TOWNS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. G75 



DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE. 



There are five and one-quarter miles of tidal drains, built at twenty 

 inches above mean low tide. These drains would be a complete and 

 effective scavenger, but being built with plank floors on loose sands, the 

 planks have in some places rotted, and in others the sand has washed 

 out, lowering the levels to such a degree as to render thorough drainage 

 impracticable. They are to be replaced with concrete or other hard 

 floors. The numerous street drains, built at different times, do not con- 

 stitute a uniform system, and are defective as to levels, the vital necessity 

 of which is not so conspicuous in tidal drain localities, where the water 

 runs up hill half the time. In 1881, there were laid 11,320 feet of twelve- 

 inch vitrified ironstone pipes, at a cost of eighty-seven and one-half cents 

 a foot, in substitution of brick and wooden drains, and 6,105 feet of 

 eight-inch pipe-drains. The scavengering has been transferred from the 

 Street Department to the 



BOARD OF HEALTH, 



with ver}'- satisfactory results. It is also proposed to concentrate the 

 slaughtering houses at a public abattoir under their supervision. The 

 achninistration of quarantine too has been transferred to this Board. The 

 City Registrar is Secretary of the Board, and there is in operation a very 

 effective system for the registration of vital statistics. 



In consequence of the high rate of mortality prevailing among the col- 

 ored race since emancipation, due to their disregard of the laws of hygiene, 

 especiall}'^ as regards children, it is necessary, to form a fair estimate of 

 the healthfulness of Charleston, that the mortuary statistics of the races 

 be considered separately. The ratio of deaths among the colored popu- 

 lation of 'the city was, in 1830, 24.85 per 1,000, in 1840 it was 27.60, in 

 1850 it was 20.98, or an average of 24.47. In 1870 it had risen to 41.08, 

 aiid in 1880 to 41.08. In 1880 the ratio of death per 1,000 of the colored 

 population was as folloAvs, for some of the Southern cities : Nashville, 

 35.23 ; Norfolk, 37.06 ; New Orleans, 44.49 ; Savannah, 45.47. The fol- 

 lowing table exhibits the mortality among the white race in Charleston, 

 as compared Avith that of some Northern cities during the last half 

 century : 



