SANITARY IMPROVEMENT IN NEW YORK. 327 



quired to be tight and properly covered, so that no part of their 

 contents will escape into the street during transportation to boats 

 or cars ; and the storage of this material in any part of the city is 

 no longer tolerated. While so large a number of horses (estimated 

 at sixty thousand) are in daily use for business and pleasure, the 

 necessary stables and refuse must continue to be a subject of con- 

 stant sanitary care and attention. 



6. Offensive Trades. The business pursuits commonly called 

 " offensive trades " are those "which, if conducted carelessly and 

 without the proper machinery and the necessary chemical appli- 

 ances, become a nuisance detrimental to health. Twenty-five 

 years since there were no proper public or official supervision and 

 control of these pursuits, and they were only restrained from 

 vitiating the atmosphere with smoke, dust, and foul odors by an 

 appeal to the courts and by tedious and expensive litigation. 

 Prompt attention to all complaints, frequent inspections, orders to 

 discontinue business unless conducted without offense, and a vig- 

 orous enforcement of the health laws by the sanitary authorities, 

 have accomplished the desired object. Mechanical and chemical 

 devices have been successfully introduced whenever necessary, 

 and it has been completely demonstrated that there is no business 

 pursuit of importance which can not be conducted inoffensively in 

 a large city, if the buildings used are properly constructed, the 

 machinery and methods are thoroughly scientific and practical, 

 and due care and supervision are constantly exercised. The 

 manufacture of illuminating gas, prolific of odors if conducted 

 without the necessary care and expense, has been a subject of fre- 

 quent complaint, and although efforts for the public relief have 

 often encountered a vigorous resistance,- fortified by corporate 

 wealth and the necessity and universal use of the product, the 

 business has been deprived of its most objectionable features, and 

 is comparatively free from offense. The utilization of the various 

 parts of slaughtered animals not used for human food and the 

 methods employed are among the most remarkable of modern sani- 

 tary improvements. The fat, which was formerly melted in open 

 kettles, is now rendered in air-tight tanks ; the blood which de- 

 filed the public sewers, and the offal, from time immemorial a dis- 

 gusting nuisance, are converted into fertilizers ; and the bones and 

 other refuse animal material, by the aid of applied chemistry, 

 have become useful and valuable as commercial articles. It is 

 unnecessary to enumerate the great variety of business pursuits 

 which formerly afflicted the community with smoke, dust, and foul 

 or offensive odors, and which are now conducted without offense 

 or complaint. Only one trade has been hopelessly ruined by sani- 

 tary reform during the last quarter of a century; the ancient 

 guild of hereditary night scavengers, the terror of belated, sleep- 



