62 
There is almost no reliable literature on the subject, and what little 
there is seems to universally condemn the uncreosoted wood block 
pavement. 
From Byrnes Highway Construction, 1893, Dr. O. W. Wight, Health 
Officer of Detroit, in a report to city council, says: “On sanitary grounds, 
therefore, I must earnestly protest against the use of wooden block pave- 
ments. Such blocks, laid endwise, not only absorb water which dissolves 
out the albuminous matter that acts as a putrefaction leaven, but also ab- 
sorbs an infusion of horse manure, and a great quantity of horse urine 
dropped in the streets. The lower ends, resting on boards, clay or sand, 
soon become covered with an abundant fungoid growth, thoroughly sat- 
urated with albuminous extract and the excreta of animals in a liquid 
putrescible form. These wooden pavements undergo a decomposition in 
the warm season and add to the unwholesomeness of the city. The street 
in fact might as well be covered a foot deep with rotting barnyard manure 
so far as unwholesomeness is concerned. Moreover, the interstices be- 
tween the blocks and the perforations of decay allow the foul liquids of 
the surface to flow through, supersaturating the earth beneath and con- 
stantly adding to the putrefying mass.” 
M. Foussagrivs, professor of hygiene, at Montpelier, France, objects 
to wooden pavements because they “consist of a porous substance capable 
of absorbing organic matter, and by its own decomposition giving rise to 
noxious miasma which, proceeding from so large a surface, can not be 
regarded as insignificant. I am convinced that a city with a damp climate, 
paved entirely with wood, would become a city of marsh fever.” 
An article by Amat in the Bull. Gen. de Therapeut, is of some interest 
in this connection. He compares the advantages and disadvantages of 
wood pavement with those of granite blocks and asphalt. In regard to 
cleanliness he places then in the order of merit—asphalt, granite, wood. 
In regard to quiet—wood asphalt, granite. In regard to cheapness—gran- 
ite, wood, asphalt. Durability__granite, asphalt, wood. Ease of repair— 
asphalt, wood, granite, and safety—wood, asphalt, granite. 
Miguel tested bacteriologically some ten-year-old wood pavements, 
and found from a million to a million and a half germs in a gram of saw- 
dust from the surface, and from five hundred to four thousand in a gram 
of the sawdust taken two inches below the surface. These same experi- 
ments were repeated by Rolst and Nicoles, giving the same relative results, 
but the numbers of bacteria being twenty times as large. 
