CITY OF BOSTON 
City Document No. 3. 
BOSTONIA. 
CONDITA.AD. 
THE SEWERAGE OF BOSTON 
A Report by a Commission consisting of E. S. Ches- 
brough, C. E., Moses Lane, C. E., and Charles F. 
Folsom, M. D. 
To His Honor Samuel C. Cobb, Mayor of Boston: — 
The Commission appointed in pursuance of the following 
orders,— 
City of Boston, in Board of Aldermen, February 23, 1875. 
Ordered: — That His Honor the Mayor be hereby authorized to 
appoint a commission of three civil engineers of experience in the 
subject, to report upon the present sewerage of the city; the discharge 
of sewers into Charles river, Stony brook, South bay, or Dorchester 
bay; the necessity of any high-water basin on the site of the present 
full basin, for flushing purposes; the expediency of relieving the 
sewers at the South End by pumping; and to present a plan for the 
outlets and main lines of sewers for the future wants of the city ; and 
report, if it is expedient, in connection with the proposed works, to 
provide for any water basins, or marginal driveways, as ornamental 
and sanitary features of the city, the expenses to be paid from the 
appropriation for sewers. 
City of Boston, in Board of Aldermen, March 1, 1875. 
Ordered: — That the order passed by this board, February 23, 1875, 
authorizing the Mayor to appoint a commission to report upon the 
present sewerage of the city, be so far modified, in case His Honor the 
Mayor should deem it expedient, as to make the said commission con- 
sist of two civil engineers, and one competent person skilled in the 
subject of sanitary science, instead of three civil engineers, as provided 
in the order quoted above ; and that the said commission shall, in addi- 
tion to investigating and reporting upon the several subjects recited in 
the original order, report an approximate estinmte of the expense of 
any plant or plans, for a system of sewerage submitted by them — 
has the honor to submit the following report: — 
Introduction. 
For many years past there has been a growing feeling 
among the more intelligent of our community, and par- 
ticularly among physicians, whose habits of study lead 2 
City Document No. 3. 
them especially to watch the public health, that our high 
death-rates * are connected more or less directly with the 
defects and evils of our sewerage-system, more especially 
in the low-lying and originally tidal districts, —evils which 
are increasing from year to year, and which have been and 
are so manifest to the senses that it is not necessary here to 
more than allude to their existence. 
* The following table will give, at a glance, the death-rates from all causes, and the 
total numbers of deaths from some of the principal diseases for all the years since the 
new registration laws came into eifect. In 1874, the rate, excluding Charlestown, 
West Eoxbury, and Brighton, was 24.9. In 1872 and in 1873 the rate was 27.6, ex- 
cluding small-pox. In 1861 no registrar’s report was published. 
1861 
1862 
1863'. 
1864 
1865 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1S74 
Years. 
22.0 
22.4 
25.2 
27.0 
23.6 
22.4 
22.3 
24.0 
23.4 
24.3 
23.5 
30.5 
28.4 
23.6 
Annual Death- 
rates per 1,000. 
85 
130 
107 
125 
93 
108 
120 
138 
168 
176 
229 
243 
202 
No. of Deaths 
from Typhoid 
Fever. 
236 
130 
225 
50 
60 
306 
266 
230 
205 
111 
258 
472 
269 
No. of Deaths 
from Scarlet 
Fever. 
46 
108 
118 
51 
52 
47 
67 
61 
61 
36 
28 
60 
62 
No. of Deaths 
from Diphtheria. 
236 
342 
268 
261 
266 
231 
488 
365 
524 
527 
692 
636 
679 
No. of Deaths 
From Cholera 
Infantum. 
13 
11 
113 
113 
0 
144 
17 
6 
32 
23 
738 
302 
2 
No. of Deaths 
from Small-pox. 
795 
795 
859 
713 
846 
766 
868 
916 
990 
1,080 
1,161 
1,194 
3.333 
No. of Deaths 
from Consump- 
tion. 
The annual death-rate for the ten months to November 1st, 1875, in Boston has been 
26.73 per 1,000. The absolute number of deaths in that time from the following- 
named diseases have been: — 
Typhoid fever 180 
Scarlet fever 398 
Diphtheria 254 
Cholera infantum 673 
Small-pox 1 
Consumption p 150 
The deaths from typhoid fever, cholera infantum, and consumption remain at about 
the same rates as last year, while the numbers from scarlet fever and diphtheria have 
been very much increased. The figures for cholera infantum and small-pox will repre- 
sent very nearly the mortality for the year from those diseases, but the others will be 
much larger after the deaths for November and December shall have beep added. From 
18 (0 to 1875 inclusive the mortality from infantile cholera and consumption have been 
simply enormous, and there has been no decrease from year to year, although Boston 
has now the best sanitary care of all the American cities. The Sewerage oe Boston. 
3 
r 
The subject has been referred to in no doubtful terms in 
every one of the reports of the State Board of Health.* In 
their Fifth Report, they say : " We regard this question of 
drainage for Boston and its immediate surroundings as of an 
importance which there is no danger of overstatingalso : 
"The death-rate ” (in 1873) "of the City of Boston is so high 
as to make its discovery a matter of the deepest interest to 
every citizen.” In the fourth report of the same board it 
was urged that a competent engineer be appointed to survey 
the metropolitan district and suggest " a comprehensive and 
harmonious ” system of drainage and sewerage ; and in their 
third report the State Board of Health urged, as one of the 
strongest reasons for the appointment of a City Board of 
Health for Boston, that they could take steps "to establish 
plans of drainage adequate for our whole territory and har- 
monious in all their parts,”—a promise which that board has 
fully justified, for, since their appointment in January, 1873, 
they have constantly urged the matter upon the attention of 
the authorities. 
On the 14th of April, 1870, the consulting physicians of 
the City of Bostonf addressed to the authorities a remon- 
strance as to the then existing sanitary condition of the 
city, in which they declared the urgent necessity of a better 
system of sewerage, stating that it would be " a wmrk of 
time, of great cost, and the highest engineering skill.” 
Of such great importance has the matter been considered 
by our State Legislature that, in the special session of 1872, 
they passed an actj authorizing the appointment of a Com- 
mission, to be paid by the City of Boston, to investigate and 
report upon a comprehensive plan for a thorough system of 
drainage for the metropolitan district. This was not ac- 
cepted, on the ground that the expense should be shared by 
the other cities, and no Commission was appointed. 
In their fourth communication (December 28th, 1874) to 
the City Council upon the necessity of improved sewerage, 
the City Board of Health pointed out clearly the evils of our 
present system, and strongly urged that a radical change 
should be made, whereupon this Commission was appointed. 
* First Report, p. 56.. 
Second Report, pp. 14, 57, and 352. 
Third Report, pp. 307 and 309. 
Fourth Report, p. 6. 
Fifth Report, p. 6. 
Sixth Report, pp. 5, 6, and 334. 
t Henry Bartlett, M. D.; George Derby, M. D.; James C. White, M. D.; William 
Read, M. D.; Paschal P. Ingalls, M. D. 
| An act to provide for a Commission on the subject of drainage and water-supply 
for the City of Boston and vicinity [chap. 366]. 4 
City Document No. 3. 
The Board had daily evidence of the connection between 
decomposing matter from our sewers and disease, and the 
experience of the rest of the world confirmed that of Boston. 
London, Paris, Brussels, Hamburg, Dautzig, Frankfort-on- 
the-Main, and many other cities have had their sanitary con- 
dition so remarkably improved by better sewerage that 
Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich, St. Petersburg, and many others 
of the cities of Europe are fast following their examples. 
In all these places, the cardinal principle is to get their 
sewage away, far out of reach, before putrefaction begins. 
Striking as the experience of these cities has been, that of 
England has been equally so ; and, as there are many fruit- 
ful lessons for us in it, thq paper of Dr. George Buchanan 
is quoted at some length, although it has been often referred 
to here and in the various countries of Europe.* 
* The accompanying table shows the most striking of the improvements which 
resulted from proper works of drainage, sewerage, and water supply. 
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Pulmonary Consumption. 
The death-rate among infants, and from measles, scarlet fever and whooping- 
cough, has been reduced very considerably, but in about the same proportion as the 
total from all causes. The decrease in the prevalence of typhoid fever has been very 
notable. The death-rate from consumption had decreased in a marked degree, and, 
generally speaking, in proportion as drying of the soil had been accomplished by the 
sewers, thereby confirming the conclusions of Dr. Bowditeh of this city. The Sewerage of Boston. 
5 
Organization of the Commission. 
At tlie first meeting of the Commission, April 23, 1875, 
they were addressed by His Honor Mayor Cobb, who stated 
that the subject of the sewerage of Boston was the most im- 
portant which he had been called upon to consider. He re- 
ferred to our high mortality, and to the fact that it was con- 
sidered by a large part of our citizens,* and especially by 
physicians, to be in a great measure due to causes connected 
with our sewerage.f 
Chelmsford is the only town in the list in which the general death-rate had 
increased. This is explained by the facts that the outfall of the sewer was badly con- 
structed, and that the outflow of the sewage was so far obstructed as to cause backing 
up of the water into adjoining cellars and escape of the “ mephitic vapors ” into the streets 
and houses. 
The improvement would have appeared greater in Bristol, only a part of which had 
been well sewered, if it had been possible to calculate the death-rate for the precise 
area improved. In Penzance, the new sewers had just been completed, when the facts 
were collected. 
In Bugby and Carlisle, Where the improvement had not been great, there had been 
some backing up of the sewage and some escape of the sewer gases into the houses; and in 
Worthin, where the death-rate from typhoid fever had decidedly increased, the sewage 
flooded certain basements, and the foul gases escaped into the air. [Ninth Report of the 
Medical Officer of the Privy Council, London, 1867.] 
The International Medical Congress at Vienna, in 1874, the German Public Health 
Association, and tho Sanitary Association of the Lower Rhine, have unanimously con- 
firmed the truth of Dr. Buchanan’s conclusions, and are now urging them upon the 
cities of Germany. 
* See Appendix B. 
f Tho averages of the rates of mortality in Boston, since registration began, divided 
into periods of five years each, are as follows. For at least the first thirty years, the 
returns are quite inaccurate. 
Periods of Five Years. 
Death- 
rates. 
Periods of Five Years. 
Death- 
rates. 
1811-1814 (4 years) 
19.75 
1845-1849 
28.74 
1815-1819 
22.3 
1850-1854 
26.64 
1820-1824 
23.06 
1855-1859 
23.8 
1825-1829 
19.4 
1860-1864 
24.26 
1830-1834 
20.1 
1865-1869 
23.16 
1835-1839 
21.7 
1870-1874 
26.06 
1840-1844 
20.4 
' 
Comparing the averages of the death-rates per 1,000 of the largest ten American 
cities for the past ten years, we have the following figures: — 
New Orleans .35.45 
New York 30.49 
Brooklyn 25.40 
Baltimore 25.19 
Boston 24.66 
Chicago 24.00 
St. Louis 23.52 
Cincinnati 22.40 
Philadelphia 21.98 
San Francisco 21.83 6 
City Document No. 3. 
This system of sewerage for Boston, he said, should be 
adapted to the wants of a growing city, should be compre- 
hensive enough to include the whole lpetropolitan district, 
and should be capable of extension without material altera- 
There wras no registration of deaths in Brooklyn, Cincinnati and San Francisco until 
1866, and the returns of those cities are therefore computed for nine years. The rate 
of Chicago is very near that of Boston. In St. Louis and Cincinnati the returns for at 
least some of the years are very easily shown to be inaccurate. Philadelphia and San 
Francisco have much lower rates than Boston, and there is no reason to suppose that 
their statistics are far from the truth, as the following table shows: — 
Name of City. 
Number of Deaths per 10,000 in 1874, from 
Cholera Infantum. 
Consumption. 
All Lung Diseases. 
San Francisco 
6 
25 
40 
Philadelphia 
11 
30 
46 
Boston 
21 
40 
64 
Baltimore 
22 
30 
41 
Chicago 
34 
16 
31 
New York 
31 
39 
72 
In view of the enormous! infant mortality of Chicago, their general death-rate of 
20.31 per 1,000, returned in 1874, looks suspiciously low. It can hardly be that their 
deaths were all registered, unless it be that the estimate of the population was too 
high. 
London, which has reduced its rate of mortality from 42 to 22 per 1,000 between 
1690 and 1872, and which still has many of the difficulties to contend with which do 
not exist in a new city like Boston, has a smaller death-rate, as will be seen by the 
following figures: — 
Mean of 10 years, 1850-1859 23.6 
“ “ “ 1860-1869 24.6 
“ 5 “ 1870-1874 23.02 
It must be remembered that tbe average number of persons living on each acre of 
land in London is double that of Boston (including suburbs in both cases), arid that 
fifteen-sixteenths of its water-supply, although filtered, comes from rivers, — that from 
the Thames being polluted by the sewage of four cities, — while the water-supply of 
Boston is probably not yet seriously contaminated by the sewage of Natick, although it 
might be difficult to say what the result would be in case of an outbreak of typhoid 
fever at that place. 
The mortality was higher in London in the decade from 1860 to 1869, owing to the 
idleness and want and disease among the laboring classes caused by the “cotton fam- 
ine” during our war. 
In 1872, 1873 and 1874 the deaths per 1,000 in London were respectively 21.5, 22.5 
and 22.5; while for the same years in Paris they were 21.9, 23.2, and 22.4. Petten- 
kofer, in commenting severely on the high death-rates in Germany in 1872, said that 
that of Munich should be reduced at least to 22 per 1,000, which certainly is. not a high 
standard, and which had been more than attained in London in that year. 
[Since the preparation of this note, there has been published the Report on the 
Sanitary Condition of Boston by a medical commission consisting of Drs. Charles E. 
Buckingham, Calvin Ellis, Richard M. Hodges, Samuel A. Green and Thomas B. Curtis. 
The whole subject has been treated in such a masterly and exhaustive manner that we 
refer to it for details that would not be in place here, contenting ourselves with a simple 
brief extract. They state “ that the death-rate of Boston, compared with her own past 
death-rates, or with those of the generality of great cities, can hardly be called excessive; 
but that her sanitary condition is, nevertheless, only fair, inasmuch as a considerable 
proportion of mortality takes place which is due to remediable causes.” The italics, 
except the last, are ours.] the Sewerage of Boston. 
7 
tion in its plan; especially in view of the fact that there is 
every reason to believe that twenty years hence the city will 
contain a population of at least 900,000. 
The Commission report the following results of their in- 
vestigations, and the conclusions at which they have arrived. 
The appointment of a Park Commission will make it un- 
necessary for us to discuss that question except in as far as 
it may be intimately connected with any proposed change in 
our sewers. 
Present Condition of the Sewers. 
While Boston was a city of about seven hundred acres, the 
lines of drainage were short, the grades were sharp, the 
sewage at its points of discharge was so much diluted in a 
vast volume of water as to render it practically innocuous, 
and the emanations from it were mixed with so many times 
their bulk of the purest air that they could not have contami- 
nated our atmosphere to a serious extent. 
The growth of the city in various directions, and the rec- 
lamation of land from the sea, however, have necessitated 
the extension of a plan which was suited to the wants of the 
time, as far as the knowledge of the principles of sewerage 
then known allowed it to be so, but which is entirely inade- 
quate to our present needs. 
The filling-in of the old mill pond necessitated the exten- 
sion of the sewers of that district to discharge into the canal; 
and, upon closure of the canal, the sewers were intercepted 
by a main which now discharges on both sides of the city, 
very irregular in grade, and whose two outlets are materially 
higher than its central point at Haymarket square, thereby 
causing obstructions in that whole drainage area. No dis- 
pensary physician who has had that district can have failed 
to notice the deleterious influences of such conditions upon 
the health of people who are absolutely powerless to help 
themselves. 
The South bay district contains so many old covered 
wharves and stone walls, and has been filled in with such 
bad material, that the tide actually ebbs and flows in some 
parts of it; and, although the drainage may be much im- 
proved by a different plan of sewerage, the soil there can 
never be such as to justify the use of the cellars as tene- 
ments. 
When the sewage of Boston Neck was discharged at a 
low point in the closed basin, formed by the Mill Dam and 
the Cross Dam (now Parker street), the cellars were quite 
dry, although often put too deep. But when the odors from 8 
City Document No. 3. 
this closed basin became so offensive as to necessitate its 
connection with the Charles river to keep it flushed and 
clean, the sewers had to be discharged on the south side of 
the city into the South bay; and the cellars were flooded 
during storms at high water, inasmuch as tide-gates were 
necessarily used to keep the sewers, and consequently many 
of the cellars, from inundation atevery tide.* This rendered 
the raising of the Church-street and the Suffolk-street dis- 
tricts necessary, at the cost of several million dollars. Rais- 
ing the area below Dover street made the cellars in this 
street still more subject to floodings than before, being the 
lower point; and when Dover street itself was raised Mil- 
ford and Dwight streets beyond it suffered a similar increase 
of trouble. 
Near Berlin street, and at several points on the southerly 
side of the city, the drainage is so imperfect, on account of 
the low grade, as to forbid the use of the land, as at present, 
for dwelling-houses. 
The filling-in of the area below Charles street has removed 
the nuisance which existed there a few rods farther west, and 
it is to be regretted that better material had not been used 
in the process. A tight, impervious wall (like the Mill 
Dam) also should have been placed outside all the houses 
beyond Beacon and Charles streets, so as to prevent the 
soil from being soaked by each tide. 
Finally, the Back bay proper has been filled in with the 
best of material, generally speaking, but at a grade and of 
an extent such as to make large tide-locked sewers at slight 
grades and of great length necessary. 
In all, we have many hundred acres of this low, flat land, 
and just in proportion as we have extended such territory for 
residences, just so far have we been creating difficulties for 
ourselves which other cities are unfortunate enough to have 
had from the beginning, and which some of them have met 
and are meeting at great cost, and by the employment of the 
highest engineering skill. 
The Sewers Themselves. 
Ill the limited time of eight months the Commission have 
not been able to examine in detail the whole of the one 
* A great deal of the difficulty hero is explained by the following extract from City 
Document No. 14, 1850, a report in respect to the drainage of the Back hay, by 
Messrs. Rogers, Chesbrough and Parrott: “As the law now stands, any proprietor 
of land may lay out streets at such level as he may deem to be for his immediate inter- 
est, without municipal interference; and when they have been covered with houses, and a 
large population are suffering the deplorable consequences of defective sewerage, the 
Board of Health is called upon to accept them, and assume the responsibility of apply- 
ing a remedy ” [p. 6]. The Seaveeage oe Boston. 
9 
hundred and sixty miles of sewers in Boston ; nor would that 
properly come within the scope of a report upon a system of 
sewerage ; hut they have inspected the most important ones 
and over four hundred manholes. 
The modern sewers in Boston are, most of them, well- 
constructed and of good material. ‘Some have been built to 
meet immediate emergencies, and without the expectation of 
their being permanent. The city authorities, too, have not 
felt the expediency of expending sufficient money for a com- 
prehensive system with each part in harmonious connection 
with the rest. There are now in the city proper thirty-two 
independent drainage-districts, the principal sewers of which 
were built in different years, often widely apart, discharging 
by separate outlets. This condition obtained in London 
until twenty years ago, and in most cities which had any 
sewers at all. 
In most parts of the city there are enough manholes to 
allow of free inspection of the sewers. Directly underneath 
these manholes, with few exceptions, are "catch basins” in 
the course of the sewers, each containing and retaining a 
large amount of organic matter in a state of putrefaction. 
They cannot ever be properly cleaned, and must always of 
necessity be full of sewage ; the annual or semi-annual clear- 
ing-out only serving to remove the sand and other solid 
matters. There are thus several hundred literal open- 
mouthed cesspools connected with the houses in all parts of 
the city. This plan was adopted in order to prevent the 
sewers, many of which were quite flat, from becoming 
obstructed by deposits. It has been tried on a small scale, 
too, in London, Paris, Liverpool and New York; but in all 
these cities it has been found a source of annoyance and 
danger to health, and has been abandoned. When the 
sewers in Boston shall have been accommodated to a system 
which will allow the sewage to be rapidly discharged, these 
catch-basins, which are unnecessary, should be filled ; and 
earlier, if possible. 
The street-gullies for the surface water are located by the 
Street Department, must be connected with the sewers by 
the Sewer Department, and are emptied from time to time 
by the Health Department (not the Board of Health), — a 
complication which entails many evils, and which should be 
done away with. They are trapped, and have catch-basins 
for collecting the street washings. They are often sources 
of very serious annoyance in two ways : — 
1st. The water occasionally evaporates from the traps 
during the summer, exposing the contents to the air and 10 
Citv Document No. 3. 
leaving direct communication between the sewers and the 
outer air. 
2d. The same result is brought about during the process 
of emptying and cleaning them, as the traps are often left to 
be filled by the next rain. 
Between Federal-street bridge and East Concord street 
there are five sewers with tide-gates, which are closed nearly 
one-half of the time. The area drained by them is comprised 
within the following limits : From the wharf of the Albany 
Railroad, following the line of their track to the junction, 
thence along the Providence Railroad as far as Northamp- 
ton street, and through it to the corner of Tremont street, 
diagonally across to Concord street near its junction with 
Tremont street, and finally down East Concord street to the 
Roxbury canal, in all 445 acres. From this large tract 
come complaints of damp cellars, wet cellars, and, in case of 
heavy rain at high tide, of flooded cellars. The evils are 
greater or less as the grades of the streets vary from thirteen 
to eighteen feet above low-water mark, but in all cases reason- 
able causes of' complaint.* In most cases the cellars are 
overflowed with surface-water, but " wooden plugs,” or flap- 
traps, are liable to get out of order, and then a rush of 
sewage comes in and contaminates the air of the houses for 
months. 
The Back bay and Church-street districts, three hundred 
and forty-one acres, drain into the Charles river by tide- 
locked sewers, which are large enough to serve as reservoirs 
for the greatest rainfall which has ever been known in Bos- 
ton, even if occurring at high tide. The cellars are there- 
fore not flooded unless they be built below the grade estab- 
lished by the city authorities (twelve feet above low water 
mark), or surface-water should get in from the yards or 
sidewalks. During nearly twelve hours of each day some 
or all of these sewers have no outlet, the sewage accumu- 
lates, rising higher and higher, leaving a slight deposit on 
the sides, and a very considerable deposit on the bottoms of 
the sewers. At the last time of inspection, this latter was, 
and nearly always is, in the Berkeley-street sewer, from 
four to six inches deep between Boylston and Marlborough 
streets, while the action of the tide keeps the part below 
Marlborough street comparatively clean. The evils in this 
sewer, which is selected as an example of a class, are two- 
fold : first, there is always a large amount of the most offen- 
sive and deleterious gases present, which can pass under any 
* See Appendix C. The Sewerage of Boston. 
11 
circumstances through any water trap, to some extent. 
Secondly, the rapid rise of the sewage in the sewers, when 
they are closed by the tide, and especially if there be a 
heavy rain at the same time, compresses the gases to such 
an extent that they must force their way through the water 
traps,* provided there be not free ventilation, as there gen- 
erally is not in Boston. The difficulty is especially great 
here, as the houses are of such various heights that it is diffi- 
cult in most cases for one man to use his rain-water spouts as 
ventilators, without endangering the sleeping-rooms of his 
own or his neighbor’s house. 
The sewer in Boylston street, west of Park square, is so 
low, from settling of the land, that it cannot be emptied 
even at low tide ; and there is a large quantity of offensive 
deposit in it; that is to say, it is, as is the Berkeley-street 
sewer, an elongated cesspool. 
In one of the streets of Boxbury the house-drains are 
flooded, and offensive matters are brought into the houses 
by even such a rainfall as that in the early part of October 
last. The sewer, being closed by the tide, is of insufficient 
size to meet ail extra demand upon it at high water. 
The large sewer running through Canal and Haymarket 
streets, and having outlets on both sides of the city, was 
found last July to have a solid deposit five feet deep, so hard 
that it was difficult to thrust a pole through it. It cannot 
be cleaned satisfactorily, as it lies so low that workmen can 
enter it only at or near low tide. No systematic attempt, 
therefore, is made to clear it farther than to dam one end, or 
to dig holes through the deposit under the manholes, and 
thus allow a partial scouring to take place. It is one of the 
old square wooden sewers, and is also described as a type of 
a class. 
Finally, between Otter street and Federal-street bridge, 
there are no tide-gates, many of the sewers lie very low, the 
soil is incompletely drained, the cellars are many of them 
often wet, and the sewer-gases are driven into the houses by 
the rise of the tide. 
Considered with reference to their outlets, it is certainly a 
very serious objection, in a sanitary point of view, that 
twenty million gallons of sewage are discharged at forty 
* The same evil would arise in case of an elevation in the temperature within the 
sewers, which frequently happens from the objectionable practice of letting waste-steam 
escape into them, and which may happen from the discharge of a large amount of hot 
water from any of the houses in that street. A violent wind, too, if blowing from the 
suitable direction, when the tide-gates are open, drives the sewer gases with great 
rapidity and force through the traps into the houses. Ventilating pipes, unless of the 
full' size of the soil-pipe3, are not protection against this- last evil. 12 
City Document No. 3. 
different points, completely skirting our city and polluting 
the atmosphere throughout most of its length and breadth. 
In Cambridge, there are ten sewer-outlets into the Charles 
river above West Boston bridge, and four* below it. From 
Somerville and East Cambridge the enormous sewer from 
the Miller’s river district discharges under Craigie’s bridge, 
giving forth most offensive odors. In Charlestown there 
are twelve sewer-outlets, in East Boston thirteen, in South 
Boston eighteen, and in Somerville six. They are, with 
comparatively few exceptions, so situated as to discharge 
the contents of the sewers directly into the docks, or upon 
large surfaces of impervious dock mud. f Under the influ- 
ence of the moisture and heat in summer, this highly pu- 
trescible organic matter gives forth such offensive gases as 
to render it impossible to remain with comfort in some of 
the most costly houses in the city. 
During the past summer it has been necessary to close 
windows in various parts of the city to keep out the bad 
smells; and workmen in the vicinity of the Roxbury canal 
have not unfrequently been obliged to leave their work, 
while the atmosphere in the neighborhood of some of the 
worst places, as the flats near Porter street in East Boston, 
the Roxbury canal, the Stony-brook outlet, the Otter-street 
outlet, the channel below Prison Point, and Craigie’s Bridge, 
has been simply intolerable. 
Great as these evils are, they can only increase as the city 
grows and the population becomes more dense.! 
House-drains, Cesspools, etc. 
Without underrating the danger and discomforts arising 
from the present condition of our sewerage, it would be a 
great omission not to state that, in many cases, bad smells 
which have been attributed to the sewers really arise from 
defects in the arrangements belonfono: to the houses. 
o o o 
* The three of these formerly discharging into Broad canal are emptied into a sin- 
gle main, to be carried out to deep water. 
f The injury done to wharves, caused by deposits in the docks, has been in some 
cases not inconsiderable. 
JThe complaints were so loud in regard to the annoyance from Stony brook, that 
the Board of Health has been obliged to do something to afford at least a partial relief, 
if nothing more. Accordingly, by the advice of Mr. J. P. Davis, City Engineer, a 
temporary dam of loose stones has been placed at the outlet of the open basin, so as to 
retain enough water to keep the flats always covered, and yet allow as much ebb and 
flow of the tide as possible. The expedient is meant to last only a very short time, 
and, with that understanding, the general plan was cordially approved by the State 
Board of Health. 
The City Board of Health has, also, in a great measure, abated the great nuisance 
from the discharge of the sewage of a part of Charlestown upon the flats near Prison 
Point. The Sewerage of Boston'. 
13 
In the first place come cesspools * and privies. In the 
sparsely-settled parts of the city they are in some cases un- 
avoidable, and, if used for only a limited number of years, 
with proper precautions, need not be sources of nuisance or 
harm. 
Privies should always be disinfected daily with a sufficient 
quantity of dry earth, and no drainage or soakage into the 
soil should be allowed from them. 
Cesspools, at least in cities, should always he tightly 
cemented, and inspected by an official employed by the city, 
after each emptying, as is done in Paris. In such case they 
are not nuisances, if the contents are emptied by the pneu- 
matic process, and removed to a sufficient distance. It is 
difficult, however, if not often impossible, to make cemented 
walls perfectly tight; and all such temporary arrangements 
should he abolished by law as fast as sewers are introduced. 
Nor is filling with earth sufficient, but it should be done with 
brick and cement, to prevent rat-holes, which are channels of 
communication for foul gases to the houses. How many of 
them still exist in Poston it is impossible to say, hut they 
are to be found in some of our oldest streets. In high and 
dry gravel, sand, or loam, loose-walled cesspools may exist 
for years without harm, if there be no source of water- 
supply liable to contamination, and no cellars within their 
drainage areas; but they should always be looked upon 
with suspicion. Even under such circumstances, by the 
growth of a town, land may be needed for houses, which at 
one time had been thought to be so remote that it might be 
poll uted with safety. The subsoil once saturated with cesspool- 
matter purifies itself slowly, and the cellar which is dug in 
it is not protected by the amount of care which the building 
of its walls and floors is likely to get. 
In the house-drains themselves the most common faults 
are these : — 
1st. That they are made of pervious or ill-jointed material, 
allowing contamination of soil, and afterwards of the air. 
They may, under some circumstances, pollute the water- 
supply, or defile the air distributed over the house by the 
furnace. 
2d. That they ar.e often made of lead pipe, which often 
becomes corroded, and finally perforated, thereby allowing 
the discharge of sewer gases. Dr. Fergus, of Glasgow, 
who has investigated this subject minutely, has known per- 
foration to occur in lead pipes within three months after they 
had been laid. 
* By this term is meant simply the cesspool, strictly speaking, a large receptacle for 
collecting all the refuse of houses. 14 
City Document No. 3. 
3d. That they are often broken close to the house-walls, 
or even within the walls themselves, in the made land, from 
"settling,” — a process which has been known to continue in 
Boston for at least a dozen years. This is an evil which is 
not usually detected early, often not until the sewage has 
soaked through the cellar-walls, and not unfrequently exists 
when not suspected by the occupants of the house. 
4th. That they may be badly connected with the main 
sewer in the street, or broken at the same point by the set- 
tling of the land. 
5th. That they often are laid under the floors of the cel- 
lars of the houses, thereby increasing the risk when any 
imperfections exist. 
In the water-closets and wash-basins, trapping is often 
incomplete, and ventilation very deficient or entirely want- 
ing. 
Finally, wet cellars in Boston are often due to the settling 
of the land in the yards, whereby the surface-water sinks 
into the soil instead of running off by the drains. 
So much has been said in regard to the suitableness and 
unsuitableness of the " made land” for dwelling-houses, that 
the subject deserves especial mention. 
The old Mill Pond, the South Cove, and large portions of 
the area between Dover and Northampton streets, have been 
tilled with material more or less unsuited to the purpose,* 
and the evils of such a condition have been increased from 
the periodical floodings with water or sewage to which these 
places have been subject. In the first-named two districts 
the soil is spongelike in the readiness with which it allows 
wrater to percolate through it, rendering at least all the base- 
ments unfit for dwellings. 
The Back bay proper, for the most part, has been filled in 
with excellent material, than which nothing could be better; 
and with proper precautions in building, no fear need gener- 
ally be had of dangerous emanations from the deposits 
below it. This has been shown by experiments made during 
the past summer.f The level of the water in the soil, too, 
is especially uniform (an ad vantage in a sanitary point of 
view), and at such a level from the surface as to render the 
cellars dry4 unless built lower than is allowed by the city 
ordinances. Nevertheless the water is too near the surface. 
The Made Land. 
* This is true also of part of the territory lying outside of Beacerl street and Charles 
street. 
f See Appendix D. 
See Appendix E. The Sewerage of Boston. 
15 
The serious faults of the drainage here have already been 
pointed out and can be remedied. 
In South Boston, East Boston, and Charlestown, there is 
so much high land and so little that is low, that the problem 
is comparatively a simple one. 
In Cambridge, Somerville, and Chelsea, there is a large 
amount of low land that is not yet thoroughly drained. 
Between Dorchester bay and Charles river we have a sur- 
face a thousand rods long, about half as deep at its widest 
part, and only six feet above extreme high tide. If this ter- 
ritory should be largely occupied by houses of an inferior 
class, thorough sewerage, at best a difficult matter, would 
be made even more so. 
A reservation of land, therefore, especially with an open 
water-basin, as proposed by the late Governor Andrew,* 
could not fail to be of great benefit to the city, in a sanitary 
point of view. 
The chief source of mischief in the made land is from the 
presence of sewer gases in and out of the houses (an evil 
which exists also to a greater or less extent in other parts of 
the city), and which may be ascribed to three causes. 
First, to the immediate contiguity of large areas of moist 
surface, bare at low tide, and covered with an ever-renew- 
ing layer of sewage. 
Second, to the bad character of the sewer gases, and to the 
fact that in manners already explained they must be con- 
stantly escaping, in greater or less quantity, a large part of 
the time, into some of our houses.* 
Third, to the breaking of the house-drains caused by the 
land settling, while the houses built upon piles remain fixed. 
This is unquestionably a fruitful source of mischief, but it 
may be obviated by a very simple contrivance, namely, by 
leaving a small manhole for inspection close to the outside 
of the cellar-wall from the drain up to the surface of the 
ground. In this way any leakage would be readily detect- 
ed, and the hole could be filled, in winter, with straw or 
some similar substance, to prevent freezing. 
Summary of the Present Condition. 
The evils which exist in our system of sewerage in Boston 
chiefly arise from additions being constantly made to the ter- 
ritory of the city, and from the sewers being necessarily ex- 
tended through these low districts, and on very flat grades, 
without a deflnite comprehensive system. 
* Letter of March 10, I860 [City Document No. 128, 1869, p. 102]. 
f It should be said here that the most deleterious of these gases are often not to be 
detected by the sense of smell, and that people, by becoming habituated to them, often 
are unable to detect what is noticeable to others, and which may be a source of danger. 16 
City Document No. 3. 
The point which must he attended to, if we would get in- 
creased comforts and luxuries in our houses, without* doing 
so at the cost of health and life, is to get our refuse out of 
the way far beyond any possibility of harm before it becomes 
dangerous from putrefaction. In the heat of summer this 
time should not exceed twelve hours. We fail to do this now 
in three ways : — 
1st. We cannot get our refuse always from our house- 
drains to our sewers, because the latter may not only be full 
themselves at high tide, but they may even force the sewage 
up our drains into our houses. 
2d. We do not empty out sewers promptly, because the 
tide or the tide-gates prevent it. In such case the sewage 
being stagnant, a precipitate falls to the bottom, which the 
slow and. gradual emptying of the sewers, as the tide falls, 
does not produce scour enough to remove. This deposit 
remains with little change in some places for many months.* 
3d. With our refuse, which is of an especially foul charac- 
ter, once at the outlets of the sewers, it is again delayed there 
to decompose and contaminate the air. 
As a result of this failure to carry out the cardinal rule of 
sewerage, we are obliged to neglect the second rule, which 
is nearly as important, namely, ventilation of the sewers; 
for the gases are often so foul that we cannot allow them to 
escape without causing a nuisance; and we compromise the 
matter by closing all the vents that we can, with the certainty 
of poisoning the air of our houses. 
Great as is the annoyance from allowing even the foulest 
sewage — emanations to escape into the open air, yet it is the 
safer way to do so, and has already been done in Boston in 
many cases by extending the soil-pipes through the roofs. 
The sewage should start from the houses, and go in a con- 
tinuous current without stopping until it Readies its destination, 
either in deep water or upon the land. In such case, the 
sewers will contain no offensive gases, and free ventilation 
may take place with a few simple precautions. 
Remedies. 
In the opinion of the Commission, there are only two ways 
open to ns. The first, raising more than one-half of the 
superficial area of the city proper (excluding suburbs), is 
entirely out of the question, from the enormous outlay of 
money which would be required, —more than four times as 
much as would be needed for the plan 'which we propose, 
* The catch-basins, too, in the course of the sewers, serve only to aggravate this evil, 
and should be filled as early as is practicable. BOSTON MAIN BKAI NA©IE 
PldH s/iewiny . liar?/ and /y/ttruh JknteTcefjtinq 
Seiver.9 recommended by the 
Sewerage Commission 
1S75 
Note The tinted portion of the Map shows the area included i7 the 
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130 
PROFILE OF SEWER FROM COfTASE-FARM STATION TO MOON ISLAND The Sewerage of Boston. 
17 
and which consists in intercepting sewers and pumping. But 
before discussing these points in detail, we must decide what 
is to be done with the sewage, and where it is to be carried. 
Final Disposal of the Sewage. 
There are in use now in various parts of the world three 
methods of disposing of the sewage of large cities, where the 
water-carriage system is in use. 
1st. Precipitation of the solid parts, with a view to utilizing 
them as manure, and to purifying the streams. 
2d. Irrigation. 
Neither of these processes has proved remunerative, and 
the former only clarifies the sewage without purifying it; 
but if the time comes, when, by the advance in our knowledge 
of agricultural chemistry, sewage can be profitably used as a 
fertilizer, or if it should now be deemed best to utilize it, in 
spite of a pecuniary loss, it is thought that the point to which 
we propose carrying it will be as suitable as any which can 
be found near enough to the city, and at the same time far 
enough away from it. 
The third way is that adopted the world over by large 
cities near deep water, and consists in carrying the sewage 
out so far that its point of discharge will be remote from 
dwellings, and beyond the possibility of doing harm. It is 
the plan which your Commission recommend for Boston.* 
The work will require a large sum of money, but no larger 
than has been expended by other cities for the same purpose ; 
only two-thirds as much as the city of Frankfort-on-the-Main 
has lately appropriated for their sewers, and a small sum 
when we consider the benefits which will come from it.f 
Positions of Sewer Outlets. 
Ill order to ascertain the best position for the outlet of a 
main intercepting sewer for that part of the "metropolitan 
district south of Charles river, extensive experiments have 
been made during the past summer, with floats placed at six 
different points in the harbor. It has been very difficult to 
follow the courses of them all, for many successive days, as 
they became rapidly dispersed, and were often driven by 
wind and storm. A chart has been prepared, giving the 
courses of all these floats ; hut the multiplicity of lines would 
only confuse the reader, and therefore only the general re- 
sults arc given. They may he concisely stated as follows : — 
Starting from Commercial Point, City Point, and Charles 
* See Appendix F. 
f See Appendix A. 18 
City Document No. 3. 
river, below West Boston bridge, sewage would be deposited 
in large quantities even if discharged on the ebb tide, as it 
would return in considerable quantity by the next flood. 
Starting from Castle island or Moon island, sewage dis- 
charged on the flood would be deposited, to a considerable 
degree, on the flats of the Charles and Mystic rivers, or on 
Dorchester and Quincy bay flats. Discharged at and imme- 
diately after high tide, it would generally go as far as Bell 
Buoy or Boston Light, with a certainty of not being a source 
of nuisance by the returning tide. 
Of the two points just mentioned, Castle island is objec- 
tionable, for three reasons : — , 
1st. It is not remote enough from what will be soon a 
densely populated part of the city. 
2d. The discharge of such a mass of sewage into such a 
thoroughfare as the main ship-channel should be avoided, 
provided another available point could be chosen. 
3d. It can hardly be expected that suflicient land could 
be obtained from the United States government for the erec- 
tion of the necessary works on Castle island, if, indeed, 
permission could be got to use the island at all. In South 
Boston suflicient land for a reservoir and pumps would be 
got only at great cost. 
If the sewage were discharged into the channel of Dor- 
chester bay, probably no offence would arise for some years ; 
but the time would almost certainly come when the accumu- 
lation of organic matter would become so great as to render 
complaints quite frequent; for much of the sewage would 
pass backward and forward without getting farther than 
Spectacle island; and no inconsiderable quantity would be 
likely to deposit on the flats.* 
For the cities lying north of Charles river the problem is 
more simple. The experience of the English cities Wey- 
mouth and Hastings leads us to conclude that sewage cannot 
be discharged on an ocean-beach without its being the source 
of a nuisance. With us the only available point where 
sewage would be carried from the northern outlet out to sea, 
by a rapid current, is Shirley gut. 
The Intercepting System. 
The plan recommended is to discharge all the sewage from 
that part of Boston situated between the Charles and Nepon- 
set rivers at the north end of Moon island. 
The main intereceptiug sewer is to be located in nearly a 
direct line from Cottage Farm station to the Neponset river, 
* See Appendix G. The Sewerage of Boston. 
19 
near Savin hill, to cross this river by a siphon, and thence 
to be built along Squantum beach and across Squantum 
point to the end of Moon island. 
The general course of this sewer will be understood from 
the following list of streets through which it is to pass, viz. : 
Beacon street from Cottage Farm station to St. Mary street; 
thence to the junction of Tremont and Cunard streets ; thence 
in Windsor, Madison, Hunneman, and Yeoman streets and 
Norfolk avenue and Clapp and Mt. Yernon streets to Dorches- 
ter avenue ; thence in nearly a direct line to Neponset river 
north of Savin hill. The sewage is here to be raised by 
pumping, and passes by a siphon under Neponset river into 
the main outlet-sewer. 
The grade of the sewer at Cottage Farm station is to be 
one foot below low tide. The fall, or inclination, is to be 
one in twenty-five hundred, or twenty-five inches per mile. 
The sewer is to be circular, nine feet in diameter from Cot- 
tage Farm station to Albany street; nine feet by eleven 
(equal to a circle ten feet in diameter) thence to the pump- 
ing station ; thence to the outlet at Moon island, at first ten 
feet by twelve (equal to a circle of eleven feet in diameter), 
and finally twelve feet by thirteen; thus enlarging the 
storage capacity of the outfall sewer. 
The siphon under Neponset river is to be six feet in 
diameter and fifteen hundred feet long. It is designed to be 
of wrought iron, properly protected from the action of salt 
water. Chambers are to be built at each end of it for con- 
necting a second siphon. The results of further surveys 
and borings at this point may show that it would make a 
more permanent and less expensive structure to build a brick 
tunnel laid in Portland cement with iron ribs to strengthen 
the masonry. 
There is to be built at the outlet on Moon island a reser- 
voir to hold twenty-five million gallons, which is somewhat 
more than the usual amount of sewage now discharged in 
twenty-four hours. The discharge into the sea is to take 
place at each tide for the first two or three hours after high 
water. 
It is proposed to erect at the pumping-station three 
engines, of 145 horse-power each. This is a very liberal- 
pro vision for the present; but, in view of the free use of 
water after the completion of the Sudbury aqueduct, it is 
thought best to make it. The lift will be from twenty to- 
thirty-three feet. The grade of the outfall sewer is at this 
point fourteen feet, and at the outlet eight feet above low 
water. 
The sewer from Cottage Farm station to the Neponset 20 
City Document No. 3. 
river is to drain all that part of the city which lies between 
it and the Charles river and the harbor on the north; also 
all that part of the city south of it and at the same time 
below grade forty. .It will be large enough to drain twenty 
square miles, and to take the sewage from a population of 
750,000. Its capacity is three hundred and forty-live cubic 
feet per second, or over two hundred and twenty million 
gallons per day. 
The size of the outfall-sewer is sufficient to carry the sew- 
age from a population of one million, and also one-fourth of 
an inch rain-fall per day from an area of thirty square miles. 
Its capacity is four hundred and forty-five cubic feet per 
second, or over two hundred and eighty million gallons per 
day. 
In determining the sizes of the sewers, we have assumed 
the amount of sewage to be seventy-five gallons per day per 
inhabitant; but, as the maximum flow would be at the same 
rate as if this were all to be discharged iu twelve hours, we have 
fixed the sizes large enough to discharge double that amount, 
and, in addition to the above, an amount of storm water at 
the time of the maximum flow of the sewage equal to one- 
fourth of an inch of rain-fall per twenty-four hours. The 
large capacity of the sewers fixed upon will be sufficient to 
carry oft’ or impound for the time a still greater rain-fall per 
hour. It should, however, be here stated that this plan con- 
templates the construction of storm-overflows at suitable 
points, so as to prevent in times of very great or long con- 
tinued rains a surcharging of the sewers. 
It is also to be understood that the natural water-courses 
in Dorchester, Roxbury, Brookline and Brighton, particu- 
larly Stony brook and Muddy brook, are to be kept open, 
and free and clear from sewage contamination, and that their 
channels are to be straightened and to discharge as at pres- 
ent into the Charles river; for no sewers could be built at 
reasonable cost large enough to carry off these waters in 
case of storms. If by the growth of the city it should ever 
become necessary to cover them or other natural water- 
courses, great care should be taken that their character as 
drains for the soil be maintained without allowing any ordi- 
nary sewage to be discharged into them, but only occasion- 
ally an excess of storm-water. 
The sewage from those portions of the city situated south 
of the main intercepting sewer, and above the plane of forty 
feet above low water, can be intercepted by a high-level 
sewer and delivered into the outfall-sewer without pumping. 
The district is not now so densely populated as to require 
this; and for the next ten or fifteen years the sewage from The Sewerage of Boston. 
21 
such portions as require sewers can be delivered into the low- 
level sewer and pumped. 
The principal branch of the main sewer is to be located 
in Albany street, from Yeoman street to Kneeland street, 
and at this point to receive a lateral to be built in Kneeland, 
Federal and Broad streets, and Atlantic avenue to Central 
wharf; from the junction of Albany and Kneeland streets it 
is to be built in Kneeland, Elliot and Pleasant to Boylston, 
and thence to junction of Arlington and Marlborough streets 
and in Marlborough to Parker street. At the junction of 
Marlborough and Arlington streets it is to receive a branch 
to be located in Arlington, Beacon, Brimmer, Pinckney and 
Charles streets to Leverett street. 
The location of this branch intercepting sewer on Marl- 
borough street is recommended on account of economy in 
construction, and the saving of much annoyance to the pub- 
lic by obstructing Beacon street for so long a time as would 
be necessary, to say nothing of the danger of accidents to 
the water-mains there. 
The desirableness, however, of keeping the tide more per- 
fectly out of this district, the ground-water of which fluctu- 
ates in consequence of it from one to three feet at every 
tide, and any future examinations and negotiations which 
may be made with the owners of the property on the north 
side of the mill-dam, may satisfy the city that it would be 
better to rebuild the sea-wall there, making it water-tight, 
and then construct the sewer inside of it. 
It is recommended to close that portion of the Boxbury 
canal west of Albany street. If this is done, the expense of 
a siphon for the sewer in Albany street will be saved; and 
the value of the land reclaimed will more than compensate 
for the expense of filling it, beside greatly improving the 
sanitary condition of this immediate vicinity. 
The sewage from South Boston is to be intercepted by a 
sewer to be built in Dorchester avenue, A street, and First 
street to Second street. It is thought that for the present 
it will not be necessary to build this sewer farther than from 
its junction with the main in Dorchester avenue to B street, 
where it will intercept a large sewer, which now discharges 
into the South bay. 
The sizes of the branch intercepting sewers will vary 
from four feet in diameter up to seven and one-half feet; 
their minimum inclinations are to be one in two thousand, or 
thirty-two inches per mile. » 
The inclination of all the sewers is to be sufficient to give 
a minimum velocity of about two miles per hour, and thus 
prevent any deposit of sediment in them. 22 
City Document No. 3. 
It will be perceived by an examination of the most recent 
experience in connection with the sewers of European cities 
that more and more attention is paid to flushing them, not- 
withstanding they may have sufficient grades to be what is 
called self-cleansing. The advantages of this will be per- 
ceived when it is remembered that, in continued dry weather, 
the effective scour of a small amount of sewage may be con- 
siderably less than the average estimated for, and yet even 
the maximum must be provided for in the sizes of the sew- 
ers. With such experience before us, we would take advan- 
tage of the excellent facilities that exist for flushing purposes 
at high water, along the Charles river and other tidal fronts 
of the city, and from any tidal basin that may be constructed 
in the proposed park near the mouths of Stony and Muddy 
brooks. 
We propose that the main and branch intercepting sewers 
shall be so constructed that no water will leak into them 
through their bottoms or side walls ; for by just the quantity 
that may be thus allowed to leak into them will their effi- 
ciency be diminished. We also propose so to graduate the 
inlets of the lateral sewers into the main and branch inter- 
cepting sewers, that no more than the sewage proper and 
the due proportion of storm-water shall be allowed to enter; 
otherwise the storm-water would interfere with the proper 
action of the main and outfall-sewers. The details for effect- 
ing this, though simple in themselves, are, like others, neces- 
sarily omitted from this general report. The length of the 
main intercepting sewer and branches for the south side is 
fourteen and one-fifth miles. 
The total estimated cost of the sewers herein recommended 
for the south side of the Charles river, including an allow- 
ance of three hundred thousand dollars for rebuilding old 
sewers and connecting them with the intercepting sewers, is 
$3,746,500, of which the details are as follows : — 
Main Sewer and Branches to the Pumping-Station, $1,483,182 
Engines and Pumping-Station .... 300,000 
Main Outfall-Sewer ...... 875,000 
Reservoir ....... 350,000 
Land Damages . . . . . . 125,000 
$3,133,182 
Engineering and Superintendence, etc., 10 per ct. 313,318 
$3,446,500 
Rebuilding and connecting old sewers . . 300,000 
Total $3,746,500 The Sewerage of Boston. 
23 
The main intercepting sewer for the district north of the 
Charles river is to commence in Cambridge at the north end 
of the approach to the Brookline bridge ; its general course 
is through Waverly street to the Boston and Albany Branch 
Railroad; thence along the northerly side of the railroad, 
crossing Main street into Portland street, and in Portland, 
Medford, Poplar, and Redmond streets to Charlestown; 
thence in Cambridge and Alford streets to the Mystic river, 
crossing it by a siphon south of the Malden bridge to Bow 
street; thence across the marsh to Locust street south of 
the Eastern Railroad ; thence through Chelsea parallel to the 
railroad to Chester street, and in Chester street to Marginal 
street; thence crossing Chelsea creek by a siphon to Breed’s 
island; and across this island along the northerly foot of 
Breed’s hill; and finally by a siphon across the inlet to Win- 
throp, and thence crossing Beach street near Main street, 
and passing west of Winthrop Head to the outlet at Point 
Shirley. 
The grade of this sewer at the junction of Brookline and 
Waverly streets is to be two feet above low tide. The fall 
per mile is to be twenty-five inches. It is to be four and 
one-half feet in diameter to Main street, six feet in diameter 
to Cambridge street, and seven feet in diameter to the junc- 
tion of Cambridge and Canal streets in Charlestown, where 
it receives the lateral sewTer from that district. From this 
point to the west end of Breed’s island, where the pumping- 
works are to be located, it is to be eight feet in diameter. 
The branch from East Boston is to join the main sewer at 
this point. From the pumping-works to the outfall at Point 
Shirley, the main sewer is to be nine feet in diameter. The 
capacity of this main outfall-sewer is two hundred and sixty- 
one cubic feet per second, or about one hundred and sixty- 
nine million gallons per day. 
The principal lateral is to commence at the junction of 
Main and Third streets in Cambridge, and to pass through 
Third, Spring, First, Cambridge, Bridge and Prison Point 
streets to the mouth of Miller’s river, crossing it by a siphon 
to Charlestown, and thence through First and Canal streets 
to the junction with the main line in Cambridge street. 
This sewer is to be four and one-half feet in diameter from 
Main street to Charlestown, and thence to its junction with 
the main intercepting sewer five feet in diameter. 
If the streets in East Cambridge should be filled out to the 
Commissioner’s line, it would be better to build this sewer in 
Prison Point street, and in First street to the West Boston 
bridge. 
For draining East Boston it is proposed to construct a 24 
City Document No. 3. 
branch intercepting sewer parallel with and east of the East- 
ern Railroad, thence along Reynolds street to the creek, 
thence across Breed’s island and around the westerly end of 
Breed’s hill to the main north outfall sewer. 
This sewer from Maverick street to Neptune street is to be 
four and one-half feet in diameter, and thence to the junction 
with the main sewer on Breed’s island live feet in diameter 
For temporary purposes until the system of main inter 
cepting sewers shall be built and in operation, Mr. Bradley’s 
plan, which he has already commenced carrying out, is recom- 
mended ; that is, to collect the sewage of the easterly side or 
slope into one sewer and discharge it into deep water at the 
southwesterly end of the island. The outlets of the other 
East Boston sewers do not cause any serious complaint at 
present. 
It is proposed to erect at the pumping-station on Breed’s 
island two engines of 145 horse-power each. The lift will 
be from twenty-three to thirty feet. The grade of the outfall- 
sewer is at this point seventeen and one-half feet above low 
water. 
There is to be at the outlet near Point Shirley a reservoir 
to hold twenty million gallons, from which the discharge is 
to take place twice each day for the first two or three hours 
after high water. 
The length of the main sewer and branches for the district 
north of Charles river is fifteen miles. Their estimated 
cost, including reservoir and pumping-station, and an allow- 
ance of one hundred thousand dollars for rebuilding and con- 
necting old sewers with the intercepting sewers, is $2,804,564 ; 
of which the details are as follows : — 
Main Sewer from Brookline bridge to Point 
Shirley, 1Ot6-09¥ miles .... $1,538,395 00 
Branch Sewers 4Ty¥ miles . . . 270,300 00 
Engines and Pumping-Station . . . 200,000 00 
Reservoir ...... 300,000 00 
$2,308,695 00 
LandDamages. ..... 150,000 00 
$2,458,695 00 
Engineering and Superintendence 10 per 
cent. ...... 245,869 00 
$2,704,564 00 
Add for rebuilding old sewers, etc. . 100,000 00 
Total $2,804,564 00 The Se wee age of Boston. 
25 
It would not be practicable to enlarge the outfall-sewers 
in case future necessity should demand increase in that 
direction. Therefore a very considerable outlay must be 
made now to avoid such necessity; but it is not advisable 
to make the reservoirs much larger than the present popula- 
tion requires. Thus not only an important amount of inter- 
est may be saved, but considerable and valuable experience 
gained in the mean time both as to the necessity of future 
enlargements and the possible utilization of some of the 
sewage. We would, however, recommend the securing at 
once of all the land ever likely to be needed for reservoirs. 
The surveys upon which this report is based were made 
under the direction of Mr. Win. H. Bradley, C. E., Super- 
intendent of Sewers, by Col. C. W. Folsom, C. E. We 
take pleasure here in acknowledging the courteous manner 
in which Mr. Bradley furnished all the information we 
asked, and the valuable suggestions made by him, which his 
long familiarity and experience with the peculiarities of 
Boston sewerage enabled him to do. 
Among the many advantages of the general plan here rec- 
ommended, viz., pumping the sewage and discharging the 
same at high tide, may be mentioned the following: — 
1st. The sewage is removed entirely from the limits of 
the city and discharged so as to be carried out to sea, whence 
it will not return. Our experiments convince us that this 
can be done certainly on the ebb tide. 
2d. There is a constant and uninterrupted flow of the sew- 
age from the time it enters the sewers until it reaches the 
outfall-sewer. All sewage is thus removed before it becomes 
offensive, and there is no deposit in the bottoms of the sew- 
ers. 
3d. In a system of sewers of this design skilfully con- 
structed, the level of the ground water will be kept several 
feet lower than it now is. This point is one of great impor- 
tance in view of the direct connection, as shown by Dr. 
Bowditch and Dr. Buchanan, between soil-moisture and pul- 
monary consumption, a disease which causes about one-sixth 
of the total number of deaths in Boston. 
4th. It will be practicable to rebuild such sewers as have 
been extended from time to time on newly made ground, 
which consequently have little or no grade, sometimes with 
inclinations the wrong way, and which it is now very diffi- 
cult, if not impossible, to keep clean. 
No system of sewerage and no degree of perfection in the 
sewers themselves can be expected to render our dwellings 
Conclusion. City Document No. 3. 
free from bad smells or danger to health unless the house- 
drains, soil-pipes, etc., be also carefully attended to. 
We therefore recommend 
1st. That soil-pipes be carried through the roofs to a point 
two feet above them, and not near chimneys or windows; 
and that they have on their tops some approved automatic 
ventilator, one of the best of which is Capt. Liernur’s mod- 
ification of Saint Martin’s, originally proposed to the French 
Academy in 1788. Ventilating pipes may pass into chim- 
neys if the latter are always kept hot. 
2d. That rain-water spouts be untrapped and discharge 
into the sewers, provided that their upper ends he remote from 
windows or the tops of chimneys communicating with rooms 
occupied by human beings. 
3d. That house-drains be made free from the faults men- 
tioned on a previous page. 
4th. That there be inspectors appointed, whose sole busi- 
ness it shall be to see that house-drains are properly con- 
structed and kept in order. 
5th. That no new houses be occupied until they have 
been properly inspected, and their drains have been found 
satisfactory. 
6th. That an intercepting sewer, with branches and pump- 
ing-stations, be constructed according to the plans already 
given, the necessary modifications of the old sewers to be 
determined as the work proceeds. 
7th. That the means recommended for flushing be freely 
used, and the sewers be kept as clean as possible. 
8th. That the new sewers, and also many of the older 
ones, as they become clean, be ventilated by free openings, 
the positions of which are to be regulated by experience. 
Finally, we have omitted many details, and we have 
avoided mention of many subjects which may perhaps be 
thought deserving of discussion; but we have been anxious 
to confine our report within reasonable limits, by avoiding 
perplexing minutiae, and by touching only lightly upon mat- 
ters of sanitary interest, which we have not space to discuss 
in full. 
Respectfully submitted, 
E. S. CHESBROUGH. 
MOSES LANE. 
CHAS. F. FOLSOM. APPENDIX. 
APPENDIX A. 
Sewerage-Systems op Large Cities. 
London. —When water-closets were first introduced in this city, 
about the beginning of the present center}’, they were connected 
with the sewers. The latter were large and badly constructed ; 
and the pollution of the soil became so great that a law was passed 
forbidding their use as a means of discharge for the water-closets 
or privies. Cesspools were then built all over the city, and the 
nuisance so increased that another law was passed, in 1847, re- 
quiring that they should be abolished, and that connections should 
in all cases be made with the sewers. 
The contamination of the soil from these various sources became 
so great, that in 1866, during the cholera epidemic, posters were 
placed upon all the city pumps, stating that the water was none of it 
fit for drinking purposes. Even at the present day cases of illness 
are not unfrequently traced to buried and forgotten cesspools, and 
many polluted wells are still in use. 
In 1856 the stench from the discharge of sewage into the 
Thames had become intolerable ; there had been two recent epi- 
demics of cholera in the city (in 1849 and 1854), and the many 
evils in the sewerage system had become so great, that engineers 
and physicians had united in declaring the necessity of a change. 
As a consequence, the main-drainage scheme was adopted, consist- 
ing of five sets of intercepting sewers, with four pumping-stations. 
The two outlets for the northern and southern sections of the 
metropolis are at Barking and at Crossness, respectively ten and 
fourteen miles below the city proper ; and they are covered by the 
water at the time of discharge. At each outlet there is a reser- 
voir capable of containing the ordinary sewage of twenty-four 
hours, if necessary. The discharge into the river from these reser- 
voirs takes place only during the two hours succeeding high water, 
so that an abundance of time is given for the ebb-tide to carry all 
the sewage to a safe distance. 
In the City of London proper, where the land is quite high, 
the sewers are well flushed, and they are ventilated by gratings 
placed at intervals, from one hundred feet to fifty yards apart, 
opening directly into the streets. Where the sewer-gases are 
especially foul, they pass first through charcoal filters. Ventila- 
tion is also got in the different parishes by extending the soil-pipes 
through the roofs, by special pipes carried up above the tops of 
the houses, and in some cases by connecting rain-water spouts with 
the sewers without traps. City Document No. 3. 
The sewers of the main-drainage scheme are self-flushing, and 
are a perfect success ; and the pumps work admirably, so that 
places so low that they must be protected from the Thames by 
embankments are thoroughly drained. 
Many of the old sewers, however, especially where the sand and 
dirt from the streets are discharged directly into them, require 
cleaning from time to time. This is done by contract, and inspec- 
tions are made every three months by the Sewer Department to see 
that it is properly done. They are also flushed by gates which 
hold the water back until the sewers are nearly full, and then, 
being suddenly opened, let it go with a rush. 
Since the intercepting sewers were built, the level of the ground- 
water has been very much lowered, cellars formerly wet have be- 
come dry, and, in some few places, trees are even d}dng from loss 
of moisture in the soil. 
The storm-water is discharged into the Thames by overflows, 
some of which are so low that they are tide-locked at high water. 
Consequently, in case of very heavy rain at high tide, which indeed 
does not often happen, those cellars which are placed below the 
grade established by the authorities are liable to be flooded. 
This difficult}", however, has been obviated for a great part of the 
city by means of a sewer for surface water only. 
All the attempts to utilize the sewage of London have proved 
failures from a pecuniary point of view. There is no nuisance to 
the metropolis created by the discharge into the river, and the sur- 
veys of the Board of Works convince them that the harbor is not 
filling up at all from sewer deposits. In fact, Sir Joseph W. 
Bazalgelte has given an opinion that the sewage actual 1}- helps 
scour the channel. All of the sewage of London goes into the 
Thames except that corresponding to a population of 20,000, which 
is utilized, at some pecuniary loss, on an experimental sewage-farm 
at Barking. 
Liverpool. — The drainage of this city is a comparatively simple 
matter. Most of the land is quite high, and there are only 5,210 
acres. The sewers are, generally speaking, excellent. There are 
nine main branches, each having a separate drainage-area, dis- 
charging into the Mersey at deep water, — in one case by a 
siphon,— and at points eight feet below high-water mark.* 
In the low part of the city there are nearly three hundred acres 
occupied chiefly by warehouses and drained by tide-locked sewers ; 
and, in case of heavy rain at high water, the damage done in the 
cellars of this district has sometimes been very great. 
At the summits of the new branch-sewers, reservoirs are made 
of about five hundred cubic feet capacity, to be used for flushing 
purposes. In many cases, too, similar reservoirs are making for 
the old sewers, so that there will be finally several hundred of 
them ; and they will be used as often as frequent inspection shows 
flushing to be necessary. It is thought that some of them will 
never be needed. 
The plans of all sewers and of all alterations in the old ones 
* The tide, as in London, rises and falls about twenty feet. Appendix. 
29 
must be submitted to and approved by the Health Committee be- 
fore they can be carried out. 
In the lower parts of the city nearly three thousand pipes have 
been carried from the sewers through the roofs of the houses, to be 
used exclusively for ventilation. There have been complaints of 
bad odors from them in only two or three instances, in which cases 
they have been removed. Charcoal filters were used, too, at one 
time at the upper ends of the pipes, but were soon abandoned, as 
they were found to obstruct the passage of the sewer-gases. 
In the better parts of the city, soil-pipes are carried up through 
the roofs, and rain-water spouts are used as ventilators in many 
cases where their upper ends are remote from chimnej’s and win- 
dows. The Sewer Department is also constructing ventilating 
shafts alongside of the manholes, and opening directly into the 
streets. The street-gullies are trapped, and are flushed in the sum- 
mer time, so that they never shall become dry. 
A few years ago the sewage was carried to a point north of 
the city and delivered by pumps upon a farm for irrigation ; but the 
whole process was found so costly that it had to be abandoned. 
There is verj" little offence from the sewer-outlets, and a commis- 
sion of engineers has decided that the bed of the river is not ob- 
structed by the deposits from the sewage. 
Leeds, a city of ■300,000 inhabitants, has sewers for two-thirds 
of its population. In 1871 they were served with an injunction 
obliging them to cease extending their sewerage-system any far- 
ther until they purified the sewage before discharging it into the 
river Aire. They have tried the various precipitating processes, 
and are now using the A. B. C. in a modified form. The cost of 
their precipitating works has been £90,000, and their yearly ex- 
penses for working them amount to £15,000. The sewers are 
Ireely ventilated by untrapped street-gullies. 
Manchester, a city of 4,516 acres, with a population of 356,000, 
has water-closets for onl}’ about 50,000. For the remaining 
300,000, ash-closets, privies and cesspools are used, but the latter 
are fast disappearing. The ash-closets are emptied daily by carts, 
at a cost four times as great as that of the water-carriage system, 
and in a manner which is certainly much less inoffensive. The 
idea of the authorities is that the river Irwell will thus be saved 
from pollution ; but it is already so fouled by manufactories that 
it would be difficult to say whether the slop-water and street- 
drainage do not pollute it so much that the additional discharge 
from the water-closets would make any difference or not. The 
better classes—only a few of whom live in the city itself — insist 
upon having water-closets in their own houses. 
Birmingham has an admirable system of sewers, having water- 
closets connected with about two-thirds of the houses. At the 
present time they depend chiefly upon one of the precipitating pro- 
cesses to clarify their sewage ; but, owing to its great expense and its 
failure to purify the sewage, they are trying to secure sufficient 
land for irrigation. The cost of the works is 13,000 pounds a year, 
beside the interest on the money invested. The return from the 
manure sold is trifling. 30 
City Document No. 3. 
Bristol. — A long intercepting sewer has been built with its out- 
let four miles below the city. 
Glasgow. — Water-closets are used in the better parts of the 
city, and elsewhere ordinary privies or charcoal-closets. The 
sewage of the cityr is discharged into the Clyde, which has been for 
nearly twenty }*ears so fouled that people have avoided going up 
the river in steamboats during the summer. The sewers are not 
well ventilated, so that the gases ascend to the highest points, 
where also the best houses are, and are thought to give rise to a 
certain number of cases of typhoid fever. Typhus is common in 
the lower districts, where there are no water-closets. In 1868, 
Messrs. Bateman and Bazalgette, in their report, proposed a 
main-drainage system to carry the sewage out to sea many miles 
south of the mouth of the Clyde. Sir John Hankshaw has 
recently been asked to make a report on the question, and it is not 
yet decided what is to be done. 
Edinburgh lias not yet completed sewers for all of the lowest 
parts of the city', but is contemplating doing so. The sewage of 
the northern part of the city, which formerly created a great 
nuisance by its discharge into the river Leith, has been intercepted 
by a main sewer and carried out into deep water. 
Much of the sewage of the other parts of the city is flooded over 
four irrigation-farms, which are profitable, but the sources of con- 
siderable complaint. It is proposed to build another long inter- 
cepting sewer on the southern side of the city. 
The ventilation of the sewers is deficient, and, as in Glasgow, 
typhoid fever is observed in the houses of the better class on the 
high land, at the tops of the sewers. Typhus is not uncommon in 
the “ Cowgate” and “ Canongate,” where the poorest classes live. 
Three inspectors are kept constantly employed looking after 
house-drains, and compelling house-owners to repair breaks and 
imperfections. 
Dublin has, in the main, good sewers, but their discharge into the 
river Liffey is a source of so great annoyance that many business 
men have been obliged to remove their offices from that part of the 
city. The s}’stem of intercepting sewers with two siphons across 
the Liffey, proposed by Messrs. Bazalgette and Carrick in their 
report, it is generally supposed will be adopted, at a cost of 500,000 
pounds. The sewage is to be discharged at deep water, several 
miles from the city, and at a point where it can be utilized by 
irrigation, if it shall be thought necessary or best to do so. The 
sewers are well flushed, but not thoroughly ventilated, an evil 
Avhich they mean to correct. 
Paris. — The enormous sewers of this city are beautiful speci- 
mens of engineering skill; but it is doubtful whether thejr are as 
satisfactory in a sanitary point of view as those built upon the 
principles laid down by English and American engineers. The 
two intercepting sewers, one with a siphon, under the Seine dis- 
charge at points quite below the city. The street refuse passes 
directly into the sewers through untrapped pipes, the idea being 
that it can thus be removed more cheaply and with less obstruc- 
tion to travel and traffic than from the streets. There is always, Appendix. 
31 
therefore, quite a large deposit in the sewer ; but it is not allowed 
to remain long, six hundred and seventy men being constantly 
employed to remove it. Originally, water-closets were not con- 
nected with the sewers, but the rule has been changed with refer- 
ence to the newer houses, and 1,500 of them now discharge into 
sewers instead of cesspools. Flushing is provided for b}r the 
large quantities of water used daily to wash the streets; and the 
street-gullies serve as free ventilators. 
The irrigation with sewage is unfortunately at present carried 
out on a very small scale and at considerable pecuniary loss to 
the city, although the farmers, who pay nothing for the sewage, 
make some profit. 
The telegraph-wires and water-pipes are laid along the tops of 
the arches of the sewers, many of which really resemble subterra- 
nean streets in their size. The only objection to this arrangement 
is that during the flooding of the sewers by storm-water these 
pipes could not be readily repaired if injured. The water in the 
sewers has very seldom been high enough, however, to make any 
such thing possible. Gas-pipes are laid in the streets, as with us, 
and not in the sewers, for fear of explosions. 
There are two principal sources of water-supply beside the two 
Artesian wells (which latter yield a very small proportion of the 
whole quantity used). The water from the Seine and the Dhuis is 
potable, while that from the Marne is used only for washing streets 
and such purposes. 
Frankfort-on-the-Main. — A new system of sewers was begun in 
1867, under the distinguished English engineer, Mr. W. Lindley. 
The old sewers are to be filled up and destroyed. The plans 
show the highest skill. The mechanical execution is most ad- 
mirable, and no other large city in Europe is so perfectly sewered. 
The sewage is discharged in the middle of the river Main, under 
water, and at some distance below the city. The sewers are put at 
great depth in order to drain the soil, and to take advantage of 
the ground water for flushing. The street-gullies are all trapped, 
and no dust or sand is allowed to get in from that source. 
Flushing is secured by means of three hundred flushing-gates in 
the course of the sewers, which are closed long enough to get suf- 
ficient head, and then suddenty opened. Ventilation is to be got 
by soil-pipes carried through the roofs, by rain-water pipes, and b}r 
three high ventilating towers, one of which is the chimney of a 
manufactory. The river is so broad and rapid that it is not likely 
to be seriously contaminated for some years. Nevertheless part of 
the original plan provides for sewage irrigation, and the present 
outlet is therefore placed near land suitable for that purpose. 
Hamburg was the first city which had a complete systematic 
sewerage-system throughout according to modern ideas. How far 
that was in advance of the rest of the world, in 1843, when the work 
was undertaken, may be inferred from the fact that there are no real 
advances in new principles from that time up to the present day. The 
sewers, unlike those of Frankfort, are made on the “ open S3’stem,” 
that is, the rain-water spouts are all untrapped to serve as ventila- 
tors to the sewers ; the street-gullies are also without traps, and 32 
City Document No. 3. 
there are gratings for ventilation opening into the street. It is 
very rare that any of the latter are sources of complaint, inasmuch 
as the sewers are kept so clean that there are seldom any foul- 
smelling gases. 
The great feature in Hamburg, however, is the weekly flushing 
at low tide by letting the waters of the Binnen Alster flow through 
the sewers with great force. There are also flushing-gates for 
washing out the branch sewers. This whole process is carried out 
so completely that the siphon under the river Alster has not re- 
quired cleaning since it was built, in 1845. 
A senator, one of Lindley’s strongest opponents when he pro- 
posed his plans for sewering the city, came to him three years after 
a certain sewer had been completed, to ask as to the position of its 
provisional outlet, which was under water and near his own house, 
where the stream was only a hundred feet wide. He said that he 
could neither see nor smell anything, and was greatly surprised 
when the point of discharge was shown to him. Twenty-five years 
after the sewers were completed, they were found by a commission 
of experts to be clean and almost without odor. 
The river Elbe is too large to be seriously contaminated by- the 
sewage of Hamburg. 
Munich is just abandoning the old system (or rather want of sys- 
tem), which is really very imperfect, to build new sewers, under an 
English engineer, formerly assistant of Mr. Lindley; so that the 
plan of either Hamburg or Frankfort will probably be closely 
followed. 
Dusseldorf and Crefelcl are at work on the Frankfort pattern, and 
Stuttgart is just inaugurating similar works. 
Dantzic has recently completed a system of sewerage under the 
celebrated German engineer Wiebe, of which the main features are 
two large intercepting sewers, each connected with pumping-works 
by a siphon, frequent flushing from the river Radaune, and free ven- 
tilation into the streets by gratings without charcoal filters. The 
storm-water is discharged by7 overflows into the river Mottlau. The 
sewage is carried five miles from the city and utilized on an 
irrigation farm. 
Berlin is to have a sewerage sy-stem, to be finished in 1883, by 
which the sewage is to be carried off to the outskirts of the city, 
pumped, and utilized on five different irrigation-farms. 
New York now discharges most of its sewage in the docks, from 
which there are many complaints. The old, badly constructed 
sewers are making over, and plans have been approved by the 
authorities for long intercepting sewers, to discharge the sewage at 
deep water, and by- only two outlets. 
Brooklyn has very finely constructed sewers, on an excellent 
sy-stem. The outlets have been located with reference to avoiding 
a nuisance (not in all cases entirely successful), and there is very 
little complaint against them. It is the only city in this country 
where free ventilation is got by- openings into the streets. Many 
of these gratings were examined, and there were only a few where 
any- smell could be detected six feet from the surface of the streets. 
There is very seldom any complaint of them, and very many7 peo- 
ple fail to discover that they7 exist at all. Appendix. 
33 
Philadelphia is poorly provided with sewers, a large part of the 
city having none at all. , 
Baltimore still follows the custom begun in Paris, of forbidding 
connections between the water-closets and the few sewers that" 
exist. Most of the first-class dwellings and the hotels have water- 
closets discharging into cesspools, made in the porous soil of the 
cit}\ In some cases their liquid contents are emptied into the 
sewers. Street-washings and the slop-water discharged by the 
sewers, however, have made the basin very filthy and foul- 
smelling. 
Near the city the tide rises and falls only one foot and a half, 
an incurable difficulty in the way of disposing of the sewage 
within the city limits. Already a main-drainage scheme is talked 
of, to take all the sewage to a point several miles below the city, 
and to abolish the cesspools; but it has not yet assumed a definite 
form. 
At Washington enormous main sewers are building in the courses 
of the natural streams, the outlets to be at deep water instead of 
being on the flats, as at present. This plan has some advantages 
in draining the soil, as natural drainage-areas are followed ; but 
they are much more than counterbalanced by having the 
sewers pass across house-lots, through cellars, etc., so as to be 
difficult of access for repairs, and to contaminate the air of houses 
in case of accident. In case of excessive rain, too, it is generally 
difficult to prevent their being filled to overflowing. 
Three of the pumping-stations of London, and those of Strat- 
ford, Birmingham, Paris, Dantzic, Bedford, Crewe and Leeds have 
been visited during the past summer, and have been found invari- 
ably to be free from offensive odors outside of the buildings con- 
taining the pumps. In most cases, too, the odor was only very 
slight within the buildings. 
APPENDIX B. 
Public hearings were held by the Commission on the afternoons 
of July 9th'and 10th, and many letters have been received from 
gentlemen in various parts of the city from time to time. Our 
attention has in this way been directed to many local evils, all of 
which have been investigated carefully. 
The statements made in these ways are not published here, for 
want of space, but they have been preserved for reference, if 
needed. 
We quote the opinions of a few of the leading physicians, which, 
it is thought, represent very fairly the position of the medical 
profession: — 
“lam most deeply convinced of the importance of an immediate 
improvement in the system of sewerage. Immense as the outlay for 
any substantial change must be, that outlay is as nothing in comparison 34 
City Document No. 3. 
to the cost in lives and in the resources of the community, which a 
continuance of the present evil entails. 
“ In the presence of an hourly poisoning such as the air undergoes, 
the death-rate cannot fail to be raised, and medical measures for the 
preservation of the public health will have but little effect.” 
Dr. J. P. Reynolds. 
“My views are that it (i.e., a change in our system of sewerage) it 
of such necessity, and should be of such an extended character, thas 
the expenditure of an immense amount of money (say several millions 
of- dollars) can alone accomplish any practical good.” 
Dr. R. M. Hodges. 
“ The sewage should either be pumped, diluted and irrigated, or dis- 
charged a long way below the city in tide water. 
“The Roxbury canal (Albany st.) is an open sewer, stinking and 
black at high water, highly deleterious to the City Hospital, and to the 
South End. It is sprinkled over our streets, and the smell is pcreep- 
tible summer evenings after the last watering.” 
Dr. D. W. Cheever. 
“It is impossible to cite individual cases of disease which are 
distinctly owing to bad drainage. I do not knoAv that I ever saw 
such; but there is no fact better established by general experience 
than that foul air is unfavorable to health, and that it aggravates 
epidemics when they occur. 
“That the whole atmosphere of our city has, through imperfect 
drainage, become at times too foul for endurance, is too patent a fact 
for any one to dispute, and should take precedence in public attention 
before any other object of public interest. In my own immediate 
neighborhood I have had an opportunity to observe one noisome 
source of pollution in the emptying of drains into Charles river, at the 
foot of Chestnut and Mt. Vernon streets. During the cold weather, 
and especially while the river is covered with ice, the stench is less 
noticeable. 
“ At high tide there is no trouble. For an hour before and after low 
tide it is always present, more at certain conditions of the atmosphere 
than at others, and extending in one direction or another, according to 
the wind. On a still day, at low water, the foul gases may be seen 
bubbling from the’surface in all directions. 
“ The eddy created by the stream, and the angle of the Avail, seems 
to deposit the discharge from the drains at this point, for I have repeat- 
edly examined the opposite flats, in the neighborhood of the oyster- 
beds, and could perceive nothing of the kind there, the mud having no 
odor other than that peculiar to salt marsh. It Avould seem as if 
dredging, unless constantly repeated, could accomplish little here. The 
nuisance is only a reappearance of the state of things Avhich existed in 
Charles street before Brimmer street Avas filled in. The only effectual 
remedy Avill be to fill in the angle at the foot of Chestnut street, 
rounding the shore so as to avoid the eddy, and carrying the drains to 
some point beloAV low tide, whence their contents should be surety 
carried out to sea; and this is Avhat must be done Avith regard to every 
drain in the city if we Avish to protect ourselves against this insuffer- 
able nuisance ; and it is to be hoped that no half-Avay measures will be 
adopted, but that a well-systemized plan, resting upon the best infor- 
mation that can be obtained on the subject, will be resolutely carried 
out.” 
Dr. C. E. Ware. Appendix O. 
SUMMARY OF CONDITION OF SOUTH END CELLARS DURING STORM OF THE NIGHT OF JUNE 9, 1875. 
I. 
DISTRICT DRAINED BY DOVER STREET SEWER. 
1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
r». 
(). 
y. 
NUMBER OE 
CELLARS EXAMINED 
« 
NUMBER OF 
CELLARS 
EXAMINED 
PS 
NUMBER OF 
CELLARS 
EXAMINED 
NUMBER OF 
CELLARS EXAMINED 
tt 
NUMBER OF CELLARS 
EXAMINED 
cs 
TOTAL NUMBER OF 
CELLARS 
P5 
W ! 
w 
w 
w 
w 
w 
ABOVE GRADE 
8. 
ABOVE GRADE 
7 
, AND 
BELOW 8. 
ABOVE GRADE fl 
, AND BELOW 7. 
Ss 
ABOVE GRADE 
5 
, AND 
BELOW e. 
Ss 
BELOW GRADE 
5. 
EXAMINED 
Ss 
STREETS. 
*3 
Dry. 
Wet. 
B H 
£ « 
Dry. 
Wet. 
o « 
o 
£ w 
Dry. 
Wet. 
© « 
o 
** W 
p. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
£ h 
w 
Dry. 
Wet. 
o« 
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£ S 
Dry. 
Wet. 
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£ H 
pH M 
REMARKS. 
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<1 
Dover Street (south side) . 
5 
i 
. . . . 
.... 
4 
1 
1.5 
5 
6 
0.4 
6 
l 
0.1 
21 
8 
0.5 
Groton Street. . • 
9 
.... 
6 
.... 
• • • • 
• • • • 
1 
1 
1.0 
1 
1 
2.0 
.... 
.... 
15 
2 
2 
1.5 
Dwight Street . . 
.... 
* 
3 
3 
0.2 
3 
20 
0.9 
19 
1.1 
• *, 
2 
1.3 
• • • 
. 
6 
44 
0.9 
Note. — Of the Wet Cellars in these 
Medford Court • • 
Acton Street . . • 
2 
.... 
.... 
4 
6 
0.4 
.... 
.... 
1 
0.2 
2 
4 
7 
0.4 
columns, the following were the maximum 
• . . . 
• • • * 
.... 
.... 
.... 
1 
4 
0.9 
3 
1.0 
1 
2.6 
. . . 
1 
8 
1.1 
and minimum depths. 
Wells Place . . . • 
.... 
2 
2 
3 
0.3 
• • • • 
• • • • 
.... 
... 
4 
3 
0.3 
Bradford Street. . 
2 
4 
i 
1.0 
15 
l 
i 
8 
0.2 
3 
6 
0.4 
1 
1.5 
.... 
2 
22 
l 
16 
0.4 
Maximum. Minimum. 
Milford Street. . • 
9 
• . • • 
2 
1 
0.1 
.... 
7 
1.3 
22 
1.3 
1 
1.0 
11 
30 
1.2 
Column 1. 1.0 ft. O.l ft. 
Hanson Street. . • 
6 
• • • ' 
• • • • 
.... 
2 
7 
0.9 
20 
1.4 
1 
1.0 
8 
28 
1.3 
2. 2.0 O.l 
Waltham Street . 
4 
• . . • 
1 
.... 
2 
9 
0.7 
19 
1.4 
2 
0.7 
7 
30 
1.1 
3. 2.5 O.l 
Union Park Street 
1 
i 
• 
0.1 
* 1 
2 
1.3 
• • • • 
• • • • 
.... 
.... 
.... 
• • • • 
2 
3 
0.9 
4. S.O O.l 
Union Park . . • • 
1 
. • . • 
2 
• 0.2 
2 
20 
0.6 
21 
0.7 
2 
0.9 
3 
45 
0.6 
5. 2.0 O.l 
Upton Street (north side) . 
• • • 
. . • • 
• • . ' 
• • • • 
1 
5 
1.0 
10 
1.2 
.... 
1 
15 
1.1 
Pelham Street . • 
8 
2 
0.7 
8 
2 
0.7 
Taylor Street . . • 
.... 
. • . • 
3 
1 
1 
2 
0.4 
4 
1.7 
1. 
2.0 
3 
2 
7 
1.4 
Bond Street . . • • 
• . . ' 
• • . • 
. 
7 
1.1 
7 
1.9 
14 
1.5 
Ringgold Street. . 
4 
0.7 
3 
0.6 
7 
0.6 
Number of Cellars not examined, 221, 
Washington Street 
1 
6 
i 
0.3 
7 
4 
0.2 
1 
1.0 
1 
13 
6 
0.3 
all of which are reported to be above 
Shawmut Avenue • 
2 
i 
0.6 
5 
1 
2.0 
1 
6 
20 
0.7 
15 
1.1 
5 
0.7 
1 
13 
42 
0.9 
Grade 8. 
Tremont Street. ■ 
1 
.... 
• • * 
1 
4 
0.9 
1 
16 
1.2 
13 
1.2 
• • • • 
.... 
3 
33 
1.2 
Dartmouth Street. 
% 
.... 
... 
• • 
.... 
4 
0.4 • 
* • . • 
6 
0.6 
• • • • 
. • • • 
.... 
... 
.... 
10 
0.5 
Montgomery Street 
1 
.... 
. . . . 
2 
2 
0.1 
3 
4 
0.1 
.... 
.... 
.... 
.... 
6 
6 
0.1 
Total 
14 
48 
4 
. . . . 
0.5 
9 
41 
1 
i 
31 
.... 
0.6 
1 
36 
140 
0.8 
6 
165 
.... 
1.2 
6 
27 
. .. 
1.1 
24 
137 
l 
.... 
368 
■ 
• • • * 
0.8 p i> e Ti d i x C Continued. 
SUMMARY OE CONDITION OF SOUTH END CELLARS DURING STORM OF THE NIGHT OF JUNE 9, 1875. 
X X. 
DISTRICT DRAINED BY DEDHAM STREET SEWER. 
1. 
2. 
3. 
4- 
‘ 
6. 
NUMBER 
OP CELLARS 
EXAMINED 
Pi 
w 
NUMBER OF CELLARS 
EXAMINED 
w 
NUMBER OF CELLARS 
EXAMINED 
Average Depth of Water 
in the Wet Cellars. 
NUMBER OF CELLARS EXAMINED 
« 
NUMBER OF CELLARS EXAMINED 
Pi 
TOTAL NUMBER OF CELLARS 
STREETS. 
ABOVE 
3RADE 
8. 
00 
*3 
ABOVE GRADE 5 
AND 
BELOW 
8. 
ABOVE GRADE 6 
, AND 
BELOW 7. 
ABOVE GRADE 
5 
, AND 
BELOW G. 
w 
& 
BELOW GRADE 
5. 
w 
EXAMINED. 
m 
w 
cc 
• 
Dry. 
Wet. 
O « 
w 
« a 
a h 
t* 
% 
Dry. 
Wet. 
®w 
H H 
6. W 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
° H 
B° 
5 H 
Dry. 
Wet. 
oS 
Dry. 
Wet. 
s'! 
E-> H 
REMARKS. 
Living Room 
Store Room. 
Bare Ground. 
Living Room. 
Store Room. 
j Bare Ground. 
j Living Room. 
Store Room. 
a 
0 
o 
u 
O 
o 
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a 
W 
Living Room. 
Store Room. 
Bare Ground. 
Average De 
IN THE W 
Living Room. 
| Store Room. 
Bare Ground. 
Living Room. 
Store Room. 
Bare Ground. 
Living Room. 
Store Room. 
Bare Ground. 
Living Room. 
Store Room. 
Bare Ground. 
Average Dep 
IN THE We 
Living Room. 
Store Room. 
Bare Ground. 
Living Room. 
1 
Store Room. 
Bare Ground. 
Average Dep 
IN THE We 
Living Room. 
Store Room. 
Bare Ground. 
Living Room. 
Store Room. 
1 
a 
2 
$ 
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M 
Average Dep 
in the We 
Upton Street (south side) . . . . 
West Dedham Street 
West Canton Street 
West Brookline Street 
Pembroke Street 
West Newton Street 
Rutland Street 
2 
3 
1 
1 
4 
14 
12 
1 
8 
1 
1 
1 
6 
2 
2 
1 
11 
1.6 
1.3 
0.6 
0.1 
6.1 
0.3 
1.3 
1 
9 
8 
7 
3 
6 
5 
1.1 
1.2 
0.7 
1.2 
1.1 
0.7 
‘ ‘ ‘ '• 
4 
2 
1 
1 
2.1 
0.9 
0.2 
0.1 
1 
1.0 
• • • • 
• • • • 
• • • • 
• • • • 
2 
3 
• 
1 
5 
14 
12 
1 
8 
1 
1 
14 
16 
10 
6 
7 
17 
• • • 
1.4 
1.0 
0.7 
0.8 
0.9 
0.6 
Note. -Of the Wet Cellars in these 
columns the following were the maximum 
and minimum depths. 
West Concord Street 
9 
0.8 
4 
0.9 
16 
0.9 
Maximum. 
Minimum. 
1 
0.2 
1 
* * * * 
• • • 
.... 
2 
02 
Column 1. 1.5 ft. 
0.1 ft. 
Concord Square « . . 
• • • • 
4 
• 
5 
0.8 
9 
0.8 
4 
14 
0.8 
2. 2.0 
0.1 
Worcester Street 
1 
6 
0.8 
0.9 
3. 2.5 
West Springfield Street 
1 
1.0 
• • • • 
1 
7 
• • • 
0.7 
0.1 
6 
1.4 
13 
0.9 
4. 2.5 
0.2 
Chester Square 
• • • • 
1 
4 
0.3 
* * * * 
West Chester Park 
Sbawmut Avenue 
Tremont Street 
Additional. Tremont Street . . . 
Additional, West Canton Street. 
• • • • 
• • • • 
7 
4 
9 
3 
0.6 
0.9 
1 
0.8 
. • . • 
1 
2.0 
• • • • 
• • • • 
1 
7 
4 
4 
10 
4 
• • • 
0.2 
0.6 
1.2 
5 
• • • • 
• • • • 
9 
2 
12 
3 
0.6 
0.4 
30 
10 
0.8 
0.4 
1 
14 
16 
0.8 
0.8 
1 
1 
5 
2.0 
1.3 
• • • • 
• • • • 
5 
9 
2 
1 
57 
34 
• • • 
• • • 
0.8 
0.7 
Number of Cellars not 
examined, 527. 
Additional, West Brookline Street 
Additional, Pembroke Street . . 
Additional, West Newton Street 
• • • • 
• • • • 
. . . . 
1 
0.1 
1.6 
1 
2 
0.6 
1 
1 
4 
3 
0.1 
0.8 
1.7 
1 
2.0 
• • • • 
• • • • 
• • • • 
1 
2 
2 
5 
6 
• • • 
• • • 
• • • 
0.1 
1.0 
1.1 
all of which are reported to be above 
Grade O. 
Additional, Shawmut Avenue . . 
. . . . 
6 
0.8 
2 
1.5 
.... 
.... 
• • • • 
.... 
10 
• • • 
1.1 
— f 
2 
1.0 
4 
0.9 
1 
8 
0.6 
• 
.... 
.... 
• • • • 
1 
14 
• • • 
0.7 
Total 
11 
69 
2 
82 
0.7 
3 
116 
0.9 
• • • • 
2 
1 
6 
* ' * 
0.9 
1 
.... 
8 
• • • 
• 
1.6 
11 
74 
3 
.... 
268 
0.8 Appendix. 
35 
APPENDIX D. 
Account of some Experiments made to Determine the Composi- 
tion of the Ground-Atmosphere in Proximity to Decaying 
Organic Matter. 
Professor Wm. Ripley Nichols. 
The locality chosen for the experiments was on the Back-bay 
lands, on the vacant lot next to the Institute of Technology. A 
pit was dug about 6 feet square and feet deep, and on May 13th 
it was filled to within about a foot of the top with the semi-liquid 
material taken from one of the manholes in the Church-street sewer. 
The sand and other heavier portions settled to the bottom of the 
pit, and, as soon as the water had soaked away sufficiently, fine 
clean gravel was thrown over the material; as the mass gradually 
became more compact, an additional quantity of gravel was thrown 
in, until in the course of about two weeks the pit was filled up to 
the level of the surrounding ground, and the top of the deposit was 
about 18 inches below the surface. In order to obtain air for ex- 
amination there were inserted into this covering of gravel two 
glass tubes, one (A) to a depth of 14 inches from the surface of the 
ground, another (B) to the depth of 8 inches. Owing to the yield- 
ing nature of the buried matter and to the fact that the covering 
continued to settle slowly, it is not possible to state just how far 
above the top of the decomposing mass the glass tubes ended; we 
may say that the bottom of the tube A was within some 6 inches, 
of the tube B within some 12 inches. On Sept. 13, the surface of 
the ground having sunk some 3 inches, that quantity of gravel was 
thrown upon it. I may add that the spot where the experiments 
were conducted was covered by a shed somewhat loosely con- 
structed, so that there was a free circulation of air above the 
ground. Further, the level of the ground-water is at this place 
generally from 4 to 5 feet below the surface. 
As to the composition of the matter which was buried, it was 
difficult to obtain a fair sample of the whole, but some of the upper 
portion of the deposit, on examination, gave moisture 69 percent. ; 
ammonia, about of one per cent. ; sulphuretted hydrogen ex- 
pelled by boiling with water, about XV of one per cent. Some of 
the material after being dried at the temperature of boiling-water, 
was found to contain 0.46 per cent, of nitrogen. When the pit had 
been filled, and before the covering of gravel was thrown in, there 
was, at first, little disagreeable odor, but when the mass was cov- 
ered it was undergoing decomposition, and had become somewhat 
offensive ; bubbles of gus were escaping in some abundance. Be- 
side the glass tubes already mentioned, which were intended to 
give the means of drawing air from different depths, a third tube 
(C) was connected with a glass funnel, which funnel was placed 
upon the surface of the ground, near the other tubes. 
On the 5th of June the examination of the air in the soil and at 
the surface of the ground was begun, and examinations have been 
made at intervals until the present date (Nov. 10). The general 36 
City Document No. 3. 
results of the examinations may he summed up as follows : The 
gaseous products of decay which might be expected to be produced 
from such a mixture of animal and vegetable matter are sulphur- 
etted hydrogen, ammonia, carbonic acid and marsh-gas ; the first, 
sulphuretted hydrogen, was not detected even in the air taken 14 
inches from the surface of the ground, i.e., less than 6 inches from 
the top of the decaying matter; ammonia was not found in any 
appreciable amount; there seemed to be a small amount of marsh- 
gas formed (see below), and of carbonic acid a very large quantity 
was produced. The amount of carbonic acid was greatest in the 
neighborhood of the decaying matter, and decreased in amount 
towards the surface of the ground. The maximum amount was 
observed during July and August; observations made since the 
first of October show that the amount is steadily decreasing. 
Also, since the first of October marsh-gas has not been observed in 
the ground-atmosphere. At no time was the air in the shed a few 
feet from the ground observed to be in any way affected, and, 
indeed, this would be expected, as the gas arising from the surface 
of the ground and diffusing into the surrounding atmosphere would 
be so diluted as to escape observation.* 
The determinations of carbonic acid were made by passing a 
measured quantity of air through baryta-water of known strength, 
and determining the amount of baryta remaining as hydrate by 
titration, in the usual manner. The amounts found are indicated 
in the following table, where are introduced also, for the sake of 
comparison, some determinations of the amount of carbonic acid 
in the gravel of the Back bay, at the depth of 10 feet (Tube D).f 
* For an illustration of the rapidity of the diffusion of carbonic acid gas, see cer- 
tain observations of Pettenkofer, quoted in the Sixth Annual Report of the Mass. 
State Board of Health (1875), page 224. 
f For a description of the locality from which this air is taken, and for an account of 
determinations previously made at the same spot, see the Sixth Annual Report of the 
State Board of Health (1875), page 215. Appendix. 
Amount of Carbonic Acid expressed in number of volumes 
in 1,000 volumes of Air. 
Date. 
Tube A. 
Air taken 14 
inches from sur- 
face of ground. 
Tube B. 
Air taken 8 
inches from sur- 
face of ground. 
Tube C. 
Air taken at 
surface of 
ground. 
Tube I>. 
Air taken at a 
depth of 10 feet 
from the sur- 
face of ground 
in another 
locality. 
June 6 
87.79 
52.49 
7 
.... 
• • • • 
12.49 
12 . 
93.34 
63.80 
13.05 
18 
.... 
.... 
7.58 
19 
96.41 
59.65 
20.34 
25 
.... 
.... 
15.28 
26 
113.76 
75.41 
20.85 
July 5 
122.85 
25.56 
8 
.... 
• • • • 
15.79 
16 
119.54 
• • • • 
.... 
17 
• • • • 
23.13 
Aug. 4 
112.33 
5 
.... 
21.78 
15 
.... 
. . . . 
14.66 
21 
116.14 
22.19 
Oct. 1 
.... 
.... 
8.16 
5 
75.60 
6.69 
9 
66.70 
.... 
6.12 
16 
62.33 
5.56 
Nov. 8 
• • • • 
4.22 
10 
30.93 
3.54 
Note.— The amount of carbonic acid ordinarily present in the air may be taken as from 
3 to 4.5. 
On several occasions more complete examinations of the air 
were made with the following results : * — 
* These determinations were made with a modified form of Doyfire’s gas apparatus, as 
described by C. W. Hinman, Amer. Jour. Sci. (3) viii. (1874), page 18‘2. To test 
the accuracy of the apparatus the following examinations were made of out-door 
air: — 
I. 
II. 
III. 
IV. 
Normal air about 
Oxygen and ) 
Carbonic acid, 5 
20.964 
20.793 
20.799 
20.914 
Oxygen, 
Carbonic acid 
20.96 
, 0.04 
Nitrogen, 
79.036 
79.207 
79.201 
79.086 
Nitrogen, 
79.00 
100.000 
100.000 
100.000 
100.000 
100.00 
The apparatus would seem to give results sufficiently accurate for this purpose, 
except that for small amounts of carbonic acid the results are less accurate than those 
obtained by the baryta method. The oxygen was determined by absorption with 
alkaline pyrogallate. 38 
City Document No. 3. 
Tube A (14 inches from the surface). 
Oxygen, 
June 21. 
14.76 
June 26. 
13.49 
Oet. 16. 
15.39 
Nov. 10. 
16.95 
Carbonic acid, 
11.51 
13.28 
6.18 
3.82 
Nitrogen, 
73.73* 
73.23* 
78.44 
79.23 
100.00 
100.00 
100.00 
100.00 
Tube C (at surface of ground). 
Oct. 16. 
Nov. 10. 
Oxygen, 
19.595 
19.798 
Carbonic acid, 
0.614 
0.387 
Nitrogen, 
79.791 
79.815 
100.000 
100.000 
The evidence of the presence of marsh-gas in the air of the 
gravel overlying the decomposing matter is as follows : A stream 
of the air from the tube A, after being thoroughly dried and freed 
from carbonic acid, was passed through a heated glass tube con- 
taining oxide of copper (preivously, thoroughly ignited in a stream 
of dry air free from carbonic acid). The air issuing from the tube 
was found to contain both water and carbonic acid, which, under 
these circumstances, must have come from the combustion of some 
compound or compounds containing carbon and hydrogen. We 
might naturally expect marsh-gas to be present, and when the 
amount of water formed was determined by absorption in chloride 
of calcium, and the carbonic acid by means of standard baryta, it 
was found that the amounts of carbon and hydrogen were nearly 
in the proportion in which they exist in marsh-gas ; the agreement 
was as close as could be expected in the case of such small 
quantities.f 
* Including a small amount of marsh-gas. 
f Of course other hydrocarbons, if present, would act similarly, and if carbonic 
oxide were present it would by this method of analysis be burned and appear as car- 
bonic acid. Carbonic oxide has been stated to be among the products of the decompo- 
sition of organic matter. (Eulenberg. Lehre von den schadlichen und giftigen Gasen. 
Braunschweig, 1865, p. 30.) Boussingault (Comptes Rendus, liii. 1861, p. 862) 
asserts that carbonic oxide (with marsh-gas) is given out by the leaves of certain 
plants, especially by water-plants, under the influence of sunlight; and a recent 
writer (Kedzie, —Trans. Mich. State Med. Soc. 1875, p. 303) even suggests that car- 
bonic oxide may bo a potent factor in the miasmatic exhalations from marshes, 
carbonic oxide is stated to have been found among the gases from certain foul waters; 
Bunsen, however (Bunsen’s Gasometry, English edition, 1857, pp. 101-103), did not 
find it in the gases from a muddy pool, the examination of which he records, nor did 
Websky (Erdmann’s Journ. fiirprakt. Chemie, xcii. pp. 65-96) find it in his examination 
of the gases arising from a pool in a peat bog. Under the circumstances of this 
particular case, I am inclined to doubt the probability of the presence of carbonic 
oxide; at any rate no amount at all considerable could be present without increasing the 
amount of carbon found as compared with the amount of hydrogen. Appendix. 
39 
The results of the testing for marsh-gas are as follows : — 
Tube. 
Date. 
Amount of 
air taken 
expressed 
in cubic 
centimeters 
"Weight of 
Carbon 
found ex- 
pressed in 
milligrams. 
Weight of 
Hydrogen 
found ex- 
pressed in 
milligrams. 
Weight of 
marsh-gas 
calculated 
from the car- 
bon found. 
Volume of 
marsh-gas 
inl,000parts 
of air taken. 
A (Winches ( 
June 24. 
2340 
7.00 
2.50 
8.17 
5.26 
from surface-; 
July 1. 
2000 
11.61 
3.90 
13.55 
10.28 
of ground), (. 
Aug. 26. 
4300 
2.27 
0.66 
2.65 
0.92 
Oct. 9. 
2000 
0 
0 
0 
0 
C (at surface r 
of ground), l 
June 24. 
3000 
Trace. 
Trace. 
Outer air t 
(in shed), ( 
June 24. 
3000 
0 
0 
0 
0 
In the foregoing examinations and in those detailed in Appendix 
F, to follow, I have been aided by my assistant, Mr. W. E. Nick- 
erson, and by Mrs. R. II. Richards, my indebtedness to whom I 
take pleasure in here acknowledging. 
WM. RIPLEY NICHOLS. 
APPENDIX E. 
Experiments with pipes driven into the ground in various parts 
of the city, made during July, August, September, October and 
November of the present year, show that the water in the soil of 
the flat parts of Boston stands at a level from six and one-half to 
eight feet below the levels of the streets, and very often above the 
spring of the arch of the sewer. 
On the high land, where the soil is loose and porous, the water 
stands much lower. With a clay subsoil near the surface, however, 
the soil is much more moist, especially at the foot of the hill, where 
the surface-drainage of the higher land is more or less collected. 
No experiments were made in the “South Cove ” and “ Mill 
Pond ” districts, because ordinary observation demonstrates the 
fact that the tide-water flows in and out among the old wharves, 
oyster shells, etc., which make up a large part of the filling-in of 
those parts of the city. The tide flows in and out, too, rather 
freely near Otter street, on Brimmer street, and probably in a 
large part, if not all, of the city which lies outside of the “ Mill 
Dam ” and Charles street. 
In all of the “made land,” the level of the water rises some 
inches at high tide, showing that the action of the sewers as 
drains is prevented at that time. On Albany street, this rise of City Document No. 3. 
the water amounted to one foot; in one part of the “ made land” 
at the West End it amounted to three feet. 
The general conclusion from these experiments, which will be 
seen by the following table, is that soil-mixture is a serious evil in 
all the low parts of our city. 
An intercepting sj’stem of sewers would lower the level of the 
ground-water several feet, but it is doubtful whether it could be 
got below grade 5, unless the whole city be surrounded with a 
water-tight dike ; nor is that necessary. 
Relation of Ground Water to the Soil in Boston. 
Station. 
Locality. 
Grade of 
ground- 
water above 
0, or low 
tide. 
Grade of 
ground- 
water above 
the bottoms 
of the 
sewers. 
Grade of 
ground- 
water below 
the levels of 
the streets. 
Extreme 
rise of 
ground- 
water from 
heavy rains. 
A. 
Northern side Beacort Hill 
40. 
3.5 
6.5 
1.5 
B. 
Outsideof “Mill Dam” . . 
10. 
5. 
7. 
2.5 
C. 
Near Park Square .... 
7.5 
1.5 
7.25 
.5 
I>. 
u « a 
6.75 
1.25 
6.5 
1.5 
E. 
Lower part Boylston st. . 
7.5 
4. 
7. 
1. 
F. 
Institute of Technology . . 
8. 
4.75 
7. 
1.25 
G. 
South End 
8.5 
1.5 
7. 
1.25 
II. 
Boston Neck 
9.25 
2. 
7.75 
1.5 
I. 
South End 
6. 
4. 
7.5 
1.5 
K. 
“ “ 
3.75 
4. 
4.* 
.5 
E. 
“ “ 
9.5 
5. 
7.5 
1. 
M. 
Albany street 
10*5 
3. 
7. 
.5 
i\. 
Back Bay 
8.5 
6. 
8. 
1. 
O. 
“ “ 
6.5 
4. 
flO. 
.5 
P. 
West of Charles street . . 
9.5 
2.5 
7.5 
3.5 
R. 
West side Beacon Hill . . 
No water found ten feet below the surface of 
S. 
<< it it it 
the ground. 
APPENDIX F. 
The influence of sewers on the soil of cities has attracted so 
much attention, especially since the observations of Pettenkofer 
with regard to the badly-constructed sewers of Munich, that it has 
been thought advisable to make some experiments, to see whether 
well-constructed sewers exercised any appreciable influence in con- 
* Calculated from the level of the back street, 
t This observation was incomplete and not to be relied upon. Appendix. 
taminating the ground atmosphere in their vicinity. As far as the 
observations have extended, the effect of the sewers seems to be 
inconsiderable, as the following notes by Professor Nichols will 
show. Similar results have been obtained in Munich during the 
past summer. 
Account of some Examinations of the Ground Atmosphere in the 
Neighborhood of Sewers. 
For this investigation the old Roxbury sewer, on Dearborn 
street, was chosen as furnishing as instructive an example as could 
be found of a sewer which has been in use some years. The 
sewer was built in 1860, and the bottom is not impervious to 
water. A pipe was driven into the ground in the neighborhood of 
the sewer, and the opening of the pipe was calculated to be about 
a foot and a half from the sewer, and on the level with the spring 
of the arch. This would be ten feet from the surface of the street. 
Examination failed to detect sulphuretted hydrogen* or marsh-gas. 
Carbonic-acid determinations were made as follows : — 
Number of volumes of carbonic 
acid in 1,000 volumes of air. 
October 
6, 
35.31 
. U 
13, 
34.63 
November 12, 
23.46 
The following more complete examinations were made : — 
Oct. 13. 
Nov. 16. 
Oxygen, 
17.21 
19.41 
Carbonic Acid, 
3.36 
1.59 
Nitrogen, 
79.43 
79.00 
100.00 
100.00 
An examination was also made of the air in the ground near the 
Berkeley-street sewer (at the corner of Newbury street). In this 
place it w'as impossible, on account of the water in the ground, to 
draw the air from a point as close to the sewer as in the previous 
case. The air was actually taken about nine feet six inches from 
the surface of the street, and the spring of the arch of this sewer 
is twelve feet below the level of the street. 
The examinations showed,. 
Nov. 11. 
Nov. 15. 
Oxygen, 
19.54 
19.57 
Carbonic Acid, 
1.15 
1.27 
Nitrogen, 
79.31 
79.16 
100.00 
100.00 
* For a description of the method of sinking the pipes see Sixth Annual Report of 
Mass. State Board of Health (1875), page 214. In testing for sulphuretted hydrogen 
the air is drawn through a glass pipe; for the carbonic-acid determinations a lead pipe 
was used in this case as being more convenient. 42 
City Document No. 3. 
These examinations would seem to indicate that, with the excep- 
tion of an increased amount of carbonic acid, there is no evidence 
of the contamination of the ground atmosphere by the sewers, and 
it would seem highly improbable that injurious emanations from 
underground sewers should ever reach the air above by passing 
through the soil. 
WM. RIPLEY NICHOLS. 
APPENDIX G. 
Summary of Experiments with Floats made under the 
Direction of C. W. Folsom, C. E. 
From Station I. (opposite the mouth of the Binney-street sewer, 
Cambridge, in Charles river), the upward current, starting at low 
water, may carry the floats in neap tides to Brookline bridge (two 
miles and a quarter) ; with a great prospect, however, of being 
detained in the eddies near Beacon street. The downward cur- 
rent, starting at high water, will carry the floats down at least as 
far as Bird Island (three miles), Castle Island (four miles), or 
Spectacle Island (five miles and a half) ; with considerable 
probability, on the return tide, of being carried on to South Boston 
or East Boston flats. 
From Station II. (off South Boston or City Point), the upward 
current, starting at low water, will generally ground the floats upon 
South Boston flats, or even on the north side of South Boston 
(two miles) ; with a possibility of getting up to the neighborhood 
of Boston and East Boston wharves (two miles and a half). The 
downward current, starting at high water, will carry the floats 
generally to the narrows between Long Island and Deer Island, 
(three miles) ; with a strong probability of being carried up toward 
Apple Island on the return flood. 
From Station III. (off Castle Island), the upward current, start- 
ing at low water, passes up pretty nearly by the main ship channel, 
and extends a considerable distance up either Charles or Mystic 
river. Our floats went up Charles river three times, Mystic once, 
and once stopped at the junction of the two rivers. The downward 
current, starting at high water, follows the main ship channel to 
the “narrows” between Long Island and Deer Island (three 
miles) ; thence through Broad Sound, carrying the floats in some 
instances to a point outside the'“Graves” (eight miles). On the 
return of the flood, many of the floats were carried to the flats near 
Apple Island. 
From Station IV. (off Moon Head), the upward current, starting 
at low water, divides on the point of the head, one half going 
through Squantum Gut into Dorchester Bay (two miles and a half), 
and the other half into Quincy Bay'(also two miles and a half). 
The downward current, starting at high water, generally carried the 
floats between Thompson’s and Galloupe’s Island and between Appendix. 
43 
Lovell’s and George’s Island (about five miles). Some went south 
of George’s Island towards Paddock’s Island and Hull (three miles). 
From Station V. (off Commercial Point on Neponset river), the 
upward current, starting at low water, carries a float up the river as 
far as Granite bridge (two miles). The downward current, start- 
ing at high water, carries one north of Thompson’s Island nearly 
or quite to Spectacle Island (three miles and a half). 
From Station YI. (opposite the Cow Pasture Buoy in Dorchester 
Bay) the downward current carried the floats generally as far as 
Spectacle Island (about two miles and a half), to be grounded on 
the flats of Apple Island, Thompson’s Island, or Dorchester Bay by 
the next flood. 
It is evident from inspection of our diagrams that the general 
shape of the courses of the tidal currents in Boston Harbor is some- 
what like that of the sticks of an open fan; where Broad Sound or 
Boston Light would represent the handle or radiating point, and 
the sticks would be the various currents extending up towards 
Winthrop, Chelsea Beach, the main ship channel, Dorchester Bay, 
Quincy Bay, etc. The currents starting from all points along the 
shore appear to converge in the ebb toward Broad Sound, or Boston 
Light, and on the flood to diverge again toward some of the same 
points from which they started. But, of course, it is quite uncer- 
tain whether a float that starts down from Quincy Bay may not 
return up toward Winthrop, or vice versa. 
In none of our experiments have I been able to obtain as long 
continued observations as I could have desired. 
As to floats, it has been found impracticable to use those 
of the English Thames experiments (one-inch square sticks, 
fourteen feet long, floating vertically, nearly submerged) over our 
shallow flats, where, about the time of low tide, the water is only two 
or three feet deep. On the other hand, ten-inch tin cans, weighted ; 
two-inch cubes of wood, weighted; bottles weighted with gravel, 
etc., — all proved insufficient to resist a wind, either against 
or with the current. Our best results were obtained either with 
two cans, one floating at the surface, and the other several feet 
below it, with a wooden cross or fan of four vertical blades 
(shingles) attached to the rope near the lower can ; or with a float, 
consisting of four wooden arms, each five feet long, radiating 
from a centre, and floating on the surface of the water, with four 
vanes of stout cotton drilling, stretched on sticks let into the arms, 
and extending vertically two feet and a half down into the water 
below the arms ; the whole weighted with a stone from the centre, 
so that the arms were almost submerged. One of the arms sup- 
ported a slender stem with a small flag, and the arms are hinged at 
the centre, so that the whole shuts like a book when out of water, 
they being kept open when in use by a rope passed from one to 
the other, and knotted around the end of each.