592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



what ought in justice to be expected from a force of 400 men, with 

 no extra appropriation, working on 1,415 acres of street in New York, 

 after a snow-fall of eighteen inches ? 



In London, such snow-storms never occur ; but, that the authorities 

 find it difficult there also to keep the streets in that condition of peren- 

 nial neatness demanded by the press and the public, the following ex- 

 tracts will show : 



" There is a natural dowdiness about the streets of London, espe- 

 cially in autumn, which is perhaps incurable. . . . The pavements 

 begin to be deeply smeared with that peculiarly nasty London slime, 

 which can only here be produced in its glutinous and slippery perfec- 

 tion." (" Saturday Review," November 1, 1879, p. 531.) 



" The streets of London are being much improved by wood pave- 

 ment " (they will find this a mistake), "but they are still allowed to 

 remain in a condition of dirt which can not be otherwise than very in- 

 jurious to the public health. London smells are as objectionable as 

 London noises, and in removing the latter some attempts might with 

 advantage be made at least to diminish the former. This end would 

 in great measure be attained by a proper system of street-cleaning. 

 Under existing arrangements there is no provision for a thorough and 

 periodical cleaning of the roads. They are not even swept, the result 

 being that in dry weather they are littered with refuse and abomina- 

 tions of various sorts, which pollute the atmosphere and fully account 

 for the unpleasant odors tchich have during the present summer pre- 

 vailed in the m,etropolis and been the cause of general complaint. 

 Water-carts are of very little service in washing the streets ; they may 

 lay the dust for the time, but they merely transform it into mud without 

 removing it. Heavy thunder-showers exercise a more beneficial effect, 

 but their visitations are uncertain, and the manure they wash into the 

 drains often stagnates in the sewer, and might be turned to profitable 

 account if collected and disposed of. The attention of the vestries 

 has lately been called to the whole question of street-cleaning by the 

 National Health Society, and the sooner some steps are taken to purify 

 out-door as well as in-door London the better." (" St. James's Gazette," 

 quoted in " New York Sun," September 5, 1880. The italics are 

 mine). 



The bad odors above mentioned are also referred to in the follow- 

 ing extract from the " Lancet " of May 29, 1880 : " Attention has at 

 length been drawn in the daily press to the disgusting smells pervad- 

 ing many of the principal London streets at the present moment. A 

 correspondent likens the smell in Victoria Street, Westminster, to that 

 of a charnel-house ; and the smell in the Quadrant, Regent Street, on 

 Friday and Saturday last, was so like that of carrion, that we heard 

 the question debated whether it did not come from some open windows 

 in the houses near the spot where it was felt " (sic !), " and might not 

 arise from some, perhaps unknown, can-ion there. But this is not the 



