The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-10
MUNICIPAL ENGINEERS ARE IN
 18TH ANNUAL CONVENTION HERE
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 unsewered only New Orleans. Vicksburg, Pensacola and Galveston.
 "Systematic effort has been made by the writer to secure statistical informa- ton as to paving. sewerage, water sup ply and like municipal improvements of all the cities located within the fever zone and as well, the dates since 1878 showing recurrence of yellow fever In each. Reports from more than twenty such cities show that, exclusive of Mem- phis whose experience has been recited at length only four towns have been afflicted with yellow fever since the con- struction of systems of sanitary sewers. These towns are Montgomery Ala; Natchez, Miss; Baton Rouge, and Alex andria, La.
 "The most important of these towns Is Montgomery. whose sewers were con struced in 1889, and despite which, suffer cred from fever in 1897, 134 cases being re- ported during that year. At the time these sewers were constructed, the city had a population of only about 2000o, and this had expanded to more than 3o,- 900 at the time when the epidemic occur red It is also reported that the teVer at that time existed only in sections or ~fN-~ no case was recorded within the severed districts, indicative of the fact that the city had. out grown its first sewerage works.
 "Natchez, Miss, during the past year, suffered by yellow fever to the extent of 143 cases and seven deaths. rms city has 45 miles of unpaved streets; seven miles of sanitary sewers and two miles of storm sewers. According to oifi- cial report, only two cases of yellow fever occurred in dwellings provided with sewer connections It Is also reported that connection to sewers is not com pulsory and few such have been made. The sewers were constructed ana owned by franchise corporation supplying the city with water. Numerous cisterns are in use owing to ditrlcleh1 Walei uiSli ioo- ton and supply.
 "Baton Rouge, which also reported ten cases of fever and one death during the past epidemic of fever has also a de- 0eient water system, owned by a private corporation, and relies also largely upon eisterns and like water containers III 1901. seven miles of sanitary sewers were constructed by the city, but only loo con nection have been made voluntarily.
 In Alexandria.
 "I,astly tha town of Alexandra, Id, iu1ilt it's nine miles of sanitary sewers during lhe year l9JO and in this town, con nections are compulsory. During 19Oo, nine teen cases of fever were returned, wlln one death Concerning conditions there during the fever continuance the city engineer writes as folloWs:
 While city water is generally used, Il considerable number of the population have tanks. cisterns and barrels for Sath- erinp raiu-water ++ The spread Of the fever in this place seems To have been dre entirely to the quite extensive use of cisterns which were not screened, and so formed breeding places for the mosquito Alexandria is built upon ground extre- mely low and fiat, ana open can als dno ditcnes are relied upon to remove the storm waters l. is especially worthy oi note that during the epidemic of l90o New Orleans, Vicksburg and Pensacola were the prlnc.pal sufferers; cities dehciont Ill sewers of all descriptions and in contrast, during the sane year refugee or import ed cases of fever occurred Ill Montsolfi- cry, Ala, Tampa, Fla, and Shrevespofl' La, cities which in the past, from such infection would undoubtedly have been quick to respond, but no spread or the dread disease occurred. It Is significant that these three cities have been el- fectually severed and connections are made compulsory.
 of such statistical facts are consider ed merely coincidences in further SUD- port of the theory that sanitary sewers, especially when augmented with an abundant and suitable water supply may be relied upon to prevent the spread ol yellow fever, the cases or vera Cruz Merida. Yucdtan and the city of Havana may be cited The first of these cities was severed and paved about three year S since, and although for generations, each year witnessed an outbreak of yellow fever. whose virulence was limited only by the extent of the immune population, few cases and no epidemic of yellow fever has since been reported.
 .The city Of Merida, following the ex- ample of Vera Cruz, has lately expended something more than four millions of dol lars upon her public utilities. This city of the tropics, accustomed each year to reckon the victims of yellow fever by the hundreds, reports only ten cases of fever for the fiscal period, accounted for by a recent press dispatch as follows:
 This great improvement is due to the improved system of isolation and the in- stitution of modern sanitation.
 |. "Rut that isolation alone may be eX- pected to fail in providing adequate pro- lection may be well suspected from the late experience in Havana, a city where this method of protection may be admitted to have reached its highest development. Infected from the epidemic of 1905 at New Orleans. and despite the most &C., tive efforts of it's health officers, yellow fever made marked progress there, and resulted in the establishment of quaran- tine restrictions against that city upon the part of North and South American sea- ports. Havana has no system of sewers
 "In view of the evidence submitted, the deduction seems warranted by the facts that even a city in the tropics may be freed entirely os yellow fever by provid- ing modern municipal utilities, and the rotential;ly of thess agents must be far