The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-03-05

tHeY Ole ana leave tue uelQ TO DE
occupied by another, a lower class o.
bacteria, whose action is noxious and
disease-producing The second class
also feed upon animal and vegetable
substances and the final product OF
their work is useful fertilizer. But
in accomplishing this purpose they
cause vile putrescence, with the pro
ductiOn of foul and noxious gases.
Earth has no power of itself to kill
these pathOgenic organisms. So long
as they find their proper food and
suitable conditions for life in the soil
they will live and multiply there. An
abundant supply of oxygen, however,
is fatal to them
The application of these teachings
to the matter in hand, the situation
here in Honolulu, is simple.
The waste matters, animal and
vegetable, of the community are de-
posted, stored away, in underground
vaults where the whole mass cannot
be acted upon by oxygen, and are
therefore in the very conditions most
favorable to the production of the
noxious bacteria of putrescence with
its foul Odors.
The practice that general obtains in
Honolulu is to be condemned as I'M
sanitary, in that every privy-v vault
and cesspoOl is center of putrescence
which fouls the air of the height Dor
hood and pollutes the neighboring
soil. The evil, as to soil pollution,
would be lessened by requiring every
vault and cesspool to be made abso-
lutely water tight. But still it would
remain an evil and the only way to
remedy it is to "reform it altogether"
We put upon the soil of this town
a work which it cannot perform.
We ask it 10 do this work of disin-
lection under impossible conditions.
With the growth of the com munity
and the progressive occupation of the
land by human habitations, the evils
that threaten from soil pollution, as
offering breeding ground for disease
germs, are every year becoming
worse.
In regard to soil pollution, let US
understand that it is not merely the
chance invasion of cholera germs,
such as happened to us last year, or
the dreaded importation of yellow
fever spores, against which God pro
tect us, that we have to guard against;
it is rather against the mors DOM
este germs of epidemic diarrhOea and
bowel complaints, fevers, throat trOu-
bles and that score of nameless all
ments and debilities which hang onto
the fringe of malaria.
Protection against the residence of
these domestic foes means also protec-
ton against the obsession of those for
eign enemies.
AS look upon it, there is no such
thing as proper or sanitary cesspOol
or privy vault possible, and they
should not be tolerated in any crowd
ed community. Every one of them,
even the best, is an evil, sanitary
solecism, an invitation to disease to
tarry and make it's abode with US.
A word as to the ventilating pipes
and shafts we erect over these
they are innocent con-
trivances, but futile and inadequate
the relief they afford is hardly worth
mentioning.
The same may be said Of the dis
infectants which we religiously pour
into these same vaults from time to
time. It is a solemn farce, and in the
somewhat expensive with
al, but it is farce nevertheless. The
hydra headed evil is scOtched and TO
some extent discouraged, but the
nuisance, the danger to life and detri-
ment to health, are only to limited
extent abated, not removed. In order
to put ourselves in a sound and I'M
sanitary condition it is
necessary to adopt more radical
measures than these.
do not wish TO be misunderstood
in this matter. l would not propose
to do away with the ventilating pipes |
that crown our privy vaults and cess |
pools. They do permit, and at times
invite, a mOiety of the stencil to arise
and be diluted by the upper air. But |
no ventilating shaft that has yet been /
carries Oft more than /
1.-THE of the foul air.
There are even times when the cur
rent of wind descends and passes in |
the wrong direction.
Nor would /, under existing cir
discontinue the use of
They do certainly NIT
igate the evils of our present system.
But let US understand that In order
to do the work expected OF it, dis
infectant must be applied in such a
manner, and in such quantity, as to
pervade the whole mass and to meet
with every particle OF putridity, and
this must be done not once, but often.
1t is quite possible TO apply dis
infectant until its odOr has masked
the odor of putrefaction, and still the
evil has not been eXIinguished.
Again, though economy is not the
by which TO test the merits
or dement's of system of sewage
removal, it cannot be claimed that
storage in a vault, with periodic re-
mOval by means of the Odorless ex-
cavator, Is an economical method of
sewage.
Fourth. - We come now to the con-
sideration of sewers and sewerage as
means of filth removal.
Leaving out of consideration com
pressed air, which is the power used
10 the ShOne, or pneumatic, system,
no other method of filth removal has
yet been found to compare in efficiency
ind economy with that which depends
lpon water, acting with gravity, as
he carrying agent. :
This brings us at once to the ques- (