Baltimore has theoretically
no sewers, its sewage being generally dis
posed of In cesspools, vaults and boxes.
Moving at once from seeming cause to only
partially-explained effect. the doctor pre-
sents Washington's death-rate as 23.H per
DaI
223s. but he hastens to present figures
which prove that the higher rate prevalent
among the colored people Is responsible
for the difference; the colored rate In the
District was BIS. in Baltimore $3.50 Those
computations make the white death-rate
here 1876. while in Baltimore it is 2oH-
Going more deeply into the problem. DR..
Billings shows that the expectation Of life
Of a white male infant in the District Is
two years greater than 1t is in Baltimore:
Of q white female infant little over four
years greater than In Baltimore; of a |
colored male infant almost a year more
than In Baltimore. but of coiored female |
infant. a little less here. As the ages in |
crease, however there are changes of i'm |
portance. for while Baltimore Is much more
unhealthy for infants. the expectation of |
life for persons above five years is greater |
In Baltimore. SinguIarly enough there |
are marked differences In mortality be- |
tween subdivisions Of the white popula-
ton. OF white married males between |
fifteen and forty-five years. born Of Ameri- |
can mothers. the death-rate In this city |
was 675: Of those born of Irish mothers, |
1881; and of those born Of German moth |
ers. 12-s3. Altitude also has much to do |
with the number of deaths. for 1t is shown /
that they diminish regularly as the average |
altitude increases; ten or twelve feet above |
high-water mark here gave rates ranging |
from 34Ss to 3021. while In places hundred |
feet above the level the rate went down to |
- and 20. The excessive death-rate from |
consumption in the District was, says DR.. |
Billings, entirely among colored folks; in |
Baltimore white people suffered most from |
that disease. The local death-rates from |
typhoid fever were also greater among |
the colored than the white, and greater
among those of Irish parentage than |
among other whites.
There will be no controversy over the
doctors figures, but he will probably be |
called upon to explain an Inconsistency |
which IS apparent in his review He is |
inclined in one place to believe that $50 |
long as the water-supply Is pure and |
abundant the methods Of sewage-disposal |
dc cot have much influence on the health |
Of the community, and that while the d:spo-
sal OF house-slops in open cutters (the prac- /
tice In Baltimore) and the storage of sewage 1
In cesspools produce nuisances of various |
kinds. it Is doubtful whether they are nui- |
sances directly and positively injurious to |
health" yet on the next page lie admits |
that the excess of the death rate among |
the whites in Baltimore over that in Wash |
ington, amounting to nearly two deaths a |
thousand of population annually. is prob |
Ably due In part to the differences in the |
method OF sewage disposal In the two cities" |
and then he. with commendabie caution,
adds but the evidence as to this Is not |
conclusive" washington's sewers are not
what they might be. not what they soon
will be, but that they are better than the |
old surface-drainage system should easily |
be evident. Were our sewers and water
supply extended to all the thick,y-scttled |
portions of the District and connection
compelled with every residence and stable, |
and were all the poisonous wells which so
many people thoughtlessly insist upon
death-rate would diminish many per cent.
When Senator William NJ. Stewart, of