PRESENT PROBLEMS 79 



has been added that of protecting the public comfort. For example, 

 I imagine it would be very difficult for sanitary officers to prove on 

 the trial of every case that a smoke nuisance is directly injurious to 

 the public health; yet so strong is public opinion in favor of enforce- 

 ment of this ordinance that the sanitary authorities who proceed 

 vigorously under it have little difficulty in suppressing such nui- 

 sances, even when the prosecution of offenders reaches the munici- 

 pal courts. 



This is all a very new development in sanitary practice. The 

 growth of manufacturing by steam-power in large cities has greatly 

 increased the use of coal in boiler plants of large capacity. Of late, 

 because of the higher prices for anthracite, the use of bituminous 

 coal for manufacturing purposes has come into vogue. Imperfect 

 combustion, the result of careless firing, creates a nuisance. Sup- 

 pression of this nuisance should not be confined to arrest and pun- 

 ishment of the offenders; instruction in means to avoid nuisance 

 should accompany it. 



Akin to the smoke nuisance is that from dust. Bacteriological 

 study has shown conclusively that dust is a carrier of disease-germs, 

 and therefore a menace to public health. Here is the greatest argu- 

 ment for clean streets and for improved methods of cleaning them. 

 In the New York tenement districts we have had great success from 

 the general use of asphalt pavement, which can be washed with a 

 hose, and so cleaned without raising dust. The great thing in getting 

 rid of dust is not to move it but to remove it. This applies to the dust 

 problem in houses, and in theaters, schools, churches, and all other 

 places of public assembly. Such places in New York were a year or 

 two ago, under our instructions, first brought under general sanitary 

 inspection, with excellent and rather remarkable results, consider- 

 ing how large a number of orders we had to issue to have them put 

 in proper sanitary condition. This work may be well adapted to a 

 countless number of public and semi-public buildings in cities, for 

 the places which every one year after year assumes to be in fairly 

 good condition are often the ones which really demand most careful 

 attention from the sanitary authorities. 



As a vehicle for the transmission of the germs of tuberculosis, dust 

 in places of public occupancy, like railway and street-railway cars 

 and ferry-boats, should be rigorously fought. The matting and car- 

 pets upon the floors of public conveyances are sources of danger, 

 and should either be done away with entirely or cleaned and fumi- 

 gated at frequent intervals. Our American habit of spitting every- 

 where but in proper receptacles, undoubtedly conveys infectious 

 disease, and every city should pass and enforce an anti-spitting ordi- 

 nance. New York has had a course of public education in this respect, 

 and the nuisance is very greatly reduced, although hundreds of men, 



