SEWER-GAS. 



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these assurances can be trusted. A generation has come and gone, 

 thousands upon thousands have died, and looking at our decimated 

 households we may well ask, How many more must be sacrificed to 

 this terrible experiment ? 



The late rapid increase in the mortality of New York city has naturally caused 

 wide-spread alarm. Last year 88,600 deaths were recorded, against 31,937 in 

 1880 an increase of twenty per cent. While the large additions to the city's 

 population from emigration and other causes may account for some of this in- 

 crease, it can hardly explain all of it. 



Careful observers limit the increase in the population of New York to ten 

 per cent, and estimate the mortality of last year as therefore ten per cent greater 

 than during 1880. The percentage is just equal to the increase in deaths from 

 contagious diseases. (Charles F. WiDgate, consulting sanitary engineer, "Prac- 

 tical Points about Plumbing," 1882.) 



The writer proceeds to charge this increased mortality to the sani- 

 tary defects of our houses, especially in the matter of plumbing. 



The death-rate of our city has continued to increase steadily since 

 Mr. Wingate wrote. In 1880 it was 26-47 per 1,000 ; in 1881, 31-08 ; 

 and for the two quarters of 1882, ending June 30th, the rate of mor- 

 tality had increased to 31*11, with a prospect of a much higher rate 

 for the year, inasmuch as, during two weeks of the month of July, the 

 rate was higher than for the corresponding period of any previous year 

 since 1872. 



This increase of mortality has occurred notwithstanding the admit- 

 ted fact that our streets are in a better condition than they have been 

 for many years. It can not, therefore, be attributed to the unsanitary 

 condition of the streets, as has been the usual practice of newspaper 

 writers in previous years. 



Nor does it seem proper to attribute it to our vicious tenement- 

 house and apartment-house system, which, no doubt, has its effect in 

 raising our death-rate, but which, according to the reports of our city 

 officials, has in many respects been greatly improved during the last 

 two or three years. Meanwhile, everywhere the plumbing, as it has 

 become older, has necessarily become more imperfect. 



A member of the Board of Health, for whose opinion I have great 

 respect, has said to me, that " when we consider the unusual prevalence 

 of contagious diseases, and the large amount of immigration during the 

 first half of the present year, we must admit that sewer-gas alone can 

 not account for the increase in the death-rate over last year." Perhaps 

 not ; but it will not be pretended that the deaths of immigrants will 

 alone explain it ; and as to contagious diseases, these are precisely 

 those which, according to Mr. Wingate, Drs. Barker and Carpenter, 

 with many others, are most likely to be multiplied and intensified, and 

 thus rendered fatal by sewer-gas. The fact that the increased death- 

 rate is chiefly due to the increase of contagious diseases justifies the 

 suspicion that sewer-gas is, to a great degree, responsible for this result. 



