SEWER-GAS. 3 



denying that there is any such thing as sewer-gas " having a peculiar 

 and definite composition." This is undoubtedly true, and it is proba- 

 ble that no intelligent man or educated physician ever thought other- 

 wise. 



" What has been called ' sewer-gas ' is composed of air, vapor, and 

 gases in constantly varying proportions, together with living germs 

 vegetable and animal and minute particles of putrescent matter. In 

 short, it is composed of whatever is sufficiently volatile or buoyant to 

 float in the atmosphere, and in consequence of which buoyancy it is 

 permitted to escape through the various sewer-outlets. The term is, 

 in this sense, well understood ; and it is, moreover, just as correct as 

 would be the terms sewer-vapor, or sewer-air, which some have chosen 

 to substitute for it. 



It is proper here to add that the offensiveness of odors is no test 

 of their insalubrity, but that the most fatal germs are often conveyed 

 in an atmosphere which is odorless. The absence of unpleasant odors, 

 therefore, furnishes no proof that the air does not contain sewer ema- 

 nations. 



Have we succeeded hitherto in excluding sewer-gases from our 

 houses ? 



Only those gentlemen who profess to have inquired carefully into 

 this matter, and whose names will be accepted as authority, will be 

 permitted to answer this question. 



Colonel George B. Waring, Jr., sanitary engineer, writing for the 

 " Herald," and also the " Mail and Express," under date of April 2, 

 1882, says : " Few, I imagine, would question the substantial sound- 

 ness of Dr. Hamilton's position on the question of heating, lighting, 

 and ventilation, and no one probably at all familiar with the subject 

 will question what he says about the effect of the plumbing work of 

 city houses on the life and health of their occupants. From tenement- 

 house to palace they are very often, almost universally, disgracefully 

 and dangerously bad. ... It is quite true that such plumbing work 

 as is to be found in nine out of every ten houses, even in Fifth Avenue, 

 is unsafe, and ought not to be allowed to remain within the same four 

 walls with a family of human beings." 



Mr. Charles F. Wingate, sanitary engineer, in his paper read be- 

 fore the Kings County Medical Society, April, 1882, says : " Any one 

 having opportunities for seeing the sanitary defects in the vast ma- 

 jority of city houses, whether occupied by millionaires or mechanics, 

 and whether situated on Murray Hill or Avenue B, can feel little sur- 

 prise at the statistics of increasing mortality in New York. The con- 

 stant demand for the doctor's services in so many houses in their nor- 

 mally bad state, and the fact that his services are no longer demanded 

 when they have been put in sanitary condition, tells its own lesson." 



Mr. Wingate also intimates to the people of Brooklyn that their 

 houses are in no better condition. 



