Roger Sherman Tracy

“ New York newspapers are great sinners in this respect. While they are continually extolling the natural advantages of the city, her magnificent river-front and harbor, her advantageous situation, her brilliant sky, they are also constantly bewailing her bad government, her lukewarm public spirit, and the universally asinine quality of her public officers. One would think that her present position as a metropolis is entirely due to natural advantages, and has been gained in spite of the most earnest opposition from her leading citizens. ”

“ A leader is never of the same length as the soil-pipe, and, if there is direct communication between them through the house-drain, there will always be a current of air through them in one direction or the other. If the external air is colder than that inside the pipes, then the heavier column of air will be over the shorter pipe, and the current will be down that one and up the other. If the external air is warmer than that in the pipes, the heavier column will be that which includes the longer pipe, and the current will be down that one and up the shorter. ”

“ And yet I think it can be shown not only that drowning and hanging are painless modes of death, but why they are so.
When a person, who cannot swim, falls into deep water, he is seized with a sudden and tremendous fright. The exceptions to this rule are too few to be worth noticing. This fright, of itself, kills some persons, and they go to the bottom like a plummet. Women are very apt to faint, and, as they sink beneath the surface and respiration still goes on involuntarily, they probably drown before they regain consciousness. ”

“ Leaving the dry and technical details of science, which are of chief concern to specialists, to the journals devoted to them, The Popular Science Monthly has dealt with those more general and practical subjects which are of the greatest interest and importance to the people at large. ”

“ If he agrees to do what they wish, some other citizens are equally certain that he has been bought. It seems impossible for a man to remain in public office in New York City for six months without having charges or intimations of bribery come to his ears, in one form or another. And not only are our public officers all supposed to be open to corrupt influences, but, when they are put in office, they are believed ipso facto to become suddenly ignorant of all that they knew before. ”

“ The object being to ascertain the location of defects in the pipes inside the house, the examiner must feel certain, if he detects the odor of peppermint anywhere, that the vapor has come to him from inside the pipes, and not from the outside. If the ventilating-pipes are so constructed that the oil can not be poured in from the roof, then it must be poured into some basin or water-closet in the upper portion of the house. The peppermint should first be mingled with a pailful of hot water to promote rapid volatilization, and poured slowly down the pipe. ”

“ Others walk about the room, or even out in the street, and insist that they are perfectly well; or, if they acknowledge that anything is the matter with them, complain merely of weariness or debility. They often betray no symptom of the disease to the casual observer; but the physician will see an expression of dullness or listlessness in the face, and a wateriness of the eye, and will find the pulse feeble or even absent. ”

“ Where the soil consists of a natural bed of loam, sand, or rock, the house-sewer may be of hard, salt-glazed, and cylindrical earthenware pipe, laid on a smooth bottom, free from all projections of rock, and with the soil well rammed to prevent any settling of the pipe. Each section must be wetted before applying the cement, and the space between each hub and the small end of the next section must be completely and uniformly filled with the best hydraulic cement. Care must be taken to prevent any cement being forced into the drain to become an obstruction. No tempered-up cement shall be used. ”

“ Arrived at the surface, he gasps for breath, swallows a quantity of water, sucks some of it into his lungs, catches hold of straw's or small floating objects in a wild, senseless way, and, every time he lifts his arm above the surface, produces the same effect as if a piece of lead had been tied to his feet. ”

“ How to prevent contamination of the air by the respiration, bodily emanations, and excreta of diseased persons.
It is not possible with our present knowledge to prevent the multiplication of morbid germs in the human body, when they are once implanted there, nor to prevent their discharge; but we can destroy them after their exit from the body, and so protect other persons who are not yet affected. ”

“ In those places snow has never been an obstacle in getting about the streets. As soon as the snow begins to fall, they sweep it up and carry it away.'"
And "Figaro" adds: "All this is perfectly true; in London, they melt the snow instantly with jets of steam; in Berlin, where it snows almost constantly in winter, the street-cars do not cease running for an instant, owing to analogous measures, which keep the rails absolutely free. But we are in France, we are in Paris; and a practical spirit is, unfortunately, the only thing we lack." ”

“ Tanks for drinking-water are objectionable; if indispensable, they must never be lined with lead, galvanized iron, or zinc. They should be constructed of iron, or wood lined with tinned and planished copper. The overflow should discharge upon the roof, or be trapped and discharge into an open sink, never into any soil or waste pipe or water-closet trap, nor into the drain or sewer.
45. Rain-water leaders must never be used as soil, waste, or vent pipes; nor shall any soil, waste, or vent pipe be used as a leader.
46. When within the house, the leader must be of cast-iron, with leaded joints ”

“ Some men, however, with strong necks and coarse organizations, do not become unconscious from the shock of the fall, and suicides generally have no fall; so that, in such cases, death supervenes by asphyxia. But even here the process is not a simple one. It is complicated by a congestive apoplexy; i.e., such an overfilling of the blood-vessels of the brain as to produce unconsciousness by pressure on the brain-substance, but without the actual rupture of any artery. And in these cases, too, insensibility comes on so rapidly that death is really painless. ”

“ Wrought-iron pipes, with screw joints, are used by the Durham House Drainage Company, the joints being gas-tight. They have the advantage of being very durable and impervious to gases, but the disadvantage of being too permanent. If it is desired to change the position of a fixture, or to connect a new one, it is easy to break a hole in a cast-iron pipe, or to remove a portion of it, but where wrought-iron pipe is used this is almost impossible. ”

“ As a matter of fact, the expense of street-cleaning in New York for 1879 was $690,000, including $40,000 for removing ice and snow; and in Paris for 1878, $817,000, including $181,000 for the removal of ice and snow.
An important part of the duties of a street-cleaning bureau is the removal of ashes and garbage. It is also exceedingly difficult, in a large city, to do this effectively and economically. I say, in a large city, for in a small village the garbage nuisance is at its minimum, and it increases with the number and crowding of inhabitants. ”

“ The house-drain is the large pipe which receives the contents of the soil and waste pipes and conveys them outside the house.
A trap is a bend (with or without an enlargement) of the pipe, intended to retain a sufficient amount of the fluids that enter it to occlude the pipe and prevent the backward flow of air. The effective [Pg 36] water-seal is represented by the total depth of water in the trap, minus the inside diameter of the pipe, and should be at least one inch. ”

“ It is a common belief, reiterated in the daily journals, that the household and street refuse of Paris is sold for enormous amounts, and that so much money is received on this account that the street cleaning service of that city is a source of revenue instead of expense. This is not so. The chief revenue in this regard is derived from the rag-pickers. In New York these people ransack the boxes and barrels on the street, without paying for the privilege, and all that they collect brings them a clear profit. ”

“ Lead can not be soldered to iron, and therefore brass or copper has to be used. If iron ferrules are used, the lead pipe must be turned up on the outside [Pg 46] far enough so that its edge shall be covered by the melted lead used in calking, so as to prevent leakage of gas, as hereafter described. (See “Bad Odors,” 1, b.)
28. Wiped-joints are those always used for lead pipe, and are indicated by a raised ring of solder surrounding the pipe.
29. A trap, with a good water-seal, is an effective barrier against the passage of sewer-air or particles of organic matter. ”

“ A person who cannot swim sinks at the first plunge, but, as soon as the impetus of his fall is destroyed, his frantic struggles or a kick against the bottom, if he happens to touch it, sends him up to the surface, for the specific gravity of the body is so nearly that of water that a very slight motion of the hands or feet is sufficient to keep one afloat. ”

“ Water-closets sometimes become loosened from the floor and leak fluids and gases. The covers of hand-holes of traps sometimes get loose and leak gas. Sometimes trap-screws, instead of being at the bottom of the trap, where they are covered by water, are at the top; if these are loose, gases may escape. All such defects should be repaired.
(c.) Pipes.—Both lead and iron pipes are corroded and in time perforated by sewer-air. Such corrosion is most likely to occur at points where gases come in contact with a dry part of the pipe, viz., at the crowns or domes of traps, and in ventilating-pipes. ”

“ It is unfair to compare the New York method of removing ashes and garbage with that of smaller and less compact towns, like Boston and Philadelphia. The difficulties to be surmounted in this city are even greater than in Paris or London, because of the peculiar shape of the city, and because we are surrounded by water. ”

“ Fumigation with sulphur is the only practicable method for disinfecting the house. For this purpose, the rooms to be disinfected must be vacated. Heavy clothing, blankets, bedding, and other articles which can not be treated with zinc solution, should be opened and exposed during fumigation, as directed below. Close the rooms as tightly as possible, place the sulphur in iron pans supported upon bricks placed in wash-tubs containing a little water, set it on fire by hot coals or with the aid of a spoonful of alcohol, and allow the room to remain closed for twenty-four hours. ”

“ So that, in drowning, we have reason to believe, contrary to Taylor's opinion, that pure, uncomplicated asphyxia never occurs.
If death by drowning be inevitable, as in a shipwreck, the easiest way to die would be to suck water into the lungs by a powerful inspiration, as soon as one went beneath the surface. A person who had the courage to do this would probably become almost immediately unconscious, and never rise to the surface. ”

“ The air is at certain times and places contaminated by the products of respiration and the bodily emanations of diseased persons.
In certain diseases, commonly known as contagious, organic matters are thrown off by the lungs and skin of the sick, which tend to reproduce these diseases in the bodies of other persons. The exact nature of these poisons is in most cases unknown, but they are generally believed to be living microscopic organisms (bacteria, bacilli, micrococci, etc.) , which multiply their kind in the blood of the person who has inhaled them. ”

“ It is believed by most citizens of New York that ample funds are given to the Bureau of Street-Cleaning, and that, if this money were honestly expended, our streets ought to be as clean as those of Paris. Now, the facts of the case are these:
Our Bureau of Street-Cleaning employs 387 street-sweepers. Paris has a permanent corps of 3,180, besides 190 machines, each doing the work of ten men. Our bureau has to clean, more or less perfectly, 1,415 acres of paved street surface; Paris, 2,667 acres. The great difference in force, in proportion to the work to be done, is apparent at a glance. ”

“ Safe-wastes and the overflow-pipes of tanks and cisterns may be connected with the soil or waste pipe. When they are, they are usually trapped. It will often be found that the traps are empty and useless, so that offensive gases escape from the pipes. With tank-overflow pipes this is generally the case. Safe-waste traps are sometimes provided with small feed-pipes, intended to discharge water into them every time the fixtures are used. ”

“ Free thought and free speech have brought about a universal freedom in criticism, so that, at the present time, singularly enough, it has come to be looked upon as a sign of high civilization and progress for every man to have an opinion about everything, whether he knows anything about it or not. ”

“ All joints in the iron drain-pipes, soil-pipes, and waste-pipes must be so calked with oakum and lead, or with cement made of iron filings and sal-ammoniac, as to make them impermeable to gas.
27. All connections of lead with iron pipes must be made with a brass sleeve or ferrule, of the same size as the lead pipe, put in the hub of the branch of the iron pipe, and calked in with lead. The lead pipe must be attached to the ferrule by a wiped joint. ”

“ As soon as unconsciousness comes on, the struggles cease, and the body remains beneath the surface. During all this agony the suffering of the drowning man is undoubtedly chiefly mental. It comes from the instinctive dread of death which even the stoic cannot rid himself of, and is of the same nature as the mental agony of the condemned man before his execution, though less prolonged. ”

“ Under existing arrangements there is no provision for a thorough and periodical cleaning of the roads. They are not even swept, the result being that in dry weather they are littered with refuse and abominations of various sorts, which pollute the atmosphere and fully account for the unpleasant odors which have during the present summer prevailed in the metropolis and been the cause of general complaint. Water-carts are of very little service in washing the streets; they may lay the dust for the time, but they merely transform it into mud without removing it. ”

“ IN executions it is the custom to drop the condemned man from a height, or (as in New York) to jerk him up from the ground by the fall of a heavy weight, so that there is a powerful concussion of the brain to start with. It used to be a common belief that the necks of criminals were broken by this means, and that the pressure of the fractured vertebræ on the spinal cord shortened the period of suffering. It is now known, however, that this rarely occurs, and the criminal dies of asphyxia or apoplexy, usually the former. ”

“ Of course, those who are addicted to cleanly habits can have their dust-receptacles attended to oftener by entering into a private contract with the dustmen; but those whose means are straitened, or who can not afford this luxury, must be content to endure their pestilence-breeding bins, with all the foul odors and health-depressing influences attached to them, until such times as it may please the dustmen to give them a dirty clean-out, the visits of these gentlemen being, like those of the angels, "few and far between," in the poor and crowded districts of this great city. ”

“ In some persons, particularly in heavy or aged ones, the sharp and sudden violence of the shock is sufficient to burst some blood-vessel, and the gush of blood into the brain-substance renders the criminal immediately unconscious. But apoplexy rarely kills suddenly; even such persons really die of asphyxia. In feeble persons, the simple concussion of the brain may be sufficient to bring on insensibility, like a stunning blow on the head, without any visible lesion of the organ ”

“ Notwithstanding this, the face grows red, the eyes become a little glaring, the head becomes hot, there comes on a feeling of weight, dizziness, a sort of distress, and then all in an instant a hissing and roaring in the ears. ”

“ The negro natives are generally exempt, though it has been noticed that negroes who have left the South for the North, and have returned during an epidemic, do not possess this immunity. In the present epidemic, even the negroes seem to succumb in great numbers. It is a singular fact that persons exposed to offensive effluvia when working at their trade, as tanners, butchers, soap-boilers, and scavengers, are almost exempt from the disease, while those whose trade exposes them to great variations of temperature, as bakers and cooks, are extremely prone to it. ”

“ If 14,000 men and $100,000 are unable to clean 2,667 acres of street in Paris in two months after a snow-fall of twenty inches, what ought in justice to be expected from a force of 400 men, with no extra appropriation, working on 1,415 acres of street in New York, after a snow-fall of eighteen inches? ”

“ In the vast majority of cases, however, this lull in the symptoms is deceitful, and lasts only from a few hours to a day, when the gravest stage of the disease sets in. The pulse soon becomes small and thready, beating only thirty or forty to the minute, and the heart often works vigorously after the pulse can no longer be felt at the wrist. The nausea and vomiting return and become constant, the respiration is often embarrassed, the tongue becomes dry and brown, the skin is cool and dry, there is often a distressing hiccough, and the thirst is insatiable. ”

“ Now, when cold water is sucked into the lungs and comes in contact with their delicate and sensitive mucous membrane, it must cause an instant and powerful contraction of the capillaries, and obstruct the current of blood from the right side of the heart, thus indirectly damming back the venous blood in the brain. This state of things brings on unconsciousness rapidly, preceded by the pleasurable tingling sensations, rapid succession of ideas, and flashes of light and color, so often described by persons who have been rescued from drowning. ”

“ His suffering, too, is chiefly mental, but he experiences the additional discomforts of exhaustion, cold, and hunger, if his struggle for life is a prolonged one.
It is believed that the rapidity and painlessness of death by drowning are due chiefly to the speedy obstruction of the circulation of the blood through the lungs. In ordinary asphyxia, by the simple deprivation of air, the blood throughout the body becomes charged with carbonic acid, and the arteries as well as the veins become filled with venous blood. ”