Securities against Fire, &c. 295 
of cemeteries may be rendered trifling. In effect, bodies in cemete- 
ries are often placed in tombs; worms also soon devour the soft parts 
of the corpse, or lime may be used for the same purpose, where tombs 
are wanting; cemeteries also, occupy only small: portions of a city, 
whereas privies are spread throughout the whole of it; lastly the dead 
body of a man is an object of small bulk, whereas the living man 
contributes daily, and it may be, during many years, to the mass of 
offensive accumulations which are not always immediately removed.* 
But to return to our subject, we say that the preventive or remedial 
expedients offered in cases like that before us, appear to be four. 
1st. The most direct is the establishment of common sewers for 
carrying off that filth, by which wells and springs of towns in circum- 
stances like New York, are polluted. ‘The utility of the sewers 
in Rome, beginning from the time of the Tarquins, is well known ; 
and they may be adopted every where ; arush of water, however, 
being always provided for their being occasionally cleansed. The 
course of these drains will necessarily be short; but to be durable, 
like those of Tarquin, they should have a bottom paved, with solid 
sides and a solid roof. It is said that a loaded cart of hay might 
have been drawn through those of Rome.- 2d. The next measure 
to be proposed under the present head, is to bring good water into a 
city, when it ceases to have good water of its own; and this was a 
second resource employed by Rome, which abounded in aque- 
ducts, so as even to supply baths and fountains.{ In our day, how- 
ever, we may confine ourselves to the introduction of water for bev- 
erage and cooking ; for what regards the washing of our houses and 
meaner objects, may be accomplished by the aid of water that is al- 
ways at hand.—Sometimes river water is used to great advantage for 
drinking ; or water from a powerful spring may be introduced by 
an open channel, (as is the case of what is called the new river water 
* In some places, vaults under churches, have been found very offensive, owing 
to local causes, and particularly so in the case of graves dug in a clayey soil, and hold- 
ing water running into them from the roofof the church. But this is a very limited 
object.—For a most revolting account of some of the vaults in the city of Rome, see 
Dr. Hosack’s quotation from Mr. Theodore Lyman, Junior’s account of the “ Politi- 
cal state of Italy!’ Boston, 1820; chap. xvii, p. 210. 
1 Dr. Hosack says that such sewers have lately been introduced into Philadelphia, 
and they have long been knownin London and other cities in Europe. 
¢ See Fabretti de aquis and aqueductibus Veteris Rome. Rome 1680. 
