Year: 1876

From the New York Sun.


There has been one consequence
of the Centennial Exhibition which
will cause it to be remembered long,
but far from pleasantly. That is it's
effect on the health of the throngs
of visitors who attended it. The
Philadelphians, during the continu-
ance of the Exhibition, pooh-poohed
all assertions that the grounds were
malarious, and that the visitors suf-
fered in health from the effects of
their tarrying there. But their de-
NAL didn't alter tho facts. It is
within the knowledge of almost every
physician of average practice in this
city that visitors to the Exhibition
have returned with the seeds of dis
ease more or less grave and often fatal.
Every person whose acquaintance is
at all extensive can name instances of
typho-malarial fever contracted there,
and the doctors are now daily visiting
patients suffering from the malaria
imbibed on the Exhibition grounds,
while the undertakers have had their
full share of the harvest What is
true of New York is true of other
parts of the country, and it is not
exaggerating to estimate that hun
dreds of those who went to Philadel-
phia to see the wonders of the Exhi-
bition returned to die as the price of
their curiosity, while thousands have
suffered and are still suffering from
the malarious disorders they contract
ed there.


A survey of drainage of the Exhibi-
ton grounds has revealed the cause
of this lamentable state of things.
It was undertaken by the New York
Public Health Association, and its
results cannot be disputed. Itseems
that while the Main Exhibition Bull
ding and Machinery Hall were drain
ed properly and efficiently by the
Girard avenue sewer, and freely sup
piled with the Schuylkill water, the
hundreds of other structures-the
State buildings, the restaurants, and
booths-have been drawing their wa
ter from source impregnated with
excremcntary substances, poisonous
to the users. These latter buildings,
supplying the wants of hundreds
through the narrow canal formed by
the sand spit separating the current
next the shore from the main body of
the Schuylkill river. Two little
streams running in ravines and empty
ing into this canal, were used for draw
ing purposes. Close to the outlets of
these, in the direction of the Main
Building, was powerful pump that
supplied the hundreds of structures
with water. Toward this pump was
poured the vile current from the drain
ing streams, and it was distributed
to the people for their drinking pur-
poses. An attempt was made to OBJ
viate the danger by cutting a canal
through the sand spit into the broad
Schuylkill, SO as to get afree infusion
of pure water into the stream pumped
up, but it failed to accomplish the
purpose. The consequence was that
the visitors to the Exhibition consum-
ed the fifth drained from the grounds.
It is not surprising that the damage
to health was great and very general.
The Philadelphia Board Of Health
instructed some of the large res
taurants to drain into cesspools dug
into the ground, but these served
only to aggravate the malarious in
huence.


The management of the drainage
on the Exhibition grounds was dis
graceful to Philadelphia, and that
city will be painfully remembered by
thousands who went thither to enjoy
great sight, and returned to suffer
from disease, or to mourn the loss of
friends sent to their graves by q
negligence little short of criminal.