The San Francisco call., 1895-10-11

limits of the City and County of San
Francisco. The prominent members OF
the association are: Charles II. Hubbs,
Gustav sutro, Will H. Croker S. Prentiss
Smith. L. P. Drexler, W. H. Mccarthy
and j. G. Jordan. These gentlemen are all
large property-holders in the district, and
their influence viii be felt in the further
ance of the objects of the club.
"The Richmond people to a unit" said
Mr.. Hubbs yesterday, earnestly desire the
removal OF the five big grayeyards from the
hills above their abodes. In some of the
cemeteries of the City burial lots are leased
till 1897, and in others the plats of ground
are decided to their owners, but the Boar
of Health may at any time, for sanitary
reasons, condemn thescemeteries and not
only stop interments there, but order the
removal of all bodies buried there. The
last board recommended q wholesale re-
movaI to new cemeteries outside the City
limits and the matter. was taken to the
Legislature. by which it was referred back
to the Board of Supervisors.
"The closing of the Richmond school
houses ana the shutting out of almost 800
children from educational advantages is q
calamity, but probably a needful one to
good work must go further. These grave
yards are standing menace to the City,
because the bodies under the sand dis
charge the gases of decay easily up in the
open air. On damp foggy times when the
atmosphere is heavy, the odors from these
exhalations e1 are very apparent. In winter
the rain water seeps into the sandy soil of
the graveyards and finally is drained into
the low ungraded places in the many
vacant lots of the district.
There these noxious waters stagnate
becoming all the more poisonous. For 8
long time a pool stood at the corner of
First avenue and Point Lobos road, oppo-
site the schoolhouse, which had its source
in the cemetery. 1t was most unhealthy
spot, and several deaths occurred in the
near vicinity. The place was finally sew
cred and drained
The following extract from an article
written by DIR. William IL. Mays, one of
our most celebrated physicians, in 1880, is
pertinent to the subject and will bear re-
publications.:
It seems strange TO revive at this late day and
in this remote corner of the GLOBE the old
struggle of intra versus extra mural interment,
settled, as far as the rest of the world is con-
cerned, fully two decades ago. Since then all
civilized nations bury their dead outside the
city limits, conceding that the emanations
from putrefying bodies exert an injurious in
huence upon health. For 1t is admitted that
these polluted emanations not only breed
specific disease, but they aggrayate sickness
generally and increase the rate of mortality.
The products OF the decomposition of grave
yards may be classed as distinct organisms or
ferments dow forms of cell life) and the deadly
mephitic gases. These, after impregnating
the soil, emerge through it and infiltrate the
lower strata of atmospheric air, and thus
waited along streets and into dwellings.
The pntFefactiZe gases possess great expan-
siVe energy, forcing their way through the
densest wall, and often rending asunder air.
tight cofins. Professor Selmi OF Mantua has
published aninteresting account OF the poison
GUS organisms he discovered In the stratum of
air hanging over certain cemetery.
San Francisco is peculiarly unfortunate as
regards the cemeteries, situated as they are in
elevated positions, with the greater part OF the
City lying below and TO windward of them.
Nfne-tenths of the year trade winds blow di-
reetly over the cemeteries into the City. To
make the danger still greater our fogs and mists,
always unhealthy, follow the same course, and
taking up the exhaled .poisons IN passage de-
scends upon the City with ,tenfold virulence.
Yet is matter OF common remark among
medical men that outbreaks of diphtheria and
other filth diseases are constantly occurring
near the cemeteries, in dwellings and streets
where the drainage and sewerage are as perfect
as art can make them. Where burying grounds
have existed or still exist in cities ii has been
abundantly proved that their neighborhoods
are unhealthy and that epidemies OF those dis
eases which arise from blood poisoning are
proven TO be there manifested in enhanced
virulence.