THE PROBLEM OF MUNICIPAL NUISANCES. 597 

 danger to the city : " II f aut le reconnaitre, ce sont des ^tablissements 



necessaires." 



M. Alphand, chief of the DejDartment of Public Works, who was 

 held partly responsible by the public for the state of affairs, made a 

 speech before the Council of Hygiene, October 1st, which is reported 

 in the " Journal Officiel " of October 7, 1880. He speaks more at length 

 than the commission above-mentioned with regard to establishments 

 of the kind that have caused so many complaints in New York. He 

 says : 



" The abattoirs of La Villette give rise, as our colleague Dr. Voisin 

 has remarked, to disagreeable odors. These odors do not come, as has 

 been supposed, from the barge which receives the manure and entrails 

 of the slaughtered animals ; those matters are, in fact, thoroughly dis- 

 infected and removed daily. The bad smells which escape in the vi- 

 cinity of these abattoirs of La Villette are produced by the fat-render- 

 ing, which is done immediately after the killing. This is a nuisance 

 inevitably connected with all establishments of this kind. . . . 



" There is, at the gates of Paris, between the Chemin de Per du 

 Kord and the canal, all along the street La Haie-Coq to Aubervilliers, 

 a collection of factories that treat animal matters and spread abroad 

 nauseous smells. ... It can not be too strongly insisted upon that 

 these emanations, so objectionable to the sense of smell, have no 

 miasmatic character, and are not dangerous in a medical point of 

 view. . . . 



" An evident proof of the harmlessness of these odors, as far as the 

 public health is concerned, is found in the following figures : The com- 

 plaints of bad odors began in August and increased in intensity up to 

 the month of September. Now, the mortality lists, for the first week 

 of August, show 1,114 deaths ; the list for the week from September 

 9th to 16th shows only 881, a number smaller than the average when 

 Paris is in the best sanitary condition." 



The following words of M. Alphand are worthy of consideration 

 here in New York : 



"Besides, the public must not demand the impossible, and the pro- 

 duction of emanations more or less disagreeable, more or less offensive, 

 can never be completely avoided in the midst of this collection of two 

 million human beings, and many hundreds of thousands of animals 

 dogs, cats, horses, cattle, poultry, etc." 



The speech of M. Alphand was not dealt with tenderly by the 

 newspaper men, who naturally knew much more about the subject 

 than he did. M. Francisque Sarcey, in the " XlXi^me Siecle," scari- 

 fies him in the following terms, which lose much of their vigor and 

 sarcastic force in the translation : 



" M. Alphand deduces from this very unanimity an argument 

 against the press ; it is the newspapers, he says, that have thrown 

 bitterness into the question. It is they who have made all the trouble ! 



