The record-union., 1893-03-07

The REcoRD-UNIoN has frequently
lrged upon local authorities that refuse
and garbage should be burned, not
dumped, as we are doing.
Here are some of the facts concerning
the sanitary questions involved, and what
people at the East are doing in the mat
ter, to which we invite attention:
In a. recent address before the Woman's
Health Protective Association of New
ork on the subject OF the disposal of
waste or refuse matter in cities, Colonel
w. +. Morse, the well known sanitary
engineer, said
''lf the city of New York can burn at
the foot of East Sixteenth street, as it has
1or three years past, the infected bedding,
clothing, furniture and hospital waste
from patients i'll or dead with infectious
disease, such as diphtheria, smallpox, ty-
pus, and cholera, with no chance for the
escape OF the germs of the disease or any
1umes OF nuisance or smoke, then 1t is en-
ureIy possible to destroy, at any conve-
nient location on the water front, the gar
bage which is brought out from the
houses.
CAN BE DONE.
at is only question of necessity, de-
STABILITY, and of final eXpediency. If
Chicago. with its million and quarter of
nation oi its garbage and if Philadelphia,
with its million of people, can by its ordi
nances declare that its garbage shall be
crenated, why should New York insist
that Its garbage must be used for the pur-
pose of making ground on an island in
the Sound twenty miles from the city?
The question is one which should not
be considered from any standpoint other
than the sanitary protection OF the public.
The matter of cost for the construction OF
furnaces and OF operation is no more than
is paid for the actual building of scows
and the employment of tugs and men to
tow the waste twenty miles. An esti
mate TWO years ago pointed out the fact
to the Health Department that, whereas
IT cost Is cents per cubic yard TO tow this
material outside of Sandy Hook and
dump it into the ocean, it could be burned
within the confines Of the city for less
than II cents per cubic yard.
New Nork early adopted the method
OF towing out To sea and dumping on the
edge of the harbor the great bulk OF mat
ter which was worthless. After many
years of experience of this method, the
authorities, under pressure of public
opinion, devised plan by which, instead
of dumping it into the ocean, all the
waste OF New \ ork should be carried to
an island in the Sound and there depos-
lied 10 manufacture ground, which was
TO be afterward used by the city.
from the frying-pan into the fire. In
stead of any gain by the change being
had, there is positive loss. The same
length of haul OF garbage takes place
through the city's streets to the scows,
and then the stuff is towed up between
the two cities OF New York and Brooklyn,
over an even greater water thOroughtare
the East River, where crowded ferry
boats ana Sound steamboats, are con-
stantly moving-than down the bay to
Sandy Hook. And the result of this op-
Grafton of making land with putrescible,
decaying substances OF every kind, ac-
cordlng to the record and statements of
the best sanitarians, is that ground so
manufactured or built up of matters
which in themselves undergo fermenta-
lion and decay is oil such character as to
produce disease.
DANGERS OF GARBAGE-MADE GROUND.
There are numberless instances where
it can be positively proved that persons
dwelling on such ground are subject to
zymotic diseases, from which their neigh
bors living on original ground are Tree.
y statement has been made by distin-
guished sanitary expert OF this city that
whenever an outbreak of diseases, such
as diphtheria, typhEs, scarlet fever, etc.,
appears in New Ork, they follow the
course Of old streams or creeks which
have been filed in and built upon. Now
if this be true (and there is every reason
to think it is true in the city of New
y ork, where the drainage facilities are
the very best, how much more must it be
true of ground which is wholly made out
of putrescible matter?
"a proposed remedy for the garbage
nuisance is the destruction in each indi-
Vidual house OF its own waste. This is
practicable in many cases; but probably
not more than per cent. of the popula-
ton of this city feel II their duty to con-
tribute to the welfare of the whole by
burning such material as would give of
Tense when cast into the garbage heaps.
1t is not always best to burn in the kitchen
stove the general refuse OF the family and
If it were, it would still be difficult to per-
suade a servant that it is healthier to Gre
mate the garbage in the family range than
cast it into the nearest ash barrel The
application of this method IN the crowded
tenements in the lower part OF the city is
absolutely impossible.
BROoKLYN's EXPERIMENT.
"The experiment has been tried to
large extent in Brooklyn, with the result
of DESTROYING stoves and ranges. and in
many cases creating a nuisance by the
emission of fumes from the chimney.
The best reform in this direction which
can be really undertaken in New y ork is
10 arouse the attention of the people to
the prevailing conditions of garbage col
lection. removal, and disposal and 10 the
absolute necessity for a more cleanly and
sanitary method. According TO the testi-
mony of tine best experts, this putresci-
Dle household otfu is a most offensive
mixture of animal and vegetable matter
in a state of decomposition, which, when
mixed with other refuse serves to con-
tamInate the entire heap. producing of
fensive odors and supplying pabulum for
the germs of disease.
''It is this great mass of dangerous mat
ter which must be properly collected and
cared for. Under the light Of modern
sanitation it should be insisted upon that
this portion of public refuse should be
collected by itself; that it should be de-
stroyed by the most rapid and thorough
process that is possible to put into opera
tion; that ii should be done each day, and
that there should be no opportunity for
putrefaction. Nor should there be any
chance for its disposal at place where il
may become future menance to the
health of the public"
CHOLERA AND THIS QUESTION.
Colonel Morse, in closing his address
To the Health Association, said:
1--WE know from experience the effect
produced on the minds of people by the
five cases of cholera reported in this city
last September. 1t was most alarming.
in view of the prevailing sanitary condi-
tions, and readily productive of an epi-
demic OF the dread disease. We do not
know whether there Will be similar Wis
itation in the coming spring. But there
is every reason to believe, from the his
tory of cholera abroad, and the fact that
the communication between Europe and
America is so rapid and close, that it will
he almost a miracle if we can keep out
the germs which are now kept in re-
straint by the cold weather.
Taking into account the statements
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