Eaton, Dorman B. (Dorman Bridgman), 1823-1899; Public health -- New York (State) -- New York; Sanitation -- New York (State) -- New York
The Inspector of the Eleventh Ward says: “As a rule, the streets are
extremely dirty and offensive, and the gutters obstructed with filth.
The filth of the streets is composed of house-slops, refuse vegetables,
decayed fruit, store and shop sweepings, ashes, dead animals, and
even human excrements. These putrifying organic substances are ground
together by the constantly passing vehicles. When dried by the summer’s
heat, they are driven by the wind in every direction in the form of
dust. When remaining moist or liquid in the form of “slush,” they emit
deleterious and very offensive exhalations. The reeking stench of the
gutters, the street filth, and domestic garbage of this quarter of
the city, constantly imperil the health of its inhabitants. It is a
well-recognized cause of diarrhoeal diseases and fevers.”
The Inspector of the Eighteenth Ward reports: “The streets in the
eastern part of the district, east of First Avenue especially, have,
for the past six months, been in a most inexcusably filthy condition.
The pavement here is uneven, there are deep gutters at either side of
the streets, filled with foul slops, in which float or are sunk every
form of decaying animal and vegetable matter. Occasionally, at remote
and irregular intervals, carts come round, these stagnant pools are
dredged, so to speak, and their black and decayed solid contents raked
out. If there be anything on earth that is ‘rank and smells to heaven,’
these gutters do on such occasions, especially in the summer months.
The streets in this part of the city are the principal depositories
of garbage. In some instances heaped up at the sides of the streets,
in others thrown about promiscuously, the event in either case is the
same, if it be allowed to remain day after day, as it usually is. After
having passed through every stage of decay, after having corrupted
the surrounding air with its pestilential smell, it gradually becomes
dessicated and converted into dust by the summer sun and the constantly
passing vehicles. And now every horse that passes stirs it up, every
vehicle leaves a cloud of it behind; it is lifted into the air with
every wind and carried in every direction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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