THE PROBLEM 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Sewerage of San Francisco, 
 
 A POLYCLINIC LECTURE. 
 
 I. H. STALLARD, M. B., London. 
 
 M. R. C. P., London, etc. 
 Phvsician to the San Francisco Pulyclinic. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO: 
 
 H. S. CROCKER COMPANY, PRINTERS. 
 1892. 
 
THE PROBLEM 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Sewerage of San Francisco 
 
 A POLTCLINK LECTURE. 
 
 BY 
 
 1. H. STALLARD, M. B., London, 
 
 M. R. C. P., London, etc. 
 Physician to the San Francisco Poly clinic. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO: 
 
 H. S. CROCKER COMPANY, PRINTERS. 
 1892. 
 
LECTURE. 
 
 Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 I shall offer no apology on behalf of the Polyclinic for this 
 attempt to discuss in public the problem of the sewerage of 
 San Francisco. 
 
 For myself, however, I crave your kind indulgence. I am 
 not an engineer, nor shall I attempt to meddle with engineer- 
 ing questions. I shall speak rather as a sanitarian not alto- 
 gether unfamiliar with the nature and action of defective 
 sewers, but above all I desire to speak as a citizen of ordinary 
 sense. 
 
 The problem before us is one of the deepest public interest. 
 It affects the health, lives, prosperity and welfare of all classes 
 and all ages. It is a problem which cannot be left entirely 
 and exclusively in the hands of engineers, Supervisors, Com- 
 missioners, Boards of Works, or even Boards of Health. The 
 citizens of San Francisco have suffered so keenly in the past 
 from ignorant, wasteful and even injurious expenditures, to 
 say nothing of the malfeasance of public officials and the ras- 
 cality of contractors, that we may reasonably hope that no 
 large expenditure will be incurred, even in the promotion of 
 the public health, until the proposals and plans of operation 
 shall have received the approval of the majority of the tax- 
 payers ; and that approval must be founded on the satisfaction 
 of their intelligence and common sense. 
 
 I shall therefore do my best to show that the problem of 
 the sewerage is not beyond the comprehension of an intelligent 
 community ; and it is the desire of the Polyclinic staff to assist 
 in educating the public in all matters relating to the public 
 health, and their hope is to create an irresistible current of 
 public opinion in order that what is wisest and best may be 
 speedily adopted and effectually carried out. 
 
 As a preliminary it is desirable to satisfy you that there is a 
 problem to discuss. We have amongst us Silurians who are 
 satisfied with the existing state of things. On the authority 
 of every annual health report they proclaim the city to be the 
 healthiest on earth, and if we are indeed so healthy, why not 
 be satisfied ? What harm is there in a few foul sewers if we 
 
 51893 
 
enjoy good health in spite of them ? After congratulating the 
 citizens on their low death rate, the present officer of health calls 
 attention to the high death rate of the Chinese, and states that 
 the death rate of our public institutions is also exceedingly 
 heavy. ' ' If, " says he, " we deduct the excessive death rate of 
 our Chinese and public institutions, we should exhibit our city 
 as one of the most healthy on the globe, notwithstanding the 
 deplorable condition of our sewers." 
 
 Now I do not hesitate to say that the Chinese death rate is a 
 manufactured article. The Chinese play no part in it ; their 
 number, the only basis for a calculation, is unknown. The 
 same number of deaths which three years ago gave a death 
 rate of 16.6 per thousand, this year gave 35.1 per thousand, 
 and there are no special reasons for the difference. 
 
 And with regard to the deaths in public institutions there is 
 no excess. In London the proportion is about the same. 
 The fact is that the impecunious invalids, and for that matter 
 the rich as well, turn their faces to the larger cities in search 
 of the best professional advice and treatment. And assuredly 
 there are no special attractions provided by the munificence of 
 the dollar limit. Our so-called hospital is little better than a 
 barn. The furniture and fittings are inferior to those of an 
 English pauper workhouse. The patients are attended by 
 rough and tyrannical nurses, who exercise more power than 
 the doctors. There is no staff of dressers. The students who 
 are there to learn the practice of their profession are mere 
 lookers on and are not permitted either to dress a wound or 
 bandage a broken limb. Patients are sent in for special scien- 
 tific treatment, and come out disgusted, not having properly 
 received it. The food would fail to satisfy a healthy laborer, 
 much less the sick and delicate. Medical comforts are " rara 
 aves in gurgite vasto." The prime business of the superin- 
 tendent is to keep the expenditure within the low appropria- 
 tion, and the total cost of medicines, attendance and food is 
 only thirteen cents a day for each patient. The managers are 
 the creatures of politics. They do not appoint the staff of 
 physicians and surgeons, and have no control over them, and 
 the latter have no voice whatever in the management. And 
 according to my experience, which is by no means small, the 
 invalid must be destitute indeed who braves these horrors. 
 
Oh ! for some philanthropist who would transfer the treat- 
 ment of the sick poor of San Francisco from the murky realms 
 of politics to the glorious republic of voluntary charity, and 
 who, like Vanderbilt in New York, would provide for the 
 Polyclinic here a hospital worthy of the name and of our city. 
 The staff of the Polyclinic will require no pay; and, supported 
 by the generosity which has already accomplished so marvel- 
 ous a result, we will guarantee that every patient shall re- 
 ceive the attendance, treatment and comforts which his case 
 demands. 
 
 And now as to the death rate. The Registrar- General of 
 England states that ''The rates in one country or in one city 
 cannot be safely compared with the rates of another without cor- 
 rection for sex and age distribution." What does he mean ? 
 First as to sex. Here is the sex mortality of four large cities, 
 and you see how different they are. 
 
 MORTALITY OF SEXES. 
 
 Males. Females. Males. Females. 
 
 Philadelphia 11,140 10,590 + 550 
 
 Boston 4,983 4,854 + 129 
 
 Baltimore J >947 l ,97 2 + 2 5 
 
 San Francisco 4,208 2,695 + 1,513 
 
 The census returns for 1890 have not yet been published; but 
 in 1880 there were in San Francisco 31,257 more males than 
 females; and the whole of this disparity was of persons over 
 twenty years of age. We shall presently observe the effect oi 
 this upon the death rate. 
 
 But the age distribution is still more remarkable. I present 
 you with this table compararing the age distribution in Eng- 
 land, Massachusetts and San Francisco: 
 
 AGES OF THE POPULATION PER CENT IN ENGLAND, 
 MASSACHUSETTS AND SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 England. Massachusetts. San Francisco 
 
 Under 20 years 59 39 39 
 
 " 25 " 10 9 10 
 
 " 45 " 21 30 38 
 
 " 65 " 6 16 10 
 
 Over 65 " 4 6 3 
 
 IOO IOO IOO 
 
Here you will see that San Francisco has twenty per cent 
 fewer persons than England under twenty years of age. 
 Moreover, that the disparity between England and Massachu- 
 setts is the same. This difference is explained by the differ- 
 ence in the birth rate. In London, for example, there are 
 annually thirty-four births (not counting still-births) to one 
 thousand living. But in Massachusetts and America gene- 
 rally there are only twenty-five. We have no reliable statis- 
 tics for San Francisco. 
 
 Now young infants are extremly sensitive to their sanitary sur- 
 roundings. It is the most deadly year of life. About two hun- 
 dred out of every one thousand die before they reach one year of 
 age ; probably more in San Francisco. The number of deaths 
 therefore increases with the birth rate. In London twenty-three 
 per cent of the total mortality is under one year, but as the births 
 are less numerous here they form only nineteen per cent of the 
 total. If San Francisco had the same number of births to every 
 thousand living as London, there would be at least 250 more 
 deaths annually, augmenting the death rate nearly one per 
 thousand. 
 
 But in the next place we have in San Francisco twent}^ per cent 
 more of persons between twenty-five and forty-five years of age, 
 and two thirds of them are males, no doubt for the most part 
 immigrants. This period of life is subject to a low death rate. In 
 the absence of census returns, we may estimate the number of 
 persons living at this age in San Francisco at about 130,000; 
 and, as we find by the last report that the mortality was 1,471, 
 the annual death rate of this class is therefore eleven per 
 thousand. This may appear low, but in a perfectly healthy 
 community it would be much less. 
 
 The annual death rate of the British army in England, the 
 men being all of these ages, is only six per one thousand, and in 
 the sailors of the British navy it is only four per thousand. We 
 may by this comparison safely affirm that the excessive death 
 rate is due to preventable causes, and that, if the sanitary con- 
 ditions of the citizens of San Francisco were as good as those 
 of the British army and navy, we should annually save nearly 
 seven hundred lives, all in the very prime of life. 
 
 There is yet another class in which, if exact data were 
 available, we might find an unnecessary loss of life. We have 
 
in San Francisco 86,000 children of school age, five to seven- 
 teen, for whom the death rate ought to be extremely low. 
 Let me tell you how low it can be made. Some forty years ago 
 the pauper children of London were removed to large public 
 schools. They were taken from the lowest class ; they were 
 of feeble constitutions, the subjects of rickets, opthalmia, scald- 
 head and struma. They had been badly housed, badly fed 
 and badly clothed. They were taken from the gutters. It 
 was thought well that the death rate was as low as fourteen in 
 the thousand annually. But the prevalence of preventable 
 disease led to the improvement of the drainage, and down 
 went the death rate to eight per thousand. Soon after this 
 the ventilation was improved, and every child given a separate 
 bed. Then the death rate was further reduced to six per 
 thousand. Later on more attention was paid to personal 
 hygiene ; cleanliness was promoted, the dietary improved, 
 and physical training introduced. Again the death rate was 
 reduced to four per thousand, and last year such was the 
 mproved conditition of the children, that the death rate was 
 only three per thousand. Meantime the aspect of the child- 
 ren has completely changed. They are no longer recognizable 
 as paupers. Formerly pale and weak, they have become 
 ruddy and strong. Formerly stupid and lazy, they are now 
 bright and intelligent. Now San Francisco may fairly boast 
 of having the finest and brightest children on earth, and it 
 would be a sad reflection if their death rate should be higher 
 than that of those paupers. There are no data for comparison, 
 but three per cent would give only 258 deaths for all the 
 school children of San Francisco. 
 
 But sanitarians are accustomed to look less to the general 
 rate of mortality as a test of the condition of the sewerage, 
 than to the prevalence of certain diseases which prevail ex- 
 cessively when the sewerage is defective and are invariably 
 reduced by its improvement. I have selected diphtheria and 
 typhoid fever as typical examples, in order to compare their 
 mortality with that of other cities. But it is desirable to ob- 
 serve that sanitarians believe that it is just as possible to pre- 
 vent these diseases altogether as it is to prevent small-pox by 
 vaccination. If then I compare the death rate of San Fran- 
 cisco with that of London or Boston, it is not for the purpose 
 
of holding up the reputation of those cities as examples of good 
 sewerage, for neither of them are so, but for showing how 
 dark the sanitary picture in San Francisco is, and what great 
 opportunities there are for its improvement. 
 
 ENGLISH AND AMERICAN DEATH RATES. 1891. 
 
 City. 
 
 Population. ] 
 
 Death rate. 
 
 ?oo P ooo hvin P |. r , 
 
 Typhoid f 
 3er 100,000 1 
 
 London 
 
 . 4,221,452 
 
 2 i i 
 
 ^2.O 
 
 I4.O 
 
 Brighton . . . 
 
 . . . 115,606 
 
 lS.2 
 
 O 
 
 IO.O 
 
 IO.O 
 
 Norwich . 
 
 . . 101,361 
 
 IQ. 3 
 
 27.0 
 
 20. o 
 
 Liverpool . . 
 
 
 -7 O 
 
 27.0 
 
 12. O 
 
 25.0 
 
 Hull 
 
 2OO,9^4 
 
 21 .O 
 
 7.O 
 
 22. O 
 
 Boston .... 
 
 . . . 448,477 
 
 22.5 
 
 IOO.O 
 
 32.0 
 
 Cincinnati 
 
 . . . 325,000 
 
 19.8 
 
 124.0 
 
 63.0 
 
 Philadelphia . 
 
 . . . 1,046,964 
 
 2O-7 
 
 50.0 
 
 54-o 
 
 San Francisco 
 
 . . . 330,000 
 
 2O. O 
 
 IOO.O 
 
 40.0 
 
 Alatneda . . . 
 
 . . . I2,OOO 
 
 12.0 
 
 75 
 
 .0 
 
 San Diego . . 
 
 . . . 16,000 
 
 H-3 
 
 .00 
 
 75 
 
 Diphtheria is not as closely associated with defective sewers 
 as typhoid fever. It is propagated largely by personal inter- 
 course. But its germ is extremely persistent. It lies dor- 
 mant for a long time in dirty linen, dirty walls and floors, 
 filthy subsoil, and in sewer filth. The germ is propagated on 
 the surface of filth and the damp walls of sewers. In San 
 Francisco last year there were 318 deaths, whilst in all London 
 there were but 568. In London the rate is thirty-two per 
 100,000 living, and in San Francisco one hundred per 100,000 
 living, or more than three times as many in proportion. In many 
 parts of London there was absolutely no diphtheria. If the 
 mortality in San Francisco had been at the London rate, there 
 would have been ninety-six deaths, and we should have saved 
 222 lives. For every death there were at least five recoveries, 
 so that we have had over 1,200 cases. At only $100 each for 
 nursing, doctors and undertakers, we have lost $120,000 last 
 year by the excessive .prevalence of this one disease. 
 
 No fact in sanitary science is better established than the 
 close connection between defective sewers and typhoid fever. 
 Mainly by sewerage improvement the English death rate from 
 typhoid fever has been reduced since 1869 from thirty-nine to 
 seventeen in 100,000. Last year we had 129 deaths, or forty 
 in 100,000 living. In London last autumn the whole medical 
 
9 
 
 press was down on the sanitary authorities, owing to the prev- 
 alence of typhoid, and yet last year there were only fourteen 
 deaths in the 100,000 living. If the mortality in San Francisco 
 had been at this rate, there would have been forty-two deaths 
 in 1891, so that there was an excess of eighty -seven deaths. 
 For every death about twenty persons suffer, making, there- 
 fore, 1,740 illnesses. The average duration of each illness is at 
 least one month, with a convalescence often prolonged for sev- 
 eral more. If we make the modest estimate of $200 for the 
 cost of nursing, feeding, doctoring, burying those who die, the 
 loss of wages during sickness, and the impaired constitutions 
 of those who recover, we have in one year, from one disease 
 only, a total loss of about $350,000. 
 
 Time will not permit me to prove the deadly influence of 
 defective sewerage on other diseases, such as la grippe, pneu- 
 monia and consumption. By lowering the standard of vitality, 
 bad air makes the whole community more susceptible to 
 attacks of disease, and destroys our power to resist them. But 
 I cannot forbear from quoting the experience of my native 
 town. For a series of years before the execution of any sani- 
 tary works, Leicester had an annual mortality from Phthisis of 
 435 per hundred thousand living. Thirty miles of sewerage 
 were constructed, and the rate fell to 252. During the last 
 twenty years the sewers have been greatly extended, and the 
 outfalls improved. The Phthisis mortality is now 170 in 100,- 
 ooo. In San Francisco we had reported 959 deaths, or about 
 300 in 100,000 living. By using the same means we may 
 expect the same result, which would effect a saving of 450 lives. 
 
 I trust I have demonstrated beyond a doubt that we have, 
 in San Francisco, a wide field for sanitary improvement. No 
 city in the world is built upon a healthier site or enjoys a 
 healthier climate. The inhabitants have been drawn from 
 every quarter of the globe. The}' are distinguished for their 
 physical and intellectual development. They inhabit well- 
 built houses, have an abundant and good supply of water, 
 and they are justly entitled to expect the longest lives. There 
 are large country districts and some towns of considerable size, 
 both in the East and England, which have an annual death 
 rate of only twelve per thousand. This is the standard pro- 
 posed by the late Sir Edwin Chadwick for all large cities, 
 
10 
 
 and this is the standard we should aim to reach. The deaths 
 would then be about four thousand in the year as against 
 6,650. Suppose, however, we attain to the salvation of two 
 thousand lives. We may reckon the cost of funerals at one 
 hundred dollars each, and save two hundred thousand dollars, 
 Add to this five unnecessary illnesses for every death, and 
 put down the cost of nursing, doctoring, loss of wages and 
 impaired constitutions, at $150 each, and we have altogether 
 a million and a half to be saved within one year. For the 
 sake of argument, give me this sum and I will try to point 
 out in what direction it may be spent with the best advantage. 
 
 In discussing the problem we have in hand, I shall quote 
 largely from the report made by Mr. W. P. Humphreys in 
 1876, to the Board of Supervisors. 
 
 After visiting European and Eastern cities, Mr. Humphreys 
 presented his plan of sewerage, which was fully indorsed by 
 Col. Alexander, of the U. S. Army Engineers. Although not 
 formally adopted, this report has exercised much influence 
 over the construction of sewers by his pupils and successors 
 in office, and many of his recommendations have been com- 
 menced and some of them more or less completely carried out. 
 
 I shall also refer to the report of Mr. Harrison Smith, pre- 
 sented four years ago, in which the scientific principles in- 
 volved are discussed and the various areas of drainage are 
 defined. This report was indorsed by Prof. I^e Conte. 
 
 I shall also have to quote the opinions of my friend Sir R. 
 Rawlinson, K. C. B., who was for so many years the sani- 
 tary advising engineer for the Governments of England and 
 India, and without whose approval no extensive works of 
 sewerage could be carried out in those countries. 
 
 'The true purpose of a sewer," says Mr. Humphreys, "is 
 ' ' the ready removal of rainwater and all organic refuse capa- 
 1 ' ble of being conveyed by water from the vicinity of dwell- 
 " ings to the bay. The day's sewage of each street and house 
 " should be removed from the city on the day of its produc- 
 " tion before decomposition begins. All sewers should be of 
 ' ' proper size and grade in order to be made self-cleansing. ' ' 
 
 The rainfall is his first consideration, and quoting from Mr. 
 Tennant he finds that the heaviest rain recorded occurred on 
 the i gth of December, 1886, and amounted to 4.28 inches in 
 
li- 
 the twenty-four hours. Arbitrarily adding thirty-nine per 
 cent to this he concludes that no rainfall is likely to exceed 
 one-fourth of an inch per hour. He then proceeds to guess at 
 the quantity which will reach the sewers in a given time, one 
 hour ; and again with no more evidence he fixes it at sixty 
 per cent. Fifteen hundred ths of an inch of rainfall within an 
 hour had to be provided for by sewers. This, for an acre, his 
 unit of area, would be 544-. 5 cubic feet. 
 
 The daily flow of household sewage per head of population 
 is next considered. On this point there was at that time no 
 established evidence. It was all guess, and he places it at 
 sixty gallons per head, and says it is a large allowance. To 
 reduce this to his unit of an acre he makes another guess, 
 that there are eighty people living on that acre. This gives 
 640 cubic feet per acre, half of which he believes will reach the 
 sewers in eight hours, or at the rate of forty cubic feet per 
 hour, making a total for rainfall and sewage of 584 cubic 
 feet her hour. 
 
 Lastly, as it is certain that many localities have more than 
 eighty persons on the acre, another arbitrary guess is made, 
 and the total is raised to 617.10 cubic feet per acre per hour, or 
 10.285 cubic feet per minute. This scale of capacity was cal- 
 culated to solve the problem, and there is no doubt it was prac- 
 tically adopted in the construction of the sewers from that 
 date. 
 
 Now the 617.10 cubic feet equals 4,628 gallons which for the 
 total area of the city is about fifty million gallons in an hour; 
 and we need no longer wonder that sewers have been erected 
 eleven feet six inches wide, or only six inches less than the great 
 outfall sewers of London, which are only twelve feet wide, and 
 which carry the sewage of 4,220,000 people, and through 
 which are transmitted one hundred million gallons in a day. 
 
 Mr. Smith is much more cautious. He says there are no re- 
 liable data for the calculation of an hour's rain, and that the 
 largest rainfall of a day might be passed safely through a 
 sewer of moderate size if equally distributed o : ver many hours. 
 He says that large sewers are extremely objectionable as con- 
 duits for ordinary sewage. He observes that the quantity of 
 rainfall which will reach the sewers in a given time depends 
 upon the character of the surface, whether paved or otherwise, 
 
12 
 
 whether open or covered with houses, the inclination and 
 geological formation of the ground, all of which vary greatly 
 sometimes in contiguous blocks. 
 
 Sir R. Rawlinson says that no calculations can be relied 
 on to determine rainfall, and that the primary office of a sewer 
 is to carry sewage, that is, the effete organic refuse of asso- 
 ciated human life. That it is the first duty of the engineer to 
 preserve intact and to improve the natural watercourses, and to 
 add to them if practicable, so that as much rainfall as possible 
 may be passed to the natural outlets through the natural chan- 
 nels, or in other words, kept out of the sewers. This he calls 
 the separate system. He states that in India, where the sea- 
 sons are wet and dry, like those here, but more pronounced, 
 the heavier the rainfall the smaller must the sewers be. 
 
 This advice seems to be right and good. Its object is to 
 preserve the purity of the natural streams and watercourses ; 
 to reduce the dimensions and increase the definition of the 
 problem to be solved ; to restrict the amount of sewage which 
 even when highly diluted is a filthy liquid ; to keep the size 
 and cost of sewers within moderate proportions, and lastly to 
 restrict the admission of sand, which is both difficult and 
 costly to remove, which checks the velocity of the sewage cur- 
 rent, and favors the formation of deposits giving off dangerous 
 emanations. 
 
 Now let us examine an example of Mr. Humphreys' plan, 
 and place it in contrast with the advice of Sir R. Rawlinson. 
 
 In the southwestern part of the city there was formerly an 
 open watercourse called Precita creek ; it ran in a somewhat 
 tortuous course from Mission street down what is now called 
 Army street near Twenty-fifth, to the San Bruno road, and 
 was lost on Mission Flats near to the pest-house. This creek, 
 like all others in California, was dry in summer and occasion- 
 ally ran full in winter. Its depth was considerable, and it was 
 about a mile long. Soon houses and streets were built upon 
 the banks, and the sewage of those houses was discharged into 
 the open watercourse. In a few years this grew to be an 
 intolerable and dangerous nuisance, and is not cured to-day. 
 About 1875 an Act of the Legislature was obtained to abate 
 
 e evil at the cost of the whole community. 
 
 Now, according to the proposals of Sir R. Rawlinson, the 
 creek should have been restored to its natural office, viz., the 
 
13 
 
 transmission of the rainfall to the bay. Sewage should have 
 been kept out of it by intercepting sewers, which should have 
 been put upon its banks. These, by no possibility, need be 
 large, as the sewage here is not the one-thousandth part of a 
 storm rainfall, and their cost would have been a bagatelle. 
 
 Instead of doing this, the engineers of San Francisco pro- 
 ceeded to put the whole mile of creek into the sewer. They 
 constructed a sewer which is eleven feet and six inches wide, 
 eight feet and nine inches from top to botton, and has an 
 invert only fifteen inches deep, that is, nearly flat. Through 
 this sewer you might drive a wagon. The first cost to the 
 city was $160,000, and more than $40,000 have since been spent 
 upon its extensions. The outlet is 930 feet in length and is 
 made of wood. It is tortuous in its course, and affords a 
 brilliant example of the San Francisco engineering. It is 
 only six feet wide, with a contracted bottom, and four feet, 
 six inches high, consequently its area is about one-fourth 
 that of the sewer from which it commences and which it is 
 expected to keep empty. It has a fall of fifteen inches in the 
 distance. This seems indubitable proof that the original 
 sewer was at least four times too large. 
 
 And now let us examine the result. As a creek it is 
 undoubtedly a costly success. The filth, if there is any, is out 
 of sight. It carries off the rainfall. It rarely runs more than 
 one foot and a half in depth, and then only for a few hours in 
 the year. In the rainy season the sewerage proper cannot be 
 recognized as such. The current is increased by numerous 
 land springs from the hills above Noe and from Bernal Heights. 
 Immense quantities of sand and gravel are brought down. 
 The scour has washed out the cement between the bricks, and 
 the floor of the sewer is like a cobble-stone pavement, provid- 
 ing a lodgement for filth as soon as the scour is over. Mean- 
 time the fine sand is washed into Mission creek and the 
 coarse gravel left behind. Every year it has to be removed 
 by hand labor. Last year it took five gangs of men six weeks 
 to take it out, and the cost must have been more than two 
 thousand dollars. This gravel is eagerly sought after by the 
 people living near to make garden walks, and it has been 
 used to pave the streets. 
 
14 
 
 But now what happens when the rain has ceased and the 
 springs are dry ? There is now nothing remaining but domestic 
 sewage, every gallon of which is supplied to the district by 
 trie Spring Valley Water Works. 
 
 The flow of sewage according to my own observation 
 rarely runs more than three or four inches deep. For an 
 hour a day it might possibly be six; but it is intermittent, 
 ceasing altogether for some hours when its producers are 
 asleep. The current first brings down the sand which was 
 washed into the sewers in the higher levels. The invert is 
 reduced in depth and becomes flat at the bottom. The velocity 
 of the current is reduced. Soon are brought down, step by 
 step, all those articles of domestic use which ignorant house- 
 keepers, lazy domestics and mischievous children are accus- 
 tomed to cram down their water-closets, viz., rags, bones, dish- 
 cloths, old shoes, worn-out articles of clothing, broken glass, 
 earthernware, spoons, knives and forks and children's toys of 
 every kind; and these, in this wide and sluggish stream, 
 become stranded on the sides and bottom of the sewer. Del- 
 tas of filth collect at the entrances of the laternal sewers. 
 Thus a deposit of filth is soon formed : stench and dangerous 
 gases are given off, which, passing up into the drainage area, 
 infect the whole district with their dangerous effusions. One 
 effect, however, is to purify the sewage in a small degree, so 
 that when it reaches a lower part of the sewer we find a 
 different condition of affairs. The sewage flow no longer 
 occupies the middle of the sewer, but is diverted by the 
 accumulation of islands of deposits. The stream becomes 
 winding and divided into a hundred channels, each a few 
 inches wide and deep, or meanders from side to side like creeks 
 on the muddy fore-shores of the bay. Thus we have formed a 
 sort of subterranean sewage irrigation farm ; plants of a low 
 order of vegetation grow in the dark and murky atmosphere, 
 and when the sewage arrives at the outlet near Islais creek 
 its character has entirely changed. It has become bright and 
 sparkling ; it has lost all its odor ; in the graphic words of the 
 gentlemen who has his tannery at the outlet, "In the early 
 days," said he, " I have drank much worse looking water, and 
 if I did not know where it came from I would not hesitate 
 to drink this now. Sure it is soft and admirably adapted 
 to manufacturing and laundry purposes." 
 
15 
 
 So, ladies and gentlemen, we have here constructed at 
 enormous cost a huge sewer for the purpose of removing the 
 day's sewage from each street and house to the bay, on the 
 day of its production, before decomposition can take place, which 
 fails completely to perform its duty, and, at the very time of 
 year when the organic refuse becomes most dangerous and 
 deadly, absolutely retains the whole of it for months together 
 to destroy the health and lives of those who live above it, and 
 for whose benefit it was ostensibly constructed. 
 
 But I must further illustrate by another case. 
 
 The Channel-street sewer was built in 1872; and in 1876 Mr. 
 Humphreys stated that the completion of the drainage of Mis- 
 sion creek was a most urgent matter. The sewer was designed 
 to drain an area east of Twenty-second street, reaching to Doug- 
 lass and the Park. This area will shortly be increased at least 
 one-third by the addition of the Fell-street system. The Fell- 
 street sewers are 10,300 feet long, and the contract is not yet 
 completed. The cost to the property owners is $125,000. The 
 whole of the drainage of this district will pass through the 
 Channel-street sewer, which goes from Eighteenth street near 
 to Potrero avenue to Ninth and Brannan streets. This part of 
 the sewer is 4,000 feet long, and for the greater part of its 
 course it is nine feet six inches wide, and seven feet six inches 
 high, with an invert like that of Army street. This sewer cost 
 $176,000, and its extension along Eighteenth street $25,000 
 more ; and now let us examine its workings. It goes without 
 saying that it brings down a large amount of sewage, which, 
 however, has become thoroughly stinking and putrescent Jong 
 before it arrives at the outlet. The Eighteenth-street sewer, a 
 five-foot oval, from which the Channel street begins, now con- 
 tains three feet two inches of deposit, leaving only a small 
 segment open at the top of the sewer for the flow of sewage. 
 Nearly all the lateral sewers are more or less obstructed. 
 From the day of its construction the Channel-street sewer has 
 been more or less choked by sand brought down from the 
 immense drainage area. The sand is black and stinking. 
 Yearly attempts have been made to clean it out. Two or 
 three years ago a zealous Superintendent of Streets put 
 twenty-five men to work upon it, but their efforts were in vain. 
 When they made a hole in the sand one day, they found it 
 
16 
 
 filled up the next. After two weeks' work the attempt was 
 abandoned. In September last the deposit reached to the 
 depth of four feet nine inches, occupying considerably more 
 than half the capacity of the sewer. It contained about 18,000 
 cubic yards of filth, and a contract was let for $4,000 to have it 
 cleaned out. Work was commenced on the twenty-fifth of 
 last September and the men are still there. At first five men 
 were employed ; then for two weeks, twenty-five ; then the 
 contractor sold his contract in despair to Mr. Tilton, senior. 
 By an ingenious flushing arrangement, about half of the deposit 
 is now removed. At my last visit two or three days ago it was 
 still two feet three inches deep. The contractor finds that the 
 sand comes in almost as fast as he can take it out. If work is 
 discontinued on the Sunday, lie finds on Monday morning two 
 inches more of sand than there was on Saturday. I had him 
 measure the increase from one night's rainfall, and it was four 
 inches. Sand enough has been taken from this sewer to fill it 
 three times over. I doubt seriously if the contract can ever be 
 fulfilled, and the contractor states that it will require the con- 
 stant attention of at least two men to keep it reasonably clear. 
 The condition of this sewer indicates another difficulty, viz., 
 the impossibility of erecting large brick sewers in a soft, 
 sandy soil permeated by water, or below the tidal line. The 
 contract provided that in soft ground the sewer should be ade- 
 quately supported by timber and concrete ; but in spite of this 
 the sewer has gradually sunk at both ends and is now broken 
 in the middle. I am informed that it would cost $25,000 to 
 repair the damage. All these evils would have been prevented, 
 the greater part of this ruinous expenditure would have been 
 saved, if the rainfall had been conducted directly and in unpol- 
 luted channels to the Mission creek, which it would have kept 
 in a clean and wholesome state ; and the sewage, instead of 
 being a source of constant and interminable pollution, might 
 have been otherwise disposed of. This sewer was the work of 
 Mr. W. P. Humphreys, and if these are specimen self-cleaning 
 sewers, to be built upon the data to be supplied by this gentle- 
 man to the new Board of Engineers at the cost not exceeding 
 $600 a month, it is time to appeal to the common sense of the 
 community to prevent any such accomplishment. 
 
 One more example before I pass on. The Brannan-street 
 sewer was devised by Mr. Humphreys to carry the sewage of 
 
17 
 
 Channel street to the bay. It was commenced at First street 
 and was completed as far as Fourth street in 1881-82. It 
 is of the same size and shape as Army street. $68,000 was the 
 cost. It is level from end to end. The mouth of the sewer 
 is wholly submerged at high tide. This sewer is now in course 
 of extension to Ninth street, where it will connect with Chan- 
 nel, and here also it is practically level. The tide, therefore, 
 will nearly fill the whole sewer up to Ninth street. The over- 
 flow will thus be permanently obstructed. The contract, now 
 in course of fulfillment, is $68,000, and it may be more, owing 
 to the difficulties encountered in constructing such sewers in 
 soft sand below the tide level. As it is obvious that the out- 
 let will become a frightful nuisance in the neighborhood of 
 the Pacific Mail dock, I observe that a proposal has been 
 passed to erect a wooden outlet, seventy-five feet in length, to 
 carry the sewage outflow into the deeper water. I believe 
 it is also proposed to place a huge valve upon the outlet which 
 is to open only when the tide is low. What will be the prob- 
 ible result ? Such an arrangement is not likely to promote 
 the outflow of sewage or the cleaning of the sewer; and the 
 sewage which does get out, being lighter and warmer than the 
 sea water, will rise immediately to the surface as a black, 
 stinking liquid, and will float around and foul the foreshores 
 near. Here then, when completed, we shall have one of the 
 longest tidal sewers in the world. Millions of gallons of salt 
 water will flow in and out with every tide, and the gases 
 generated will be driven back upon the upper reaches of the 
 city, where they will create disease. "All tidal outlets," says 
 Sir R. Rawlinson, "must be absolutely disconnected from the 
 house sewers." It is lamentable to think that such immense 
 sums have been wasted upon the construction of such danger- 
 ous works. 
 
 Hitherto I have confined my attention to the more recently 
 constructed works, and have described only the salient points; 
 but time and words both fail me in the attempt to describe the 
 condition of the down-town sewers. These were constructed 
 between 1858 and 1874, are 74 miles in length, at a cost of 
 $36,000 per mile. In those days all sewers were made large 
 enough to allow the admission of a man to clear away deposits. 
 Alleys and short streets, where there are only a few houses, 
 
-18 
 
 have sewers of the same size as those of the largest streets. 
 The grades are most irregular, and as they approach the bay 
 the sewers are either level or run up hill. All the sewers 
 below Montgomery street are tidal. The outflow being 
 checked, they become elongated cess pools badly choked with 
 filth. In 1885 an inquiry was made as to the condition of 
 sewers in this respect, and it was estimated that there were 
 18,000 cubic yards of filth in those examined. I have lately 
 visited many of these sewers under the guidance of the officer 
 of the Street Department, who made the previous examina- 
 tion, and I am satisfied that there is no material improvement. 
 Here and there their condition may be better but oftener it is 
 much worse. 
 
 These sewers illustrate every possible defect. Their size 
 and shape are not uniform. Sometimes there is 1 6-inch 
 pipe made to take the sewage of a five-foot sewer. On Fifth 
 street at Bryant the bottom of the lateral is eighteen inches 
 below that into which it must discharge. In many there are 
 rotten bricks, sandy mortar, and in one place the bricks were 
 found replaced by empty barrels. It is difficult to make a 
 large brick sewer water tight ; and when a rainstorm comes 
 the sewage pours out with the subsoil, poisoning the very 
 foundations of the city. The foul subsoil air is kept down by 
 modern improvements, and is forced out sideways under the 
 basements of the houses. The expense of cleaning and re- 
 pairing sewers would soon suffice to reconstruct the entire 
 sewage of San Francisco. One year it amounted to $34,775 
 The McAllister-street sewer is one of the best in the city 
 It runs from Devisadero to Market, and its grade is uniform 
 and favorable. It carries a large bulk of sewage. From the 
 ist of January, 1891, till now, it has cost $846.29 for cleaning 
 and repairs. 
 
 Whether full or empty, the larger the sewers the greater is 
 the stench. The stinks of Chinatown rise uninterruptedly 
 to the palaces of Nob Hill. I remember returning from a 
 night's visit on a lovely summer morning at sunrise, and 
 I was nearly suffocated with the stench near Mr. Haggin's 
 house. 
 
 I have thus demonstrated that there does not exist one single 
 yard of sewer in this city which fulfills the problem as pro- 
 
19 
 
 posed, not a yard which fulfills its duty with safety to the 
 public health. In fact the more sewers we make on the prin- 
 ciples laid down by engineers, the more is the public health 
 impaired. 
 
 THE EFFECT OF MORE SEWERS. 
 
 Total Length Zymotic 
 
 Year. of Sewers, Death Rate. Diseases, Diphtheria, Typhoid Fever, 
 
 Miles. per 100,000. per ioo,oco. per 100,000. 
 
 1 880-8 1 . . 130 18.5 275 16.6 37.1 
 
 1885-86 . . 153 19.0 277 79.8 36.0 
 
 1890-91 . . 227 20.15 316 100.0 43.0 
 
 But it is time to restate the problem we are discussing in 
 accordance with our knowledge of sanitary science and the 
 laws which regulate the propagation of disease. Here, then, 
 is my sanitary standard. I maintain that "all the organic 
 " refuse of associated human life, which can be conveyed by 
 " water, must be promptly and completely removed miles 
 " away from the dwellings of the people in well-flushed and 
 (( well-ventilated conduits, in such a manner as to prevent the 
 " growth and propagation of putrefactive and disease-pro- 
 " ducing germs, and to no other destination than the land 
 " which thirsts for it, the land which alone disarms it of its 
 " dangers, the land which becomes exhausted and unfertile if 
 " its demands for organic refuse are not naturally supplied." 
 
 No fact is better established than the intimate relation 
 between putrefaction and disease, and putrefaction cannot 
 occur even in organic refuse if the germs have been de- 
 stroyed. Typhoid fever, diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, ery- 
 sipelas, childbed fever, whooping cough, diarrhea, dysentery, 
 cholera, pneumonia and consumption are all germ diseases. 
 It has been shown that many of these germs are associated 
 with sewer emanations, and that others grow rather in the sub- 
 soil or on the surface of dirty linen, dirty walls or the surface 
 of manure heaps. All fluids containing organic refuse contain 
 germs in more or less abundance. Sometimes there are one 
 thousand and another time as many as 50,000 in a single drop. 
 Sometimes they are innumerable. 
 
 The number of germs of sewage is multiplied during its 
 course through the sewers. It is in the drains and sewers 
 that the germs find all the conditions favorable to germ life, 
 viz., warmth, moisture and organic refuse. I have a letter 
 
from Dr. Sternberg, America's most distinguished bacteriolo- 
 gist, stating that all the more dangerous microbes grow best 
 in dark and ill-ventilated places ; that the damp walls of 
 .sewers are excellent cultivation surfaces. I remarked but 
 now that the sewage of Channel street gave certain proof that 
 putrefaction had commenced long before the sewage reached 
 the outlet. There are over 50,000 germs in one single drop of 
 this sewage, and every germ in that drop, if placed in a cul- 
 ture medium, gives rise to a colony of millions. The larger 
 the sewer in proportion to the quantity of sewage passing 
 through it, the greater is the growth of microbe life. 
 
 When sewage travels onward through clean conduits, it car- 
 ries with it the few germs which it may at first contain or after 
 wards acquire on the road, but stagnation, even of only a tea- 
 spoonful for a few short hours, allows of the development of a 
 million germs. The germs thus grown mix with the moisture of 
 the sewer air, and if not at once destroyed, as they will be by con- 
 tact with pure air, they are diffused over the whole interior of 
 the sewer and are liable to escape into the subsoil and the 
 houses. The absence of foul deposits is, therefore, no test of 
 that cleanliness which is necessary for public safety. Let us 
 take for example, say a sewer on the side of Clay-street hill. 
 The sewer- is three by five feet and you may walk up it. Grant 
 that it has been well graded and is in good repair, almost an 
 impossibility on a rapid grade where the velocity of the storm- 
 waters wash out the bricks from the bottom and leave it broken 
 into holes. 
 
 Our sewer, however, shall be smooth and dry. From time 
 to time a momentary flow of sewage comes from some neigh- 
 boring house. It passes down to the bottom with great rapid- 
 ity, but enough is left behind to saturate the brickwork. The 
 whole interior soon becomes, therefore, damp with filthy vapor 
 in which the putrefying and disease-producing germs grow 
 with extraordinary vigor. There may be a deposit in a 
 nearly level sewer, but if the sewage flow is steady and occu- 
 pies" the greater part of the sewer's area there is no space for the 
 germs to grow upon the walls. The oftener a sewer is nearly 
 filled with flowing sewage the safer it will be. 
 
 No sewers are so dangerous as those which are nearly 
 always empty and in Avhich no deposits can possibly occur. 
 
21 
 
 These are the self-cleansing sewers of the engineers. Germs 
 are universally present in the atmosphere, and they seize upon 
 organic refuse immediately. Filth, therefore, cannot be 
 removed by filth. What would any of you ladies say if you 
 should see the cook cleaning her kitchen floor with dishwater, 
 or worse still, with house sewage in the aggregate. It must 
 therefore be assumed that no sewer can be self-cleansing from 
 a 'sanitary point of view. The only means to prevent the 
 growth of putrefaction and disease-producing germs is to flush 
 all sewers repeatedly and effectually with that best and 
 cheapest germicide, clean cold water, and to ventilate them 
 thoroughly with pure fresh air. In order to protect and main- 
 tain the public health, I maintain that every sewer in the city 
 should be flushed so as to run three-fourths full, and with a 
 velocity of not less than three feet per second, every six hours 
 regularly, both by day and night. In the next place, it is 
 obvious that sewers, to be thus treated, must be restricted in 
 their size. A mountain torrent would scarcely suffice to flush 
 out the great sewers to which attention has been drawn. It is 
 also impracticable to flush a five-foot sewer. Nearly every 
 autumn the sewer authorities have a flushing craze. You see 
 men at the corners turning in water from the nearest hydrant 
 through a four-inch hose. You hear considerable commotion 
 at the point of entrance, a little foul material is moved on a 
 few feet by the initial current but this is soon retarded into a 
 trickling stream which passes on whilst the solid filth is left 
 behind. The cesspool is cleaned, but its contents are washed 
 into the sewer. 
 
 Thus then we are driven, first by the sad experience of the 
 past, and now by purely scientific reasoning, to small sewers 
 and the exclusion of the rainfall. Now I would observe that 
 the question before us requires no engineering data for its 
 settlement. We are told by the University Professor of Civil 
 Engineering, Prof. Soule, that Col. Waring, the most dis- 
 tinguished advocate of the separate system, has no reputation 
 amongst engineers and owes his notoriety to the newspapers. 
 But years before Memphis was sewered on the separate plan, 
 the principle was maintained by Sir Edwin Chadwick, and has 
 been, to a large extent, acknowledged by Sir R. Rawlinson. 
 Besides, the newspapers are not always wrong. The fact is 
 
22 
 
 that small sewers are altogether outside the experience of the 
 majority of engineers accustomed to the construction of sewers 
 large enough to carry off the rainfall, and who are satisfied 
 with the so-called self-cleansing process. The .small sewer 
 appeals to the intelligence and pockets of the people rather 
 than to interests of experts who live on high contracts and 
 fat commissions. 
 
 But again. Once it is settled to exclude the rainfall, trie 
 problem is simplified, and we stand on firmer ground. We are 
 no longer embarrassed by the prospect of excessive rainfalls 
 which will burst the sewers and flood the cellars, nor will the 
 seasons interfere. The quantity of house sewage is a baga- 
 telle compared with rainfall. It is uniform throughout the 
 year, and may be estimated with reasonable exactitude. In 
 this city it consists wholly of the domestic water supply fur- 
 nished by the Spring Valley company, whose meters may be 
 made available for its measurement. Our sewerage authori- 
 ties have .no conception whatever how small it really is. 
 Mr. Humphreys estimates the quantity at eight cubic feet per 
 day per head, or about sixty gallons. Mr. Smith put it down 
 to twenty gallons, and states that there is little doubt that, if the 
 rainfall could be excluded from properly constructed sewers, 
 they would become self-cleaning. As this estimate is still too 
 large, it must be affirmed that the utmost that can be ex- 
 pected from household sewage is to carry the more solid mat- 
 ters to the street, and that all public sewers must be flushed to 
 keep them clean. 
 
 In England inquiries have recently been made on this very 
 question, and it is stated on the best authority that the quan- 
 tity of water required for household consumption, giving a 
 fair allowance for general purposes, and including water-clos- 
 ets and baths, is more than covered by an average of ten gal- 
 lons per head per day. This is more than confirmed by 
 inquiries I have made here. Failing to obtain the necessary 
 information at Spring Valley, I applied to the health officer at 
 San Diego, who, after careful inquiry, states his astonish- 
 ment that the domestic consumption there is only eight and 
 one-half gallons per head per day. I have also ascertained, 
 through the kindness of Mr. Mastick, the domestic consump- 
 tion in Alameda during the month of January last. The aver- 
 
23 
 
 age monthly consumption per house was 2,759 gallons, or 
 eighty-nine gallons per day. In Alameda there are seven per- 
 sons to a house. The total domestic consumption is less than 
 thirteen gallons per head per day. Ten gallons per head in 
 San Francisco is three million gallons daily, and as a sewer 
 twenty-four inches in diameter with a gradient of one to one 
 thousand will deliver four million gallons in twenty-four hours, 
 it follows that the whole daily domestic sewage of our city 
 might be discharged through a twenty-four inch sewer in 
 eighteen hours. It is therefore evident that, rainfall being ex- 
 cluded, we have no need for large sewers. The problem is 
 indeed reduced to reasonable and exact dimensions, and our 
 health and pockets will be saved. This conclusion has been 
 abundantly confirmed whenever small sewers properly con- 
 structed and properly administered have been tried. In Ber- 
 lin there are no sewers larger than twenty-four inches in 
 diameter, and the house drains are only four inches. When 
 one drain does not suffice to carry off the sewage, as may be 
 the case in large hotels, the sewer is not enlarged, but a second 
 of the same size is put in. The system of small sewers has 
 now been adopted in many American cities, and the number is 
 increasing daily. Under the advice of Col. Waring it has 
 been constructed at San Diego, L,os Angeles, Santa Barbara, 
 San lyuis Obispo and Stockton, in the last case under the im- 
 mediate direction and advice of Mr. Marsden Manson. It is 
 also in operation at the Iceland Stanford Junior University. 
 As experience shows the difficulties encountered, improve- 
 ments have been made. 
 
 I will now give a few examples : First, San Diego, which 
 occupies an area of one thousand acres and has sixteen thous- 
 and inhabitants. There are forty-one miles of sewers, of which 
 thirty-five are in daily use. The main sewer is twenty-four 
 inches in diameter. There are sixty-five flushing tanks in 
 daily use, and eleven are operated on alternate days. One 
 man is required to keep them in order. The water bill for 
 flushing is forty-three dollars a month. During the greatest 
 flow the sewers run one- third full. Even in business streets 
 full of houses the sewers do their work well. The streets 
 are swept daily after business hours, and there is no trouble 
 with the rainfall. Where there are elevators a four-inch drain 
 
24 
 
 was found inadequate, and a six-inch had to be put in. The 
 total cost was $386,000, including a long outfall sewer and 
 a costly sewage reservoir, which proved a great mistake and 
 is now disused. In 1891 the death rate was 11.3 per thous- 
 and, and this in spite of the deaths of many invalids attracted 
 by the climate. There has been no diphtheria, no diarrhoea, 
 and only one death from typhoid fever. Dr. Magee writes 
 that there are no deposits, no stoppages, no smells, that the 
 sewers work well and are a great success. 
 
 The second example is nearer home. In Alameda the sew- 
 erage has been recently reconstructed under the direction of 
 Mr. Herman Schussler, one of the minority of engineers who 
 recognizes the sanitary and economical value of the Waring 
 system. Here there are twelve thousand inhabitants, occupy- 
 ing eighteen hundred houses on an area of 2,200 acres. All 
 the houses are connected with the sewers. The rainfall is 
 dealt with in well-paved gutters on each side of the road- 
 ways. It gives no inconvenience and finds its way to the bay. 
 There are forty-one miles of sewers, the largest being fourteen 
 inches in diameter. There aie 130 flushing tanks of the form 
 exhibited.* Their action is automatic. Fifty gallons of clean 
 water is dumped into the head of each lateral sewer four 
 times a day. It fills the whole area of the sewer for a con- 
 siderable distance. On the lowest grades, one in 250, it travels 
 about three feet per second, and clears out everything which 
 has been deposited during the previous six hours. No sewer 
 runs more than half full except when flushed. The outfall 
 sewers are' three in number: they are filled at high tide with 
 salt water and are clear at low tide. I consider them the least 
 satisfactory part of the system. There are no deposits, no 
 bad odors, and stoppages are unknown. Should there be the 
 least evidence of smell the flush tanks are set to empty them- 
 selves more frequently. In some laterals there is no need for 
 flushing every day. The sewers are very freely ventilated at 
 the tanks, man-holes and houses. 
 
 The entire management, regulation and repairs occupy two- 
 thirds of the time of two men. The water used in flushing 
 costs thirty cents per thousand gallons, or about $8.00 per 
 day. The Alamedans boast that they are as healthy a corn- 
 
 vide Appendix. 
 
25 
 
 munity as any in the world of a like size. Last year there 
 were 144 deaths, giving a death rate of only twelve per thous- 
 and. Forty-five of these deaths were of immigrants, invalids 
 attracted by the climate, coming of less than one year's residence. 
 There were nine deaths from diptheria, but in no instance was 
 it caused by local insanitary conditions ; none of the children 
 were attending school. The medical officer is satisfied that 
 these deaths arose from intercourse with Oakland and San 
 Francisco. The total cost of the Alameda sewers, including 
 flushing tanks, man-holes and outfall sewers, was $290,000. 
 The outfalls alone cost $60,000, and all the rest cost about one 
 dollar per foot. After repeated inspections I am' of opinion 
 that Alameda is sewered better and more safely than any city 
 in the world. Let me beg every one who is interested in this 
 question and who is not? to inspect it for themselves. Mr. 
 E. B. Mastick, the well-known lawyer, is the moving spirit of 
 this admirable work. He is the inventor and patentee of the 
 very simple flushing tank you see before you. This is placed 
 on the border of the sidewalks, in a brick cistern covered with 
 an iron lid. The total cost in place is $50. This is a flusher 
 of smaller dimensions made for domestic use. The tank is fed 
 from the bath tubs, wash basins, laundry and kitchen, and the 
 flush is delivered into the highest initial point of the house 
 drain. Everything in front is effectually carried out to the 
 street sewer. All large houses should have one of these. 
 
 Now once more to revert to San Francisco that I may con- 
 trast the very latest work of our sewerage authorities with 
 that of Alameda. 
 
 The Richmond District is situated north of the park, being 
 bounded by Twelfth and Thirty-second Avenues east and west 
 and by D street on the south and Lake street on the north. 
 The area is about 500 acres. The district is entirely indepen- 
 dent of the San Francisco sewers. The surface is elevated 
 from 150 to 250 feet above the level of the Pacific Ocean, to 
 which an outlet will be made. There are no natural water- 
 courses. The ground consists of a deep drifted sand, by which 
 the rainfall is absorbed with great rapidity, making under- 
 ground quicksands and watercourses which drain into Moun- 
 tain Lake. It is evident that there can be no need for special 
 arrangements to take away the rainfall. Judging from the 
 assessment frontage, there are about twenty miles of streets. 
 
26 
 
 At the petition of the property owners the streets were 
 graded and an assessment district formed for the purpose of 
 building sewers. I suppose these plans were made without 
 either the knowledge or consent of the petitioners. Contracts 
 were, however, entered into about two years ago, and about 
 three and a half miles of sewers have been constructed ; 2.62 
 miles are of brick, mostly three by five, and eight tenths of a 
 mile of it is pipe sewer of considerable size. There is no flush- 
 ing apparatus ; indeed, flushing destroys brick sewers of this 
 size with great rapidity. Besides there is no natural supply 
 of water. The sewers, although completed, have not as yet 
 received a -drop of sewage ; many are hermetically sealed to 
 keep out sand ; they await the construction of the outfall. 
 This three and a half miles of sewers has cost $142,000, or 
 about $40,000 a mile. The plans for the outfall are complete ; 
 they will be constructed on the usual gigantic scale, and the 
 largest will be six feet five inches in width and five feet nine 
 inches high, with an invert somewhat similar to that of Army 
 street. 
 
 The construction of this huge conduit is, of course, designed 
 for the conveyance of prospective rainfall, because all the pos- 
 sible household sewage of the district would be easily and 
 safely delivered by a twelve-inch pipe. The ground being 
 full of quicksands, the sewer will have to be timbered and con- 
 creted underneath in many places ; part also, is tunneled, and 
 the probable cost for 3,300 feet will be over $60,000. But when 
 this is finished there will be more to do. Only five out of 
 twenty miles of streets will be provided with sewers. Observe 
 also that it will be quite impossible to keep out sand. Clouds 
 of it rise with every breeze ; it will collect at the corners, and 
 the first rainstorm will fill up the cesspools as it does everywhere 
 in the Western Addition. The evils of Channel street will be 
 repeated. In summer time there can be no flow of sewage ; 
 until the district is settled up with houses and inhabitants, no 
 sewage will ever reach the outlet, but will fester underneath 
 the streets. 
 
 In such a district, provision for the rainfall could have been 
 easily and cheaply made by gutters on the streets. Everywhere 
 else it sinks into the porous, sandy soil, and it is just for such 
 conditions that the separate system is best adapted. Now it is 
 
27 
 
 impossible to believe that the property owners exercised the 
 least control over this work, or that the true situation was 
 explained to them. When private individuals start in upon 
 works of this nature, they usually seek the latest information. 
 They look first for efficiency and then for true economy. 
 
 Let me offer an example close at hand. The South San 
 Francisco Land & Improvement Company have recently lo- 
 cated a townsite at South San Francisco. Its area is 172 acres, 
 and provision will be made for 30,000 inhabitants.* The town 
 will have six miles of streets. Every street will be sewered, 
 and the laterals will be carried to the margin of every lot. 
 The rainfall will be dealt with on the surface, being carried 
 away by gutters on the sides of the roadways. The gentle- 
 men interested have no one to consult. They have had no 
 occasion to petition for the services of the city engineer. They 
 have had personal experience of the Waring system at Omaha, 
 where three-quarters of a mile square is sewered on the separate 
 plan, and this notwithstanding the frightful rainstorms which 
 occur there. They are thoroughly convinced that the Waring 
 system is the best, and they expect to profit by their Omaha 
 experience and to make it perfect. The six miles of sewers 
 will be constructed under close supervision by day labor. The 
 materials will be the best obtainable. The pipes are vastly 
 superior to those in use in San Francisco. They will be 
 joined by the Stanhope plan. Every sewer will be made 
 water tight and tested before covered up. The largest sewer 
 for these 30,000 people will have a diameter of ten inches, 
 and there will be only 500 feet of it. There will be 7,000 feet 
 of eight-inch sewer, 5,300 feet of six-inch sewer and over 10,000 
 feet of four-inch. There will be Mastick flushers at the head of 
 every sewer ; manholes on the Alameda plan at the proper 
 points. The gradients are moderate and increase toward the 
 outlets. When completed, South San Francisco will be more 
 perfectly and more safely sewered than any other place with 
 which I am acquainted. The water for flushing is obtained 
 from two artesian wells which yield 1,200,000 gallons daily, or 
 an average of forty gallons per head per day of the population. 
 This is twenty-five per cent higher than the supply of London 
 and the manufacturing cities of England. But its quantity 
 may easily be increased. The sewers, small as they are, will 
 
28 
 
 take it easily away, and will not run more than half full except 
 when flushed. 
 
 Now the cost of this admirable system, complete at all points, 
 will be under fifty cents a foot, say $2,700 a mile. Instead of 
 paying two hundred thousand dollars for five miles, the pro- 
 prietors of South San Francisco will construct six miles for less 
 than sixteen thousand dollars and get flushers free. If the 
 Richmond people had adopted the separate plan they would 
 have saved* $184, ooo. 
 
 Even now I believe it would be better to save the sixty 
 thousand dollars which the outfall will surely cost, and 
 commence de novo on the separate plan. For half this sum 
 they may secure ten miles of sewers with manholes, flushers 
 and outfall complete, and with the other thirty thousand they 
 may make roads, gutters, parks and erect a statue to the city 
 engineer. 
 
 To sum up the advantages of the separate system of small 
 sewers : 
 
 1. They are adapted for constant daily use throughout the 
 whole year, the larger being worse than useless when there is 
 no rainfall. 
 
 2. They are constructed to carry quickly to the outlet a 
 definite amount of liquid containing all the organic refuse of 
 associated human life. 
 
 3. They can be made water-tight, which is not possible with 
 the brick sewers. 
 
 4. The quantity of sewage and the gradients being equal, 
 the velocity is greatest in small sewers, and the sewage travels 
 more quickly, and more safely to the outlet. 
 
 5. Sewers, whether large or small, are never self-cleansing, 
 but small sewers can be kept clean and free from stoppages 
 by frequent flushing with a reasonable amount of water, while 
 large retain the filth, promote deposits and are impracticable 
 to flush. 
 
 6. Small sewers are more easily ventilated than large ones. 
 
 7. There is less room for the growth of putrefaction and 
 disease-producing germs. 
 
 8. If the vSewage has to be raised by pumping, the quantity 
 is uniform and is reduced within practical limits. All the 
 sewage is pumped into San Francisco by the Spring Valley 
 Water Company, and can be pumped out more readily. 
 
29 
 
 g. If the sewage has to be taken into deep water far away 
 from the foreshores, the necessary prolongations of the sewers 
 will be small and easily put in place, whilst it will be impos- 
 sible to carry the Brannan-street sewer far into the bay; and 
 it is offensive where it is. 
 
 10. Small sewers are never choked, are less liable to 
 deposits, are more easily cleaned, are more durable, and 
 when injured less costly to repair. 
 
 11. They are constructed at one-tenth the cost. 
 
 12. They have reduced the death rate in all cities in which they 
 have been used. 
 
 In conclusion my hope is that San Francisco will profit by 
 these important and instructive lessons. As the natural water- 
 courses are destroyed, let the existing sewers be used to con- 
 duct the rainfall to the bay. There will be no need to prolong 
 their outlets. Rainwater will create no nuisance on the fore- 
 shores, nay, rather, it will help to cleanse them. We have 
 seen that these ill-constructed conduits are fit for nothing 
 else. They cannot be purified except by keeping sewage 
 out of them. The entire system of house drainage must 
 be reconstructed on the separate plan, a work which will 
 not be costly and is sure to improve the public health. Accord- 
 ing to the last municipal report there are 227 miles of sewers. 
 Spring Valley has 280 miles of water-mains, and every main 
 requires a sewer, so that it will be necessary to construct say 
 300 miles of sewers on the South San Francisco plan. Instead of 
 placing the cost at $2,700 a mile let us make it $5,000, and the 
 whole city will be provided for by a million and a half, or the 
 cost of preventable sickness and death for one year. We shall 
 not have less than two thousand flushers of the Alameda type, 
 all to be operated every six hours or oftener; and it maybe asked 
 where shall we get the water, and I propose to get it without 
 the expenditure of a single cent. The Spring Valley people say 
 that the daily winter consumption for the city is eighteen 
 million gallons, or sixty gallons per head. If we put the 
 household consumption at fifteen gallons, which is fifty per 
 cent higher than that of London or the English cities, it is 
 obvious that there must be a domestic waste of fifteen or 
 twenty gallons more. With this enormous waste we cannot 
 expect any reduction in the water rates. To reduce this waste 
 
30 
 
 is a necessity which must arise in the near future. This 
 waste is due to ill-constructed closets and bad fittings. It 
 may be almost entirely stopped. In several English cities the 
 consumption of water has been reduced one-half by waste pre- 
 vention, and if you will consent to give Spring Valley power 
 to control the fittings and to diminish waste, I venture to 
 affirm that they will gladly give you all the water necessary 
 to flush every sewer in the city four times every day. The 
 arrangement would be one of business. If we had five thou- 
 sand flushers, they would consume about one million gallons 
 daily, and the Spring Valley would certainly save ten. 
 
 Thus we may have sewers, washed clean as a dinner-plate. 
 In them there will be no place for disease-producing germs. 
 The citizens will then have a chance to live a natural term of 
 life and die a natural death. 
 
 As a practical outcome of the lecture I would respectfully 
 request the Mayor to summon a public meeting for the pur- 
 pose of establishing a San Francisco Sanitary Association with 
 the following objects, both imperatively necessary 'before any- 
 thing can be done : 
 
 i st. To instruct the public in all matters relating to public, 
 domestic and personal hygiene in order that a reconstruction 
 of the sewers shall have popular support. 
 
 2d. To promote a reform of the municipal government to 
 the extent of securing a stronger, more permanent and more 
 extended authority, with power to appoint a secretary, engi- 
 neer, medical officer of health, chief inspector of nuisances, 
 administrator of public institutions, and chemist, who shall be 
 elected and retain their offices during good behavior. The 
 personnel of this authority to be ex officio members of the 
 Board of Supervisors. 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 THE 
 
 The tank is simple, and when filled turns over and empties 
 automatically. No parts require oil, and there are no wearing 
 surfaces. When empty the tank recovers its original position. 
 It is fed by a small stream from the water mains, and it may be 
 set to turn over every two, four, six or twelve hours as re- 
 quired. It is only necessary to see that the water tap runs 
 properly. The tank is placed under the sidewalk, and is cov- 
 ered by an iron lid. The cost complete in place is under $50. 
 
 Mr. Mastick will present to the city the right to use this 
 patent without the payment of royalties, on the sole condition 
 that he be satisfied that the Flushers shall be made and put in 
 place to his satisfaction. 
 

 The printing and distribution of this lecture is due to 
 the public spirit and generosity of Mrs. Phoebe Hearst, 
 to whom and the late Senator the author owes a large 
 debt of respect, gratitude and friendship extending over 
 many years. 
 
CHANNEL=STREET SEWER. 
 
 PLATE i. 
 
 Germs cultivated from one drop of channel-street sewage taken at the outlet of 
 the sewer. One drop has been mixed with sterilized gelatine, and after a few hours 
 every germ present grows into a colony of millions. There are upwards of fifty 
 thousand colonies on this plate. 
 
 WASHINGTON AND DRUMM STREETS HIGH TIDE. 
 
 PLATE 2. 
 
 This sewer is never empty. At high tide it is filled to within two feet two inches 
 of the surface of the street, and the sewage is diluted with sea water. The number of 
 germs in one drop is estimated at twenty-two thousand. 
 
WASHINGTON AND DRUMM STREETS-LOW TIDE. 
 
 PLATE 3. 
 
 At low tide it contains Ironi two to three teet of black mud. 
 drop cannot be counted. 
 
 The germs from one 
 
 EXPOSURE TO SEWER GAS. 
 
 
 PLATE 4. 
 
 A sterilized plate ol gelatine was put under a bell glass, over one ounce of the 
 sewage last described. Care was taken to avoid contact with the sewage. In 
 twenty-four hours the plate became infected from the air, and in forty hours this plate 
 exhibits the growth, a positive evidence of the dangerous nature of sewer emanations. 
 
 These cultivations were made by D. H. WAGNER, of 506 Sutler St., S. F. 
 
SURFACE OF SIDEWALK; 
 
 THE MASTICK FLUSHER. 
 
 See Appendix A, page 31. 
 
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