CHAPTER III.

SANITATION, DRAINAGE, AND STREET-CLEANING.

Insanitary state of Berlin before 1872-Virchow-His public services to Berlin-His zeal for sanitary reform-Corporation resolved on thorough measures "Radial" system of drainage—Gathering-tanks — Pumping-stations—Utilisation of sewage-Sewage-fields-Three classes of fields-Cost of works-Results-Cleansing of streets-Removal of street and house refuse-Watering of streets—Public lavatories—The cleansing staff-Clean scavengers.

IN 1871, just after the war with France, the sanitary condition of Berlin, which had then a population exceeding 800,000, was, with the exception perhaps of the city of Köln, the worst of any city in Germany. Not only was there no proper system of drainage, but the dwellings of the poor were most unhealthy. Until that time, and, indeed, down to recent years, the houses of the poor were either in the basement

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34 FORMER INSANITARY STATE OF BERLIN.

floors of the tenements, in the cellars, or in the top floors, to which access was obtained by separate staircases from those used by the well-to-do, who occupied the better floors. Three-storey tenements were then common, while now, even in the wealthy quarters of the town, tenements are often five storeys in height. There were then as many as 4565 dwellings in which there was no fireplace, and there were 95,000 which had only one room with a fireplace. Reckoning four persons to a family, there were thus almost half the inhabitants living under such comfortless and unhealthy conditions. This was the state of matters only twenty-one years ago. The mortality of the city was in consequence extremely high.

For the beneficent changes that have been brought about in the sanitation of the city no man is so much entitled to public gratitude as Professor Virchow. He is one of the most industrious of the world's workers. He is celebrated all the world over as the most eminent pathologist of his age; but for five-and-twenty years of the busiest portion of his life he has

VIRCHOW'S DEMONSTRATIONS.

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found time to discharge the duties of a member both of the Landtag and Reichstag, and of the humbler office of town councillor as well. It is in the latter capacity that he has rendered such splendid services to Berlin. In 1872 Virchow presented a report to the Town Council, in which he showed the urgent need there was to grapple with the whole question of sanitary improvement. He demonstrated that, dividing the preceding fifteen years into three periods of five years each, the mortality of the city was advancing in the ratio of 5, 7, 9, so that in a fourth period it would have more than doubled on the first. He also showed that over the same periods the mortality of children under one year was in the ratio of 5, 7, 11, so that it had actually doubled within fifteen years. Of the 27,800 deaths which occurred in 1872, no fewer than 11,136 were of children under one year. This was clearly a state of things which called clamantly for remedial measures of the most thorough kind. The Corporation wisely resolved upon no half measures. They determined to act with energy, and to abolish the evil root and branch.

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DRAINAGE OF BERLIN.

They appointed a commission to visit the principal cities of France and Great Britain, to collect information on the most effective methods of drainage and the disposal of city refuse. The result was that in 1873 works were commenced which transformed the city in a few years from one of the most unhealthy to one of the safest on the Continent. Not only was the increasing mortality checked, but it has been reduced from over 30 to about 20 per 1000, and the tendency is towards further diminution.

The level nature of the site on which Berlin is built presented great difficulties to the introduction of a perfect system of drainage (Kanalisation), but these difficulties have been admirably overcome. The city was divided into five great drainage districts. These have since been subdivided, and there are now twelve in all. A point was chosen at the lowest level in each district as that to which the main drain-channels should converge. These are fed from smaller drains, and these again from soil-pipes leading from the dwellings, so that a perfect veinsystem overspreads the whole district and finds