No. 216.] 459 



plan throughout, the sewers constructed on the most scientific and 

 substantial plans, has been carried out in the completest manner, 

 ■with the most decidedly beneficial results upon the general health 

 and comfort. We are annually giving proofs of our belief in their 

 necessity, by the construction of single sewers in various places, as 

 they are demanded by circumstances, but it is done without reference 

 to any uniform plan, and it is feared, that thus, much confusion, 

 and great additional expense, will fall upon the treasury, whenever 

 it shall be deemed proper to project and carry out, over the W'hole 

 city, a complete and uniform system; and I believe, "to this com- 

 plexion must we come at last." One thing, especially, brings this 

 conviction: since the introduction of the Croton, the rain water cis- 

 terns being useless, the bottoms of them have in many instances been 

 taken out, and they have been converted into cispools, into which 

 the refuse matter of the house is thrown. Great trouble is thus 

 saved to families, ahd domestics, but it needs no prophetic vision to 

 perceive, that an immense mass of offensive material will thus be 

 soon collected, its decomposition polluting the air, in the immediate 

 precincts of oiu- chambers and sitting-rooms, and generating an 

 amount of miasmatic efHuvia, incalculably great and injurious. Dis- 

 charge all the contents of our sinks and cispools, through sewers 

 into the rivers, and we will avoid two of the most powerful causes 

 of sickness and early death. 



The great quantity of water from the sky, the hydrants, the un- 

 used wells, &,c., now accumulating beneath the surface, must find its 

 way into many basements and cellars, rendering them very damp and 

 unhealthy, and for which sewers constitute the only remedy. 



Another mooted sanitary question, is the influence of grave-yards^ 

 vaults, and other burial places, in large cities, upon the health of 

 the inhabitants. Some acute men are now endeavoring to maintain 

 that no specific bad results have ever been,- or 'can be, justly attribu- 

 ted to them, while others, among whom is Chadwick, regard them 

 as highly objectionable, and on this side appears the most direct and 

 positive evidence. In this city are some places of interment, which 

 whatever may be said of their effects on health, are certainly crowd- 

 ed and offensive to a high degree; their condition and influence, as 

 certainly, demand an intelligent and careful investigation. 



While writing this communication, there applied to me for medical 

 advice, a young man, who had gone, in good health, into a vault of 

 a church in a densely populated part of the eity,.to see the coffin 



