Cases II and III. Marginal Street.-Two cases occurred here, one a child, the other an adult male. The house baeks immediately upon the water, and is too low to allow of drainage. The living-rooms are on the ground floor, and consist of a kitchen and sleeping-room. Case IV. A child, Middlesex Street, lower end.-Livingrooms on a level with street; basement or cellar falls off in rear, which is used as a cow-yard, and is foul and filthy; surroundings also bad. A pool of stagnant water stands within. two or three rods of the house. Case V. A child, Maverick Street.-Living-room on first floor, level with the street, with basement or cellar falling off in rear. In this basement was a bar-room where liquors were sold. A foul smell noticeable; land low, about one hundred yards from the water; drain said to enter the street sewer. Case VI. A child, Maverick Street.-House small; situation low; surroundings bad; cow-yard twelve or fourteen feet from the house, foul and in bad condition; no cellar; no drainage possible. Case VII. A child, Central Avenue.-The house was shut and the family absent. Surroundings apparently good. Could learn nothing definite about the drainage. Case VIII. Adult male, corner of Central Avenue and Lynn Street.-Locality good; ground rather high; house new; surroundings apparently good. Did not enter and inspect the premises for domestic reasons. Case IX. Adult male, Middlesex Street.-To a casual observer this house would seem to be well situated, with fair surroundings; but on examining the premises it appeared there was a cellar, perhaps twelve or fourteen feet square, under the rear of the house, directly beneath the kitchen. The drainage from the sink of said kitchen passed into an open, V-shaped wooden trough, and was thence conveyed across the cellar to the opening of a pipe three or four inches in diameter, not trapped, which conducts presumably to the strect sewer. At the junction of the trough with this pipe the connection was so loose that the greater portion of the slops emptied directly upon the cellar floor, which was of boards laid upon the ground. A foul, strong and constant stench pervaded the cellar, which had no connection with the outer world other than by means of the stairway and door through the kitchen. It was stated that this patient was in the habit of rising early (4 to 5 A. M.), making a rousing fire in the kitchen, and there reading his paper, etc., till he went to his work. To make clear the description above given, a diagram of these premises is subjoined. Case X. A child, Pratt's Block, off Second Street.—This is in a row of wooden houses, of a mean class, in dilapidated condition, without cellars, and having their ground floor four feet below the level of the street; living-rooms on ground floor, comprising kitchen and sleeping-room, of eight-feet stud, dark and ill-ventilated; sink foul, its contents emptying directly upon the ground, A marsh comes up to within a few rods of the house. Yard uncleanly; the whole place redolent of bad smells. Case XI. A child, Auburn Street.-House old, dilapidated; basement-cellar flooded at times, and always foul and damp; no drainage. Twenty feet from house is a large pond of greenish water, into which flows the refuse from the Chelsea Laundry. A great mortality of children from cholera-infan tum and like diseases is reported in this locality in the hot months. I have given on a previous page the report of Dr. Wheeler, in which he states that all, or nearly all, the cases which have come to his knowledge, have occurred on the low, marginal lands, where the soil is to a greater or less extent saturated with moisture. "The same localities," he says, "where they usually expect to find the majority of their cases in epidemics of typhoid, diarrhoea, etc." Cambridge.-Accompanied by Dr. Wellington, I inspected the locality of such cases as he had been cognizant of in that city. Case I. A child, Somerset Street.-Surroundings bad; land low and marshy; water at high tide comes up very near the house; no cellar; no drainage. Case II. Adult male, Webster Street.-House on a dry and sandy soil; surroundings fair; in the yard is a cesspool not connected with the street sewer. This patient was employed in a druggist's store, under the Revere House, in Boston, and was seized suddenly while about his work and taken home for treatment. Case III. Adult male.-House in near vicinity of the marsh; living-rooms on the ground floor; kitchen immediately over a cellar which is very damp and foul. The patient was an old man, and spent much of his time in this kitchen. The house had been much complained of for its bad smells. Quite recently the house drain had been connected with the street sewer. Case IV. River Street.-Locality apparently all right. Premises not entered, but Dr. Wellington reports that to his knowledge no sanitary defects exist. Case V. A child.-Locality, an Irish settlement on low land; a sort of hollow in which water collects after rain; no cellar; surroundings poor. Case VI. Adult, Bigelow Street.-High and dry; drainage good; to outside appearances everything all right; premises not entered. Case VII. A child, Austin Street.-Soil dry; drainage good; at very high tides water backs up and enters the cellar; this has not happened the last year. Case VIII. A child, Street.-Situation of house low; water comes into the cellar in winter and spring after rains and thaws; the occupants think it was more than usually wet last season; cellar floor covered with boards partly decayed. Case IX. A child, Tremont Street.-House one story; surroundings bad; no drainage; large pool of stagnant water about two rods distant. Case X. A child, Cambridge Street.-Land is low in rear; water from the sink empties into back yard direct; no drainage; cellar said to be dry. Case XI. A child, Rideout Street.-An Irish settlement; land low; soil heavy; stagnant water in immediate vicinity; no cellar; no drainage. Case XII. A child, Cambridge Street.-Surroundings poor; tide-water comes into the cellar at times. Case XIII. A child, Cambridge Street.-Locality somewhat low; living-rooms on second floor; surroundings fair. Haverhill.-Dr. Crowell made with me a tour of inspection covering the undoubted cases which had come within his knowledge. Case I. Young man, Spring Court.-This case occurred in a row of tenement-houses of a good class, newly built, standing on rising ground, with good chance for drainage. Soil heavy; cellar damp, the water percolating through the walls from the higher grounds beyond, and at times standing upon the floor of the cellar. At the time of our visit the moisture had been absorbed by a layer of gravel put upon the floor for this purpose; general aspect of the house cheerful and pleas ant. Case II. Adult male, Spring Place.-Kitchen and cellar in basement, the floor of which is a little below the general surface. An exceedingly offensive odor exhales from the sinkopening, filling the kitchen with a sickening stench. This kitchen connects by a stairway with the sitting-room where the patient had been accustomed to pass his evenings. Adjoining privies and sink-drains likewise in bad condition. Case III. Adult male.-House of average quality, with cellar-kitchen; no noticeable odor about the house itself; cellar close and ill-ventilated; apparently not damp. A stable adjoins the house in rear, on land a little higher, the drainage from which must by gravity tend towards, if not enter, the cellar; privy of an adjoining house overflowing and producing an offensive odor. Case IV. A child, Mount Washington.-House about one hundred and fifty feet above the river, and some fifty rods distant; apparently dry and sandy surface; family lived in second story; there was a cistern in the cellar; the cellar itself in fair condition. Case V. A child.-Locality about a mile from the town, elevated two hundred and fifty feet above the river; soil rich and loamy, with clayey substratum; cellar very damp a great part of the time, water standing there sometimes to the depth of two inches or more. The family have sometimes fancied they perceived a foul odor and damp air coming up from the cellar, through the register-openings, into their sleepingrooms; a bad smell from the privy, in close vicinity to the kitchen complained of. Case VI. A child, rear of Primrose Street.-A crowded colony, of French mostly; surroundings bad; soil clayey; water stands after a rain; no drainage. |