Compliments ot the Author. 
SANITATION 
IN 
STREET PAVEMENT 
MARCY. Sanitation in Street Pavement. 
Read in the Section on State Medicine at the Forty-sixth Annual 
Meeting of the American Medical Association, held at 
Baltimore, Md., May 7-10, 1895 
HENRY O. MARCY, A.M., M.D., LL.D. 
BY 
Surgeon to the Cambridge Hospital for Women; late President of the 
American Medical Association; President of the Section of Gyne- 
OF BOSTON, U.S.A 
cology, Ninth International Medical Congress; late President of 
the American Academy of Medicine; Member of the British 
Medical Association; Member of the Massachusetts Med- 
ical Society; Member of the Boston Gynecologic 
oSociety; Corresponding Member of the Medic- 
Chirurgical Society of Bologna, Italy; 
late Surgeon U. S. A., etc. 
REPRINTED FROM THE 
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
SEPTEMBER 7, 1895. 
American Medical Association Press. 
CHICAGO: 
1895. SANITATION IN STREET PAVEMENT. 
One of the most interesting problems of modern 
sanitation is found in the making and maintaining 
of the roadbed in the streets of all our larger cities. 
The dangers therefrom consist chiefly in the atmos- 
pheric contamination induced by the great variety 
of material which necessarily collects upon the road- 
way and is usually denominated as dust. This, when 
it is wet, is generally considered as mud, but is bet- 
ter stigmatized by the use of the English accep- 
tation of the word “ nasty.” When dry, as dust, 
the atmospheric currents disseminate it in all 
directions. This the passers-by must often inhale 
and, by any means yet known, it can not be ex- 
cluded from the neighboring houses. In great 
measure, dust is the bane of the housekeeper in 
urban surroundings. In character it is composite, 
consisting chiefly of the pulverized material from 
the surface of the roadbed, mixed with animal ex- 
creta, incident to ordinary travel. Under favorable 
conditions of heat, moisture, etc., these furnish the 
media for the development and dissemination of dis- 
ease germs. Infective bacteria are almost never 
absent from street dust, and they often find an easy 
entrance into the human economy by means of res- 
piration. So long ago as 1883, I cultivated various 
forms of bacteria taken from excavations at dif- 
ferent depths beneath the best streets in the city 
of Boston, a noteworthy illustration of which, pub- 
lished at the time, was taken from Beacon Street, 
opposite the Public Garden, a considerable distance 
beneath the surface. 
Dr. Sternberg, the present Surgeon-General of the 
United States Army, was one of the first scientists to 4 
call attention to these dangers, and after reporting 
the results of his investigations upon the tilth of 
cities, as dangerous in large degree, because of septic 
organisms, wrote; “It must be remembered that the 
gutter mud of to-day, with its deadly septic organ- 
isms, is the dust of to-morrow, which, in respiration, 
is deposited upon the mucous membrane of the res- 
piratory'passages of those who breathe the air loaded 
with it.” 
In a circular just issued by the State Board of 
Health of Massachusetts, indorsed and circulated by 
the Boston Board of Health, emphasis is made upon 
the danger arising from the dissemination of the bacilli 
of tuberculosis. I quote briefly : “ Consumption is the 
most destructive disease of New England ; the number 
of persons dying annually from this cause in Massa- 
chusetts alone, amounting to nearly six thousand. The 
disease is infectious. The chief danger exists in the 
expectoration of the sick; and if this expectoration 
is destroyed, little danger is to be feared. Consump- 
tives should be instructed not to spit in open places, 
“nor in the streets.” Remember, the sputa must 
never be allowed to dry. One of the most common 
forms of the dissemination of consumption is by the 
respiration of street dust, never free from infectious 
material.” 
Dr. George Baird, discussing the subject of “Sani- 
tation in Street Paving,” writes as follows ; “Should 
sanitarians be consulted by municipal authorities in 
reference to the material used for street paving, and 
the manner of laying it so as best to protect the 
lives and health of the citizens? ” To this question 
there should be only an affirmative answer. The 
macadam road, the cobble pavement, the wood pave- 
ment in its various forms, and the granite pavement 
have all been found more or less objectionable from 
a sanitary standpoint. The macadam, with its 
rapidly worn surface and its clouds of dust, carrying 
disease germs in them; the cobble pavement, with 
its noise and innumerable pockets, furnishing lodg- 5 
ing places for decaying animal and vegetable matter; 
the wooden pavement, decaying in a few years, and 
absorbing urine of horses and foul liquids of all 
kinds which are poured out upon its surface; and 
the granite, with its noise far exceeding the cobble, 
its slippery surface when worn, and its open crevices 
between the blocks, permitting liquids of all kinds to 
pass down and pollute the street surface beneath, are 
each and all of them subject to adverse criticism.” 
The least unsanitary of all pavement must be im- 
penetrable, present a surface easily cleaned and be 
kept as free as possible from dust and dirt. The im- 
portant questions of expense, durability and economy 
of repair, are the determining factors in the selection 
of pavement material. In streets subject to the heaviest 
of teaming, where the weight of the constantly passing 
load, the minimum resistance offered to traction are 
important desiderata, it is necessary not alone to have 
a firm foundation, but also of the first importance 
to have a surface highly resistant to wear. For this 
purpose, granite blocks are in much favor. But 
they should be put down by the pouring of hot 
asphalt or some of the tarry products, filling the in- 
terstices. In this way we have an unyielding, com- 
paratively even-wearing surface, giving a good 
foothold for the horses’ feet, and at the same time 
easily cleaned and impenetrable to fluids. Although 
noisy and expensive, it is perhaps the best adapted 
for service in this class of streets. 
In the residence portions of a city, such pavement 
is undesirable, and at present some form of macadam 
is more commonly used. In the form of macadam, 
with or without the Telford foundation of large 
stones, crushed rock has been used as a road cover- 
ing in Europe and America for nearly a century. 
Macadamized surfaces become more or less rapidly 
worn; the wearing is produced by the pulverization 
of its surface, which, when dry, is a dust more or less 
mingled with vegetable and animal matter. When 
wet, it is mud. This surface is costly to keep in repair 6 
and is cleaned with much difficulty. In fact, it can 
never be freed entirely from objectionable material. 
Asphalt, on the contrary, forms an impenetrable 
surface, is easily cleaned and can be kept clean at 
small cost. It is comparatively noiseless, is durable 
and can be easily repaired. Its first cost is greater 
than macadam. 
From a paper published the present year by the 
Reussellaer Society of Engineers of Troy, N. Y., for 
the use of professors and students of the Institute, 
by J. M. Howard, upon “Natural Asphalt and Its 
Compounds,” I quote; “The civilization of cities 
can be gauged by the condition of their streets. The 
suppression of noise and dirt, made possible by 
asphalt pavements, in a great measure determines 
the character and progress of a city. . . . Jan. 
1, 1894, the total asphalt street pavements of Euro- 
pean cities are as follows: London, twenty-four 
miles ; Paris, twenty-six miles ; Berlin, eighty three 
miles. 
“In the United States and Canada, Trinidad 
asphalt, 911 miles; asphaltic limestone and other 
asphaltic materials, 51 miles. The volume of 
this industry is measured by the fact that the one 
branch, asphaltic paving, is found in more than 
ninety-one American and fifty-five European cities. 
This means an investment of at least fifty-five mill- 
ions of municipal funds and a working capital, if 
combined, of $15,000,000.” 
A publication upon asphaltum in 1898, from the 
United States Department of the Interior, by Rich- 
ardson and Parker, under the head of the durability 
of asphalt pavements, gives the following: “With 
the best materials, combined and laid with the 
greatest skill, where traffic is of the ordinary char- 
acter, and the street not too narrow, so as to confine 
the wheels to ruts, the life of the pavement should 
be fifteen years. There are surfaces in existence to- 
day which are of that age, which have had scarcely 
any repairs and seem to be good for many years to 7 
come. Such a pavement can be seen in front of the 
Arlington Hotel on Vermont Avenue, Washington.” 
Washington is to-day known as the best paved 
city in America. Its seventy miles of smooth, 
durable asphalt afford roads which for comfort, 
convenience and economy of transit are unequalled. 
Asphalt offers a smooth and uniform surface, 
which reduces the force of the traction and thereby 
effects an economy in transportation, and at the 
same time adds to the comfort of every person who 
rides in a carriage; in its cleanliness, containing no 
joints to collect street filth and give it off in dust, 
and no vegetable matter to decay and poison the air 
with noxious germs; in its noiselessness, which re- 
lieves the racket and roar of great cities, so trying to 
the nerves. 
These excellent qualities are not denied by any one. 
Two defects have been alleged against it: 1, that it 
is slippery ; 2, that it is not durable. Neither allega- 
tion is founded in fact. Careful observations by com- 
petent engineers have established the fact that under 
ordinary conditions of weather the number of acci- 
dents to horses from falling is greater on stone than 
on asphalt pavements. 
The great cause of horses slipping on asphalt 
pavement is the foreign material which may be 
allowed to remain on it. For example, the slipping 
of the pedestrian who inadvertently steps upon a 
banana peel left upon the sidewalk. 
When in Paris in 1890, I examined carefully a 
piece of roadbed on one of the public thoroughfares, 
laid in 1812, probably the oldest asphalt pavement 
in existence. The surface was even, without cracks. 
When put down, it was eight inches thick, and the 
constant service of nearly eighty years was said to 
have reduced its thickness less than one inch. 
In Hamburg, I was shown an excellent piece of 
asphalt pavement, which was put down in 1840. I 
might refer to our own experiences in Boston, but 
they have not been as satisfactory. The asphalt first 8 
laid here was defective, improper material being used. 
The trouble is in the asphalt sheet being quite too 
thin. The more recent paving with the asphalt has 
been much better constructed. 
The repairs to such a pavement are really quite dif- 
ficult to make. “If the day is cold when they are un- 
dertaken, the old surface is in a contracted condition, 
while the new material put in, being in a heated con- 
dition is considerably expanded. If the patch is 
left perfectly level with the surrounding pavement 
when finished, it soon settles and forms a little de- 
pression. In hot summer weather the expansion of 
the surrounding pavement has a tendency to push 
this patch every side and make it rise above the 
surface surrounding it, causing a ridge. In making 
these patches it is customary to cut through the 
asphalt coating with heavy chisels, so that the part 
to be repaired can be removed. Then the hot mixture 
of asphalt and other materials is rammed into the 
place and tamped and rubbed with hot iron imple- 
ments until it is apparently united with the old 
coating around it and the foundation below. It re- 
quires considerable skill and experience to do this 
well, and even the best men fail at times. Recently 
a special machine has been designed to facilitate and 
improve such repairs, which has been highly recom- 
mended in several cities where it is used. It con- 
sists of a sheet metal tank containing gasoline and 
mounted on a pair of wheels so that it can be easily 
moved from place to place. Behind the tank is a 
collection of burners so arranged that when the 
vaporized gasoline is forced through them by means 
of a small air-pump attached to the tank, the several 
jets of flame warm up the surface of the asphalt 
below them. The material becomes as soft as when 
first laid, and while in this condition enough of it is 
taken off from the injured portions by a hoe to secure 
a clean fresh surface. On this, fresh asphalt is 
rammed and rolled to the desired surface, and as the 
old and new material is at about the same tempera- 9 
ture when the tamping begins, it has been found 
possible to weld the whole together into a homo- 
geneous mass. Another advantage of this method 
of repairs is that asphalt is removed from half an 
inch to an inch in thickness so that not only is less 
new material used, but the thin coating is more 
easily rolled and tamped and less likely to contract 
and leave a depression.” 
The present month Hon. E. P. North, in charge of 
the street paving of New York city, presented his 
report for the paving to be accomplished the ensuing 
year. It includes 109,025 square yards, at an esti- 
mated cost of $780,100. Coming from such an 
authority and as the result of long study and obser- 
vation, I have thought it advisable to quote from the 
report quite freely: 
“This proposal is in conformity with your general 
instructions to expend the public money for the 
greatest public good by providing asphalt pavements 
in the poorer and more densely populated portions 
of the city and on streets that are likely to become 
great thoroughfares. The larger sum is expended for 
asphalt pavements, instead of granite and trap pave- 
ments, and the money is expended either in the 
service of the poorer portion of the community, or in 
the service of all by increasing the facilities for com- 
munication between all parts of the city. 
“ Somewhat over 63 per cent, of the pavements re- 
laid since and including 1889 have been granite or 
trap pavements, and rather less than 87 per cent, 
asphalt. Of the 1,196,079 square yards of asphalt 
pavement now laid in this city, between 60 and 70 
per cent, has been laid in the area bounded by Fourth 
Street on the south, Third Avenue on the east, on the 
west by Seventh Avenue to Fifty-ninth Street, and 
thence north along the Hudson River. ‘ These boun- 
daries, somewhat roughly, include the habitations of 
the wealthier portions of our population. 
“ Most of the asphalt in this region has been laid 
in short lengths, which do not average, in the cross 10 
streets, a block and a half long, there being over sixty- 
separate pieces a full block or less in length. Some 
of these are without connection with other asphalted 
streets, so that much of the work done in this area 
has been a matter of luxury and convenience to those 
living on such streets, and is not calculated to appre- 
ciably affect either the death rate or the general 
health of the city, and its utility where it can not be 
incorporated in a general scheme is practically con- 
fined to the immediate vicinity in which it is laid. 
“In the project now submitted, the only region 
favored is that occupied by our wage earning popu- 
lation, and aside from this, nothing has been incor- 
porated that does not serve large areas and all classes 
of people. The principle has been to continue the 
very necessary work, in a sanitary point of view, 
commenced under our predecessor, mainly through 
the efforts of your consulting engineer, Mr. Towle, of 
asphalting the streets in the overcrowded districts 
east of the Bowery, to which is added the populous 
regions about the Five Points. In addition to this, 
streets have been selected for asphalt pavement that 
will extend the present lines of transportation and 
open routes across the city which will cheapen the 
delivery of goods and give comfortable access to some 
of the more important ferries. 
“Two and four-tenths per cent, of the proposed 
work is south of Chambers Street, in the business 
part of the city; 40.6 per cent, is in regions east of 
Centre Street and south of First Street, and 57 per 
cent, is devoted to routes of distribution. Of this 
only 22.3 per cent, is in that division of the city which 
contains between 60 and 70 per cent, of the asphalt 
now laid. So that in fact 77.7 per cent, of the pro- 
posed new work will be where most needed for sani- 
tary purposes, in the lower parts of the city. 
“ It seems that as a financial measure there is sound 
economy in replacing our wornout pavements with 
asphalt. It is, however, as a sanitary appliance that 
an asphalt pavement presents the greatest value. It 11 
is nearly a non-absorbent, is free from cracks that 
offer lurking places for disease germs, and can be 
thoroughly washed whenever it is thought advisable. 
“ Leaving the streets that swarm with the children 
of our poorest population paved with rough stones, 
the interstices between which are filled with disease- 
breeding filth, while the streets bordering on Fifth 
Avenue are paved with asphalt, does not make for 
the greatest good to the greatest number, and iii case 
of a serious epidemic the practice imperils the health 
of the entire city.” 
The attention of the public is being drawn more at 
present to the proper construction of roadbeds than 
perhaps ever before. Previous to the development 
of the railroad system in the United States, however, 
it is interesting to note the engrossing attention 
which former generations gave to the improvement 
of internal intercommunication throughout the older 
States. It was well understood by them that good 
roads are desirable on the highest economic grounds, 
not to speak of their value when judged from the 
esthetic point of view. The revival of this spirit 
has been especially noteworthy in Massachusetts 
during the last few years, largely brought about by 
one of her indefatigable public-spirited citizens, 
Col. Albert A. Pope, seconded by his cohorts of bi- 
cyclists. 
Massachusetts has a State Highway Commission, 
appointed for the supervision of the construction of 
new, and rebuilding of old roads. Her appropria- 
tion of last year was expended in making short pieces 
of thoroughly good country roads, in selected parts of 
the State, in large measure as object lessons for in- 
struction. This year her Legislature appropriates 
$300,000 for the further prosecution of this popular 
work. 
The attention of scientists all over the world has 
been directed anew to the development of improved 
methods af road building, and Congress has recently 
made an appropriation for the investigation of this 12 
subject, in order that information upon the best 
methods of road making may be widely discussed and 
disseminated. 
Laboratory work is being carried on at Harvard 
University upon the value of the different kinds of 
stones best adapted to road building. 
In Massachusetts, the towns are taking up the sub- 
ject and the dissemination of the good work in this 
important branch of internal improvements is thus 
permeating the entire State. This work is not lim- 
ited to Massachusetts, since a number of the States 
have already passed new road laws, and the subject 
is being popularly discussed throughout the entire 
country. Especially in urban life is the sanitation 
of the street of the greatest importance, and it seems 
to me most fitting that the scientific men of the 
country should exercise a molding influence upon 
the development of this great public improvement, 
I have therefore deemed it fitting to ask the attention 
of the members of the Section in State Medicine of 
the American Medical Association to this subject 
and to give it due discussion and deliberation. 
The subjoined letters are of interest and value. 
They represent purposely, several of our larger cities 
in widely varying latitudes with marked variations 
of climate: 
Chief Sanitary Inspector’s Office, 
Henry 0. Marcy, M.D.—Dear Sir:—Your letter of July 20 
to hand, and in reply will state that I consider the “ asphalt 
paving” the prettiest paving for your avenues in Boston ; it 
is easily kept clean, is noiseless, and would give entire sat- 
isfaction. Any further information I will gladly furnish. 
Very respectfully, Thos. E. Veal, Chief Inspector. 
Atlanta, Ga., July 28, 1894. 
Montreal, Can., July 23, 1894. 
Henry O. Marcy, M.D.—Dear Sir:—I am in receipt of your 
letter of July 20, asking me for my opinion as to the best 
pavement to be used for a residental street with light traffic 
thereon. I would certainly recommend Trinidad asphalt. 
We have had Trinidad asphalt laid by the Warren Scharff 
City Surveyor’s Office, 13 
Co., of New York, and it has stood this climate for seven 
years with heavy traffic. Yours truly, 
P. W. St. George, City Surveyor. 
Henry O. Marcy, M.D.—Dear Sir:—Arour note of July 20 
came to hand and contents noted. The city of Savannah 
has a great many streets paved with asphalt, and it gives 
entire satisfaction. The Warren Scharff Paving Co. has 
done most of our work. It stands heavy traffic as well as 
light. I am yours respectfully, 
Office of City Engineer, 
Savannah, Ga., July 23, 1894. 
John Fitzgerald, Sup’t Streets. 
Department op Public Works, 
Henry 0. Marcy, M.D.—Dear Sir:—Your favor of July 20, 
relative to asphalt pavement received. We have 10.65 miles 
of sheet asphalt streets in this city. This class of improve- 
ment when well laid has given general satisfaction on resi- 
dent streets in this city. Dearborn Avenue, which was im- 
proved with asphalt eleven years ago. has just been repaired 
at an expense to the city of $570. It is now in as perfect 
condition as it was when originally completed. 
Chicago, July 23, 1894. 
Yours very truly, 
Superintendent of Streets. 
John McCarthy, 
Department op Public Works, Commissioner’s Office, 
No. 31 Chambers Street, New York, July 24, 1894. 
Henry O. Marcy, M.D.—Dear Sir:—ln answer to your in- 
quiry of July 20, regarding experience in this city with 
asphalt pavements, I beg to say that the experience of the 
last six years has shown good asphalt to be the very best 
pavement for residental streets and on streets used for 
pleasure driving, provided the grades are not too steep; 
that is, not to exceed 4 in 100. It has many advantages over 
macadam or stone, in being noiseless, impervious to liquid 
filth, easy to keep clean, and about one-fourth less expensive 
to maintain. We have now in this city fifty-five miles of 
asphalt pavement, nearly all in private residental and 
tenement-house districts. Very respectfully, 
Michael T. Daly, 
Commissioner of Public Works. 
Street Department, Street Commissioner’s Office, 
St. Louis, Mo., July 24, 1894. 
Henry 0. Marcy, M.D.—Dear Sir:—Answering your favor 
of July 20, would say that we have a little over nine miles of 14 
asphaltum streets in St. Louis, and they are giving entire 
satisfaction to the tax-payers. We have not confined the 
use of asphaltum streets to light traflc alone, as we have 
roadways here paved with that material over which from 
5.000 to 7,000 vehicles pass daily with loads of from 1,000 to 
10.000 pounds. Personally and officially I am in favor of 
asphalt for paving all classes of streets. 
Very respectfully, 
Street Commissioner. 
M. J. Murphy,