bed linen, etc. (4) Chloride of lime, best quality, four ounces, soft water one gallon. If good material is used this is one of the most reliable disinfectants and may be used for most purposes. All persons having grievances should make complaint to the health officer or secretary in writing with the signature attached. G. M. CHESEBROUGH, President JAMES BASTOW, Secretary WM. H. VICKERMAN, Inspector F. F. COMSTOCK, M. D., Health officer and registrar of vital statistica To the State Board of Health: ILION, N. Y., May 25, 1898 Gentlemen. We have a place known as a hotel, is of good size and every year is a continued source of trouble for the board. In case they are sure of winning, I have been instructed to notify the owner to remove the vault closets and connect with the sewer. Also was ordered to write and get your opinion of their power to do so. I send with this request a copy of the sanitary regulations as printed two weeks in two local weekly papers. Please let me know as soon as you can, as the place in question is a stumbling block in regard to other places. Hoping to hear from you at an early day I am, Very truly yours, F. F. COMSTOCK. ALBANY, May 28, 1898 F. F. COMSTOCK, M. D., Health officer, Ilion, N. Y.: Dear Sir. I am in receipt of your communication of the 25th inst., reporting upon your investigation of a complaint sent to you from this department of the 24th inst. Dr. Curtis of this Board will visit Ilion the early part of next week and will notify you when he will leave here. Not having the time to copy names of petitioners signing complaint, I will have Dr. Curtis take the original with him to Ilion for your inspection. Dr. Curtis will also advise you as to the course necessary for your board to take in the matter of causing the removal of vault closets, and requiring connections to be made with public sewer. Very respectfully, BAXTER T. SMELZER, Secretary ALBANY, June 3, 1898 To the Secretary of the State Board of Health: A petition signed by citizens of Ilion to take cognizance of an alleged nuisance created by dumping garbage and household refuse at a point in the outskirts of the village, came to this office recently, which on reference to the local board of health met with a denial that there was a nuisance and a request, which has been complied with, that it be inspected from this office. The household waste is collected by a few voluntary scavengers who are paid a small sum weekly by householders for its removal. It is hauled to a point well out into the country and dumped there under direction of the local health authority. This dumping place is the source of complaint. A little ravine or abrupt depression of limited extent is the point assigned for the reception of this material; it is 10 to 15 feet in depth, contains no stagnant water and has a sparse growth of shrubbery. It is not less than one-third of a mile from the nearest dwelling and is remote from the highway. Garbage is dumped compactly over the edge of this ravine and by direc tion, ashes are made to cover it. There is now no decomposable material exposed; cans, shrubbery clippings, paper and such material only being in sight above and outside of the ashes. There is a smoldering fire and it gives off an offensive smoke; otherwise there is no odor escaping worthy of complaint. The fire should not be allowed to work into the mass and must be extinguished; combustible material should be separated and burned when a wind away from the village is blowing. If this is done and the garbage kept covered sufficiently there is no reason why the dumping place may not be entirely sanitary. But this should be carefully seen to especially as warm weather comes on. There is no other available means of disposal to be commended except to plow the material under, or to cremate it. The annual yield of household waste from this village is probably about 500 tons if all were collected; it would be exceedingly desirable if attention were given to devising a crematory for villages of 5000 or 10,000 population that would operate with the same economy as for larger towns, but I know of none at present. It is not wise to use this readily putrescible matter to feed domestic animals which yield a food product, and it has no fertilizing value in its green state, for while it ferments quickly, it decomposes slowly in the soil. The Ilion plan with suitable care is sufficiently satisfactory and as carried out, as I saw it, is not likely to cause defilement of either the atmosphere or any source of water-supply. Respectfully, F. C. CURTIS DISPOSAL OF GARBAGE AT UTICA To the State Board of Health: ALBANY, August 26, 1898 The subject of this report is the disposition made of the household waste of Utica, which I have to-day looked into in answer to a request recently made for the action of this board upon it, by the health officer of that city, Dr. Wallace Clarke. The present method of garbage disposal has been condemned by the city board of health. This material is being collected for the city by contract, the present contract price being $6500 a year. The average amount is 12 two-horse loads daily, the loads being of about two tons each. This would amount to over 7000 tons per annum, which indicates pretty thorough collection from a population of 55,000. The disposal of it consists in hauling it to a place in the outlying precincts, within the limits of the municipality, one and one-half to two miles from the center of the city, where it is dumped on the open surface of the ground without further treatment. The right to thus deposit it is secured from the owner by a rental payment of $1200 a year. The site is a large open flat meadow near the banks of the Mohawk river. In high water this ground is widely overflowed and much of the accumulated material is carried away by the stream. To-day after a storm of exceptional severity it is so deeply under water that the whole meadow is an extensive morass and the dumping place nearer the river is inaccessible, although the site itself being more ele vated is not entirely under water; it is therefore being deposited some distance less remotely than usual. The loads are found to consist of ordinary kitchen refuse in the customary state of semidecomposition. There is also brought and in like manner deposited here the contents of privy-vaults, which is brought in tightly closed barrels, averaging 12 to the load and of these loads I learned that under the energetic requirements of the board of health there are during the summer not less than 20 a day; but the material consists largely of water. Related to its surroundings, this dumping site is remote from the nearest buildings, which are mostly factories along a street, a distance of possibly half a mile; in another direction and perhaps three-fourths of a mile distant is the large Masonic home; within that radius are other scattered dwellings; it is traversed by the main line of the New York Central Railroad. It is therefore fairly distant from permanent residents. On inquiry at the factories the workmen told me that when the wind was right the odor was very offensive and I also learned that frequently it reaches the Masonic home so that windows have to be kept closed. The question whether a nuisance is thus being committed should I think be answered in the affirmative. To deposit this great mass of decomposable organic waste from a population of 50,000 people without treatment of any sort upon such a site is not a method of its disposal that should be perpetuated. An important stream, which furnishes a potable supply for many people is being defiled not only by seepage into the soil but by the actual carrying away in bulk of much of the matter deposited. The air for a large area about it is defiled by exhalations from it as would be anticipated and as is found to be the case. То simply state the conditions as they exist is sufficient without elaboration of argument to show that a nuisance of menance and danger to the public health is being maintained, and in my opinion it should be adjudged as such. The primitive methods of garbage disposal such as this of dumping it on the surface, or of ploughing it under or otherwise covering it, or of feeding it to animals whose product is used for human food should all be replaced by the modern methods of cremation or of utilization. In recent time these have been so perfected as to be sanitary and hardly more expensive than the long haul necessitated by the primitive methods. It is possible to place a cremator within city limits, of a sort now available, and consume this waste matter with no more offense arising than from the machinery of any ordinary factory. Utilization plants, which render this material in closed digesters by steam, also offer good results and in some of the larger cities are working satisfactorily. My impression is that between these two methods, under either of which numerous plans are offered for selection, the choice as to cleanliness and sanitary working is in favor of cremation and as to expense of operation there is at this time perhaps little choice In any case the cost of destruction is far less than that of collection of garbage and need add but a moderate item to the cost of its disposal, while substituting a wholesome method for one which as in the case in Utica is unsanitary and to be absolutely condemned. Respectfully, F. C. CURTIS |