Report on the sanitary police of cities : presented to the American Medical Association at its annual session, held at Detroit, May, 1856 / by James M. Newman.

  • Newman, James M.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the sanitary police of cities : presented to the American Medical Association at its annual session, held at Detroit, May, 1856 / by James M. Newman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    it was inhumed—when it was regarded as unsafe for any family to live within the reach of its miasms. Since the pavements were laid, the lots filled up and the sewers made, this part of the town has been as healthy as any of those portions which are underlaid with clay—indeed much more so, I think. Ellicott Street especially, and particularly at this southern extremity, has been regarded as healthy. In 1849, fewer deaths from cholera occurred in this street than in Washington, Elm, Oak, or in any other parallel street of equal length east of Main; and I am informed by a resident that not one death occurred from this cause, in that portion of the street of which we are now speaking. And this fact may be explained by the size and comfort of the dwellings, which are mostly of brick; by the neatness and spacious- ness of their yards, which afford them sufficient ventilation ; by the cleanliness of their street, and the completeness of their sewerage, which last possesses also, I am told, this remarkable advantage over other sewers, that it has running through it most of the year, if not constantly, a fresh current of water, which finds its supply in springs around the foot of court-house hill, and from other parts of the clay basin. In short, for several years the occupants of these houses have enjoyed that immunity from epidemics and other diseases which the science of etiology would have taught us to expect for them, and to which their own diligence in the abatement of the usual causes has eminently entitled them. During the present season the reputation of this locality for healthfulness remained unchanged; not even the ordinary diseases of summer were known to have prevailed. The long and persever- ing drought, with an unusual degree of heat, brought no change. On Saturday, July 24th (1852), a ditch was commenced at Eagle Street, four and a half feet deep, and two feet wide, for the purpose of laying water-pipes. The work was regularly carried on through Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, and a part of Wednesday forenoon. On Monday night it was partly open near the corner of North Division and Ellicott. Wednesday morning it was opened to South Division Street. The length of the ditch was about 200 yards, and the number of dwellings fronting upon the street, from Eagle to South Division, was twenty. The soil through which the ditch was dug, was, directly under- neath the pavement, a coarse sand of about one foot in depth, then