s 



AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS 



and the upper Hudson arc in general in fair condition; the lower sections 

 of these rivers adjoining Manhattan Island are considerably polluted; and 

 the Harlem River is grossly polluted. In the immediate vicinity of sewer 



outlets the conditions which exist are distinctly offensive to the senses. 



Besides these conditions of local nuisance, there arc real dangers to 

 health involved in the present method of disposal of New York sewage. 

 The wastes from a city always contain the germs of such infectious diseases 

 as typhoid fever, and those who come in contact with water into which such 

 wastes are discharged are liable to contract the diseases in question. More 

 or less contact is inevitable with the waters immediately surrounding the 

 shores and docks. Thus at the steps in Battery Bark and all about the 



CLAM DIGGING NEAR SEWER OUTLET. JAMAICA BAY 



Shellfish procured from this and similar localities arc sold in the city's markets and 

 arc occasionally responsible for cases of typhoid ('ever. Photograph Of a model in the. 

 American Museum 



city, driftwood and other floating objects arc picked out and carried by 

 the poor to their homes. All these objects have been exposed to dangerous 

 pollution and may carry the germs of disease. In Jamaica Bay and else- 

 where near New York, clams and other shellfish arc taken in the near 

 neighborhood of public and private sewers. Some processes of cookery 

 destroy the germs of typhoid but others do not. The amount of disease 

 now caused in this way is probably not large but the danger exists. The 

 most serious of these sanitary problems is that due to bathing in the pol- 

 luted waters. Free floating bathing establishments are maintained by the 

 City at various points along the water front, often in the near vicinity of 



