Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-06-04

These figures represent the average for
the tWeHty-four hours of the thirty-one
days In each month for fifteen years, and
there was a remarkably small variation
during that period.
Manila is not subject to extremes like so
many of our cities at home. The Their
mCmeter will remain about the same month
after month and may not vary fifteen de-
grees in the entire year. This, however is
not favorable to the health or energy of
people who are accustomed to sharp
changes. The human system requires fire.
quent changes. and as rule all etender-
feet who come to Manila complain of las
situde, of lack of energy and drowsiness
for the first nine months year. This
excavation continues until they are acci-
mated. Strangers who have been accus-
toned to a vigorous and bracing climate
lose flesh as well as vitality, and may suf-
fer from intermittent fever during the hui
mid months of the summer. But this is
equally true of Texas. Louisiana and all of
the southern states and tropical countries,
where 1T usually requires two or three years
for a person to become acclimated so as to
endure the summer heat without physical
depression. Some people never become able
to endure the humidity of Manila without
suffering, and the damp summer climate is
particularly severe upon young children.
sapping their vitality and thus rendering
them more liable to disease. But the win
ter months in the Philippines are quite IA
vcrabe to children. You never saw
healthier or happier lot of youngsters than
today.
without experience in the tropics the
early American arrivals suffered more than
was necessary from the climate but the
colony has since learned great deal from
those who have lived here longer and are
now able to take better care of themselves
They avoid the direct rays of the sun and
the cooling, but deadly draft.
The Sewerage System.
There is very little malaria, although the
city is full of stagnant water, and the lack
of sewerage has, of course had it's effect
upon the public health and the death rate
There are considerable areas of marshy
lands within the city limits which are fire.
quently flooded. They afford breeding
places for mosquitoes. and many of them
are fostering holes of filth, but they are
being gradually drained and filed, and
sooner or later will disappear with the i'm
provements contemplated by the municipal
authorities. III Fl
When the Americans first came there
were no sewers excepting a few old drains
traversing the densely populated sections
in the walled CITY,, and intended to carry
off the sewage from the military barracks
the monasteries and the government Offices
These drains were lined with loose slabs of
stone with wide cracks between them: they
were laid without regard to slope, so that
the contents constantly escaped into the
soil and they frequently become choked and
sometimes were blocked up for months
while the sewage accumulated in them
They were therefore greater menace to
the public health than no sewers at ALL
Since the American occupation they have
been filed up Outside OF the walled city
there has been only surface drainage, and
the inhabitants, have been In the habit of
dumping all their offai, garbage, refuse and
Stops into streets. or alleys, or upon vacant
lots. or wherever they found it was most
convenient, and 1t was ultimately drained
or carried off by the rains into the bay or
into the river or one of the little branches
of the river that flow through different sec
lions of the city. The Americans intro
duced a bucket system, and the contents
are collected by aAgang of men with iron
wagons every night and carried out to
dumping ground, where the LIQUID gather
ings are drained OF and the solid sewage
is burned Ultimately however, an ade-
auate sewer system will be introduced. al
though it will be difficult and expensive
matter on account of the low level of the
city and the lack of grade. Mr. Fitzgerald
an expert sanitary engineer from Boston.
has made plan and Is now here to super
intend it's execution.
The Water Supply.
The water supply Is fairly good, but in
sufficient. 1t is much better and more
abundant than in Spanish times, but the
city Ia constantly exposed to frightful dan