EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, MAYOR'S OFFICE, CITY HALL, BOSTON, HON. A. W. BOARDMAN, Chairman Board of Health: August 5, 1874. SIR, - In view of the alarming death-rate in this city, as shown in the recent report of the City Registrar, I deem it my duty to request your Board to proceed at once to a thorough investigation of the probable causes of this state of things. I would suggest that a Commission of leading physicians be employed by your Board for this service, to act in conjunction with the City Physician. I am very truly yours, Mayor. We thereupon appointed a commission of physicians, consisting of Drs. Charles E. Buckingham, Calvin Ellis, Richard M. Hodges, Samuel A. Green, and Thomas B. Curtis, to investigate the subject, and prepare a report, which will be submitted at an early day. BURIAL-GROUNDS. The following seventeen cemeteries and burial-places, viz., Copps' Hill, Chapel, Granary, Central, South, Hawes, Eustis Street, Kearsarge, North and South Dorchester District; Centre Street and Walter Street, West Roxbury District; Evergreen and Market Streets, Brighton District ; Bunker-Hill Street, and Phipps Street, Charlestown District ; and Bennington Street, East Boston District, are by ordinance placed in charge of the Board of Health. They require constant care and watchfulness to prevent desecration by intruders, to keep the grounds in proper condition, and the tombs, monuments, and head-stones in good repair. The condition of a large number of the tombs, fences, etc., in some of the grounds is such as to necessitate a much larger outlay for repairs than was anticipated; and we find the appropriation for this purpose insufficient for the requirements. The eight first mentioned were formerly kept in order by three men employed by the city for that purpose. We have recently contracted with Messrs. Calder & Wiswall to keep them in order for the present season, thereby saving an expense of several hundred dollars. The north cemetery in Dorchester District we have placed in care of Geo. Fowler; the South Dorchester District, in care of Chas. Regan; those in West Roxbury District, in care of Benj .Guild; those in Charlestown District, in care of E. Miskelly; the one in East Boston, in care of W. H. Brown; those in Brighton District, in care of B. Donegan. Owing to the difficulty of preventing desecration of the grounds without the aid of the police at each place, we have concluded not to open any of them to the public, except those at Copps' Hill, Charlestown, Dorchester, and Brighton Districts; for which places special police officers have been appointed. The propriety of closing several of the cemeteries in the city proper against any further burials has been considered, and we fully believe that the time has arrived when no further interments should be made in the following grounds, viz.: King's Chapel, Granary, Copps' Hill, and Central. Others might be given, but these require more immediate action. The work of finding and notifying the various proprietors, according to law, before closing, is somewhat formidable, and has been the cause of some delay; but this work is being forwarded as fast as possible. The dilapidated condition of the tombs, monuments, and head-stones, and the dangerous walks which are now constantly breaking through into tombs in the Granary and Chapel grounds, have suggested the question as to whether the city would not do well to make an arrangement with the proprietors by which the remains may be removed and deposited elsewhere, in grounds equally desirable for cemetery purposes. As it is, a large outlay of money is required annually, for the purpose of making the necessary repairs; while the general decayed and unsafe appearance of things renders the grounds neither ornamental nor creditable to the city. We have mentioned this question of removal to several of the older proprietors, and in every instance the response was decided and favorable for removal. SEWERAGE. This subject is one of the greatest importance, since upon the proper disposition of the sewage unquestionably depend in a great degree the health and comfort of our citizens. In both of our annual reports we have referred to this subject, and felt it to be a duty to criticise our present faulty and incomplete system. During the past year we have been constantly reminded, by the just complaints of suffering citizens, of the many defects to be found in the sewerage. In many sections of the city the foul odors arising from the sewage have been at times almost unendurable. Many of the sewers are so foul as to emit from the manholes, when opened, stenches so offensive as to become a nuisance to the whole neighborhood. Moreover, the discharge of the sewage at various points surrounding the city, on the flats or in shoal water, is rapidly causing the formation of a grand cesspool, in the centre of which we are living. Recognizing the importance of some radical change in our present system of sewerage, we have at different times during the year made communications to the City Council on this subject. In May we sent one calling attention to the lack of sewerage in the territory bounded by Amory, School, Walnut avenue, to and including the Kingbury estate, and by and including Codman park and Codman avenue.' In December we sent another upon the general subject, of which the following is a copy: OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH, To the Honorable City Council: — GENTLEMEN, Although in our annual report of 1873, and again in 1874, we called the attention of your honorable body to the great importance of a change in our system of sewage, we deem it of such vital importance to the health and comfort of the city at large, but more especially to certain portions of it, that we venture again to urge the subject in a special communication. There are several places in which the evil is already so great that we mention them in particular. First the old Roxbury canal, crossing under Albany street, near Chester park. Second-The stony brook' sewer, discharging upon the Back bay flats. Third- The Muddy-brook sewer, between Brookline avenue and Downer street, in Ward 15. Roxbury canal, so called, leads in from the South bay, is about fifty feet wide and two thousand feet long, reaching nearly to Harrison avenue. The tide flows in and out but sluggishly. Into these three or four large sewers pour their contents, and when the tide recedes there is left but very shoal filthy water, through which the foul gases from the putrid bottom can be seen bubbling into the atmosphere. At low tide a considerable portion of this filthy bottom is left bare, giving off the most sickening and even dangerous effluvia into a thickly populated neighborhood. In Northampton street, Chester Park, Springfield street, Harrison avenue, Albany street, and especially at the City Hospital, where there is a daily average of 230 patients who require pure air, the stench from the Roxbury canal is often observed and exceedingly annoying. The Stony-brook sewer, which conveys the sewage of more than half of the former city of Roxbury, of now about thirty thousand inhabitants, terminates at the west side of Parker street, where, at low tide, this immense sewage is left to trickle over the muddy flats, about one hundred acres in extent, to the Charles river beyond. Before this sewage has reached a point where it can diverge from the wharves of the city, it will have travelled more than one half of the circumference of the city proper, catching at the bridges, wharves, and upon the flats in its course. An order has recently been passed by the City Council, to extend the channel of the Stony brook, so as to prevent the discharge of the sewerage upon the flats next Parker street. In addition to the Stony brook sewer, there are eight others opening into Charles river above Cambridge bridge, which, with their open mouths at low tide discharging their gases into the atmosphere, and their contents into shoal water or upon flats, are doing a great share in making the atmosphere of that part of the city skirting the river and Back bay, at times, absolutely unfit to breathe. The Muddy-brook sewer coming from Brookline is very large, opens under Brookline avenue, near Tremont street, and is then an open sewer in the immediate rear of dwellinghouses between Brookline avenue and Downer street for a distance of 600 feet, and then crosses the avenue again into the town of Brookline. The water in this brook gets very low in summer, leaving but little besides the sewage matter to flow through it. The stench from this is very bad, and the people who live near it justly complain. This sewer ought to be covered at once, for a distance of about 600 feet, to prevent evil |