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the sewage matter rose above the boards in the basements
(a very large number having the soil under the joists infiltrated)
with an equally prejudicial effect to the health of
the inhabitants, the evil is seen to be so extensive in its
character, that, if it can be shown to be dangerous to
health, not only by producing those diseases which are
believed to proceed from sewage matter in certain states,
such as Typhoid Fever or Diphtheria, but to produce a
lowered vital condition favourable to the development of
certain constitutional diatheses, such as the tubercular, no
efforts should be spared on the part of the sanitary authorities
or their responsible officers to prevent that which is
at the present moment a danger of the greatest magnitude.
The deposits of solid matter which are left behind
after floodings with sewage, and which are composed of
certain proportions of solid sewage— e.g., fœcal and other
organic matters, with ordinary mud, sand, &c.— gives
rise to the evolution, after a certain period, of the so-called
sewer gases; which are of organic origin, and concerning
the prolonged effects of which on the system we invite
attention to the following extracts:—
"That the breathing such an atmosphere has an
immense effect on health is a matter of such daily
observation, that I presume it will not be denied. Every
one must have seen instances in which headache, sickness,
diarrhoea, general malaise, and, after a certain time, great
depression of health, with more or less anemia, was produced."
"To sum up: the diseases produced by fœcal emanations
on the general population seem to be, diarrhœa,
bilious disorders, often with febrile symptoms, dyspepsia,
general malaise, and anemia; all these affections of digestion
or sanguinification. Typhoid Fever is also intimately
connected with sewage emanations, either being their