COLONEL WARING'S SANITARY REPORT
When in October, 1898, the late Colonel George E. Waring, of New York
City, who had been sent by the Government to investigate the physical
condition of Havana, became the victim of the monster he had sought to
throttle, he had already written a large portion of his report, and he
left copious notes for the completion of it, from which his efficient
secretary and assistant, Mr. G. Everett Hill, prepared a full report.
From this report the following extracts are made:
"The death-rate of the city has always been high. In five years (not
consecutive) between 1800 and 1819, with a population less than
one-third of the present number of inhabitants, 26,576 people perished
from yellow fever alone. In 1832 the cholera killed 10,000. The official
reports of the Spanish garrison show that up to January 16, 1896, more
than 82 per cent. of the total losses were due to yellow fever. In 1897
the total mortality by disease in the Spanish army in Cuba was 32,534.
"At present the death-rate in Havana is enormous. The mortality for the
week ending October 6, 1898, was 536--an annual rate of 139.36 per cent.
per 1000. Since then owing to the change of season and to the removal of
certain contributing causes, it has fallen to 114.4.
"The surroundings and customs of domestic life are disgusting almost
beyond belief. Sixteen thousand houses, out of a total of less than
20,000, are but one story high, and at least 90 per cent. of the
population live in these--averaging say 11 to each house. Usually the
house covers the entire lot, so that there is no yard; though one or two
courts are commonly included in the building. According to the
general--almost the universal--plan, the front rooms are used as
parlours or reception rooms. Beyond them is a court, on which open the
dining-rooms and sleeping-rooms. Beyond these, on another court, are--I
might say is--the 'kitchen, stable, and privy, practically all in one.'"
In Colonel Waring's own words:
"The characteristic feature of the whole establishment--perhaps the
only feature which is conspicuous in every house without
exception--is the privy-vault, and sometimes a second vault for
kitchen waste. These occupy a space practically under and almost in
the kitchen. It is very rarely, indeed, that a Cuban privy has a
ventilating pipe, so it belches forth its nauseous odours
throughout the house and pervades the streets."
"There is no ordinance--at least none in force--requiring a
householder to empty his privy vault. He uses it until it threatens
to overflow; then he hires a night-scavenger, who comes with a
cart, carrying the requisite number of barrels. These are filled
through square holes at the top, and discharged through a plugged
orifice at the bottom.
"The workmen use tub-like ladles with long handles, with which they
scoop up the filth. These they carry, dripping as they go, through
kitchen, dining-room, reception-room, and hall to the street."
"When the barrels are filled, the cart starts, ostensibly for the
prescribed place of disposal; but often, in a dark street, the
plugs come out, and, before the waggon has gone very far, the
barrels are empty.
"Lest the conditions above set forth should fail to do their
appointed work of destruction, stimulus for their effectiveness is
furnished by an extraneous source of malaria of the very worst
character.
"The southerly edge of the harbour is bordered by broad marshes,
through which flow a number of watercourses, and to which these
bring the offscouring of a very poor quarter of the town, and
especially the effluent of the slaughtering-pens and of other foul
establishments; while a large portion of the flat is used as a
dumping-ground for garbage.
"This intimate relation of marsh and filth is greatly aggravated by
the admixture of fresh and salt water, by occasional floods, and by
a daily scorching sun.
"The vicinity of such marshes would be deadly in this climate, even
to a veritable 'City of Hygeia.' Their proximity to this foul,
fever-cursed town has always been recognised as disastrous, even by
intelligent Habaneros themselves."
The water supply of Havana is very pure and abundant,--more than two
hundred gallons per head per day:
"This and the winds of the Gulf save the city from being absolutely
and unqualifiedly bad; but they are powerless to make it tolerable.
It is a veritable plague-spot.
"Its own people, largely immune though they are to yellow fever,
which has prevailed here without interruption for one hundred and
sixty-eight years, fall constant victims under the pernicious
malarial and depressing influences to which they are always
subjected; and it needs only the immigration of fresh material,
which the enterprise of our population is sure to bring here, to
create a sacrifice such as we have not yet known; while commerce
will carry the terror and the terrible scourge of yellow fever to
our shores, until we rise again in a war of humanity, and at all
costs wipe out an enemy with which no military valour can cope.
[Illustration: YARD OF AMERICAN CLUB, HAVANA.]
"Can Havana be purified? And if so, will such purification result
in the eradication of yellow fever and malaria? Both questions can
be answered affirmatively and positively. Havana is no dirtier than
many another city has been. In England, in the olden time, the
earthen floors were strewn with rushes. When these became sodden
with filth beyond all endurance, fresh rushes were thrown over the
old ones, and these in turn were buried, until the foul
accumulation was several feet deep. Excrement was allowed to remain
in and around the houses indefinitely, or was thrown into the
streets regardless of consequences. In London, the frequent cry of,
'Ware below!' indicated that the household slops were about to be
poured from an upper window. These conditions remained until
repeated visits of the great sanitary teachers--the plague, the
black death, the cholera, and other pestilences, which devastated
cities and swept whole villages out of existence--had taught their
hard lesson. On the continent the ignorance and neglect were, if
possible, even greater. We have profited by the bitter experience
of our ancestors; and no intelligent person questions the merit of
sanitary works. But their true value is not yet fully appreciated,
even by educated men whose interests are at stake.
"The poison of yellow fever is ponderable. It clings to low levels
and usually follows the lines of greatest humidity. Like malaria,
it is more active--or at least more to be feared--by night than by
day. The danger from it in any quarter of an infected locality
depends upon the presence primarily of filth, secondarily of
dampness; and it increases in direct proportion to the confinement
and stagnation of the air. Infected cellars are more dangerous than
infected rooms. The holds of ships are notorious hotbeds of the
disease.
"In Havana the average height of the ground floor of a house above
the soil is but six or seven inches; and this space is
unventilated. The earth is not only damp, but is sodden with
putrefying organic matter. The houses are closely built, without
adequate space for ventilation between them. In the poorer quarters
the population is crowded, a whole family often occupying a single
room. The emanations from the cesspool and garbage-vault pervade,
as has been stated, the kitchen and the sleeping-and living-rooms,
even of houses of the better class. The standard of personal
cleanliness is, necessarily, very low. These conditions, for which
the citizens are responsible, are sufficient in themselves to
transform the most healthy locality into a fever-nest. In the case
of Havana, they are accumulated by climatic conditions favourable
to, but in no case accountable for, the propagation of disease. No
amount of rainfall, no high average of humidity, and no degree of
temperature will cause zymotic pestilence, if cleanliness be
secured and maintained, and proper drainage of the soil
established."
In the notes which Colonel Waring brought with him from Cuba, the
following improvements are specified as absolutely necessary for the
sanitary redemption of Havana:
(1) The immediate organisation of a Department of Public Cleaning,"
under the full control of a single Commissioner experienced in the
conduct of such work," who should have authority to act as occasion may
require.
The chief function of the Department would be the maintenance of a
"constant state of cleanliness" in all the streets and places of public
business or resort, including the abattoirs and markets. "It should also
control the disposal of all wastes, except sewage--by cremation and
otherwise."
(2) The construction of a system of sewers "to receive the liquid wastes
of all houses of the main city." The topography of the city divides it
naturally into several districts. Each of these should be served by a
distinct sewerage system, which should discharge directly into the
harbour or the Gulf, as the case may be. " Before such discharge, the
effluent should be effectively clarified by one of the various well
known methods; so that it would carry only its dissolved impurities."
The dilution would be immediate and more than sufficient; for the daily
movement of sea water into and out of the harbour is about six thousand
times as great as would be the day's discharge of clarified sewage from
the harbour slope of the city.
(3) The clearing out and filling with clean earth of all the cesspools
and garbage-vaults, and the supplying to each house of a suitable
water-closet connected with the public sewer system. The closets
furnished should be practically automatic in operation, and not liable
to damage from ignorance or carelessness. They should be made so that no
foreign substance able to cause an obstruction in the house drain or the
sewer could pass out of sight. If more elaborate plumbing be desired,
this may be put in by the householder, under proper supervision, at his
own expense. The immediate installation of the water-closet in each
house is the only course which will make possible the annihilation of
the cesspool; and Havana will not be a healthy city until this result is
accomplished. The benefit that will be gained when it is done is out of
all proportion to the insignificant cost of the doing.
(4) The paving, or repaving, of all the streets with the best quality of
asphaltum. Some form of artificial paving of the streets of cities is
indispensable. Mr. Edwin Chadwick says that between the two divisions of
a town population, similarly situated in general condition, one part
inhabiting streets which are unpaved and another inhabiting streets that
are paved, a difference of health is observed. He cites instances
showing the sanitary benefit resulting from paving.
Laying aside all considerations of comfort and economy, which in
themselves are sufficient to warrant its construction, asphaltum is the
best paving material from a hygienic standpoint. Being a monolithic
sheet it is impervious alike to the rise of exhalations from the earth
and the soakage of liquids into the earth. It is easily cleaned; and, as
it can be cleaned without sprinkling, it can be cleaned dry. At
intervals it can be thoroughly washed with a hose, and all surplus water
removed immediately with a squeegee. The absence of dust and the
minimising of noise are hygienic benefits of secondary degree.
(5) The erection of a new abattoir, adequate to all the needs of the
population, and furnished with modern appliances for the inoffensive
utilisation of the entire animal, so that no refuse remains to be got
rid of.
(6) The construction of "a suitable and sufficient incinerating furnace,
for the complete and inoffensive destruction of garbage and other
refuse," including dead animals, street sweepings, mattresses, discarded
clothing, rags, excelsior, paper, and similar substances, which might
serve as vehicles of contagion. The experiments made by Colonel Waring
while Street Cleaning Commissioner of New York, indicated that such a
furnace may produce steam in quantities large enough to be valuable.
(7) The reclamation and drainage of all the marshes, or at least of
those bordering on the harbour on the south and west. "This reclamation
to be made after the 'Polder' method of Holland--by diking out the
harbour and the watercourses and removing the water by pumping."
(8) The establishment of a "power-plant sufficient for this pumping, for
pumping sewage where necessary, and for propelling the machinery of the
abattoir."
In concluding his paper, Mr. Hill says:
"It may seem strange that no reference has been made to the
dredging of the harbour--so urgently advocated by some advisers--or
to any improvement of it, save such as would be effected by the
withholding of solid organic matters from the abattoir, sewage, and
dumping grounds, and by the construction of the dikes at its
southern end. As has been said, the tidal flow is more than
sufficient to effect the purification of the clarified sewage,
which Colonel Waring proposed to empty into the harbour. So long as
solid wastes are withheld, its surplus oxidizing power will
gradually destroy the accumulation of putrescible material.
"To dredge the harbour now would be dangerous work; for it would
stir up and expose to the air vast quantities of putrid filth.
Later, if Colonel Waring's recommendations should be carried out,
it would mean only the removal of innocuous mud. Navigation is not
yet impeded by the deposits; and the rate at which the harbour is
silting up--one-third of one per cent. per year--makes it evident
that a delay of even ten years would not be injurious to commerce.
Long before this time has elapsed the harbour should be clean.
"Havana can be freed from her curse. The price of her freedom is
about $10,000,000. Can the United States afford to redeem her? For
once humanity, patriotism, and self-interest should be unanimous,
and their answer should be, Yes!"
General Greene, U.S.A., has submitted an extended report on the city's
condition. General Greene notes that about sixty per cent. of the
street surface is not paved, and that which is paved is in very poor
condition. In some streets are small drains, connecting by gratings with
the gutters, but no official record is kept of them, and no city plat
shows whither they go, but as in Havana all sewers lead to the bay, it
is supposed that is their destination. Some few private houses have
their own sewers, but no official knows anything further than that
permits were granted to build them and they are never cleaned. In parts
of the city a drain two feet deep and two feet wide, covered or
uncovered, runs alongside of the streets and into these all manner of
ill-smelling and nasty refuse is dumped and left to wash away by the
rain or to rot in the sun. For four years previous to the war the
authorities had been considering an elaborate plan of street improvement
and sewerage system, submitted by an American contractor, but no action
had been taken. The estimated cost was $7,000,000.
For three hundred years or more house drainage has been discharged into
cesspools, varying in size from three to ten feet in diameter, and from
four to eight feet deep, closed at the top with a stone. While rules for
taking proper care of these cesspools are plenty, enforcement of them is
so neglected that some of them have not been cleaned in five years. They
are not cemented inside and they drain off into the soil and rock,
infecting everything in reach.
The paved streets (surface) are cleaned by contract, by methods
prevailing in this country twenty-five years ago, and the work is fairly
well done. The cleanings are carried eight miles from the city, where
they are dumped and left on the ground, and the condition there is
fearful. During the blockade the authorities ordered the cleanings to be
dumped into the marsh near the Christina Street station, and here in the
wet soil they remain, a dangerous menace to health. The thousands of
_reconcentrados_ and soldiers in the city used the unpaved streets as
open privies, and when the Americans went into the city they found these
streets utterly noxious and foul, and set to work at once to clean
them, the street-cleaning contractor being permitted to continue his
work on the paved streets.
There is but one slaughter-house in the city and it is owned by the
municipality. It is mortgaged, like other city properties, to the
Spanish Bank. From three hundred to four hundred cattle are killed
daily, and the offal, which might easily be saved, and is, in American
slaughter-houses, is dumped into Chavez Creek, where it is left to rot
in the sun. The construction of a new building in a different locality
has been long discussed, but opposition has been made to it, and nothing
has been done. In the meantime the dumping continues in Chavez Creek.
The military hospitals have not yet been examined. Of the nine city
hospitals, asylums, and homes examined by Surgeon Davis, three were in
fairly good condition, two in bad condition, and four are most
deplorable. Some of the houses are overcrowded and the inmates half
starved. These hospitals can be put in good condition very soon.
The two principal markets, the Colon and the Tacon, are owned by the
city and mortgaged to the Spanish Bank. Their sanitary condition is bad
as it can be, but it can be remedied easily and quickly.
An elaborate code of Health Regulations, a volume of fifty pages,
exists, but it is seldom or never referred to or its provisions carried
out. Dairies prevail in many parts of the city, where twenty to thirty
cows are kept in stalls in the same house where human beings live;
livery stables are located in the most thickly settled parts of the
city; dead dogs, cats, and other animals are left in the open streets
for weeks; slops, filth, and night soil are thrown out of the windows
and doors on the streets in the poorer localities and no kind of regard
is paid to health regulations of any kind.
The condition of the harbour is gone into at length, one new fact being
noted, to wit: that the water is so foul that the bottom cannot be seen
two feet below the surface, while at Marianao, eight miles away, the
bottom at twenty feet is plainly visible.
Both General Greene and Surgeon Davis are of the opinion that the
harbour is not such a menace to health as are the cesspools,
slaughter-house, and general filth of the city, and that it should come
last in the cleaning process.
In recapitulation, General Greene says:
"From the foregoing it is apparent that the first steps toward
sanitation are the improvement of the slaughter-house, the cleaning
of cesspools, the inauguration of a proper system of street
cleaning, and the devising and rigid enforcement of health
regulations. I have therefore advised that immediately on taking
possession of the city government a board be appointed, consisting
of three army surgeons and two civilians--one from New York and one
from Chicago--of long experience on the Health Boards in those
cities; that this board study the sanitary conditions of the city
and draw up a new code of sanitary regulations, including the
management of the hospitals; and that this code be rigidly enforced
by the new city police, assisted by such number of sanitary
inspectors as may prove to be necessary. In this manner I believe
that the sanitary conditions can be improved and the death-rate
enormously reduced before the next rainy season sets in. The
death-rate in October last was at the rate of 133 per 1000 per
annum; in December it had been reduced to 106, and with only two
deaths per week from yellow fever.
"In order completely to stamp out yellow fever it will be necessary
to destroy a limited number of the worst infected houses occupied
by the poorest classes, to construct a system of sewers, and lay
new pavements. This will involve a very large expenditure of money,
and it is not at present clear how the city can raise this money.
It is probable, however, that a feasible financial scheme could be
devised after thorough study, and in the meantime a commission of
engineers should be appointed to study the problem, and either
acquire the existing surveys by purchase, at a fair valuation, or
else make new surveys, and a definite report covering the whole
ground, so that the matter may be intelligently considered."
EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF THE HAVANA YELLOW FEVER COMMISSION, 1879
TEMPERATURE
"This is conceded to be a climatic element of greatest importance, and
the 'annual mean' to be the chief factor. Throughout the West Indies the
mean annual temperature, near the sea, is from 78 degrees to 80, the
mean daily range is only about 6 degrees, and the extreme annual range
does not usually exceed 20 degrees. At Havana the mean annual
temperature varies in different years from 77 degrees to 79; the mean
temperature of the hottest months, July and August, varies from 82 to 85
degrees; and of the coldest months, December and January, from 70 to 76
degrees. The minimum temperature is very rarely as low as 50 degrees,
and the maximum as rarely exceeds 100 degrees; in fact, the thermometer,
in the shade, seldom rises above 94 degrees. There are no records nor
any tradition of frost having ever occurred except on December 24 and
25, 1856. It is alleged that even in the sparsely inhabited mountains in
the east of Cuba, where the Tarquino peak reaches an altitude of about
8000 feet, frost rarely occurs, and snow never."
RAINFALL
"During the sixteen years, 1859-74, the average number of rainy days at
Havana was 113; the minimum number, 97 days, occurred in 1869, and the
maximum number, 141 days, occurred in 1862. The average amount of rain
for the sixteen years was 49 inches, the minimum was 42.5 in 1861, and
the maximum was 70 inches in 1867. The maximum amount of rain falling in
any one season is from May to September, inclusive, but especially
during August and September. The rain then descends with such rapidity
that it runs off in torrents; but, as is seen, the usual belief that the
annual rainfall is excessive is erroneous. The annual mean relative
humidity varies in different years from about 73 to 74.5, and that of
the different months of the year from 66 to 79; the minimum, occurring
in any day of the year, may be as low as 34, and the maximum as high as
96. Evaporation is extremely rapid."
ANNUAL DEATHS IN HAVANA, 1870-79
----+-----------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------
| | |
| Deaths | | DEATHS BY
| by all | | | |
| Diseases | Deaths by | YELLOW FEVER. | SMALL POX.| CHOLERA.
| in the | all | | |
| Military |Diseases in+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------
| and Civil | the Civil | Military | | Military | Military
|Population.|Population.| and Civil | Civil | and Civil | and Civil
| | |Population.|Population.|Population.|Population.
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------
1870| 10,379 | 9,451 | 665 | 277 | 681 | 1,655
1871| 9,174 | 8,290 | 991 | 796 | 1,126 | ....
1872| 7,031 | 6,036 | 515 | 372 | 174 | ....
1873| 7,755 | 6,932 | 1,244 | 1,019 | 47 | ....
1874| 9,604 | 8,523 | 1,225 | 1,236 | 772 | ....
1875| 8,390 | 7,044 | 1,001 | 94 | 711 | ....
1876| 9,122 | 7,438 | 1,619 | 904 | 160 | ....
1877| 10,217 | 7,139 | 1,374 | 567 | 97 | ....
1878| 11,507 | 8,594 | 1,559 | 758 | 1,225 | ....
1879| 9,052 | 7,826 | 1,444 | 737 | 523 | ....
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------
| 92,231 | 77,273 11,837 6,760 5,516 1,655
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------
"Spanish army losses to January 16, 1896:
Killed in action and died from wounds......... 405
Died from yellow fever........................ 3,190
All other diseases............................ 282
-----
3,877
"Total mortality of Spanish army in Cuba in 1897 (from Public Health
Report, U. S. Marine Hospital Service, April 29, 1898):
Died from yellow fever........................ 3,190
Deaths from yellow fever...................... 6,034
Deaths from enteric fever..................... 2,500
Enteritis and dysentery..................... 12,000
Malarial fevers............................... 7,000
All other diseases............................ 5,000
------
Deaths from all diseases............. 32,534
"The above table ... clearly proves that 'the actual sanitary condition
of the principal ports of Cuba' is very unfavourable, since, in recent
years, their death-rates have ranged from 31.9 to 66.7. It also proves
that the sanitary condition of the inland towns is very little, if at
all, better than that of the seaports. The high death-rates of
Guanabacoa and of Marianao are especially notable, because these
suburban towns, within three and six miles of Havana, are summer
resorts, and enjoy, especially Marianao, a high repute for salubrity.
Taking a general view of the death-rates for the total population of all
the twenty towns in the above list--towns selected solely because the
only ones which furnish reliable official reports, though many others
were solicited, it will be found that twenty-six death-rates are given;
that these range from 23.5 to 66.7, and that, while only eight of the
twenty-six are under 35, twelve of them are 50 or more."
"The portion of the city in worst repute is the fifth district, and
especially Jesus Maria, one of its wards. This is, to considerable
extent, reclaimed swamp lands, filled in largely with street refuse and
garbage. It fronts the bottom of the harbour. Its rough, unpaved streets
are in many places almost impassable in wet weather, even to
pedestrians. Great mud-holes, covered with green slime, and fit only for
the abode of hogs, are numerous. The houses, as well as the streets,
have an uncared-for, filthy, and disgusting appearance; and the sickly,
anæmic residents look as dirty and cheerless as the streets and houses.
"The Punta or Colon wards in the third district--at least the portions
which immediately front the sea--have a reputation almost as bad as the
Jesus Maria ward. The foundation rocks were, during the last century,
excavated to build fortifications, and these excavations were filled up
with street refuse and garbage; hence this ward is, like Jesus Maria, to
some extent, reclaimed land. These portions are alleged to be very
unhealthful, while houses only six or eight blocks distant are not so;
comparatively light rains flood the _banquettes_ and run into the
houses. The streets are wider and the houses better than in Jesus Maria.
Some consider the location of the latter, at the bottom of the harbour,
a chief cause for its unhealthfulness, but the unhealthy portion of the
city now referred to fronts the sea.
[Illustration: THE PRADO AND INDIAN STATUE, HAVANA.]
"The Pueblo Nuevo ward, still farther to the west, also fronts the sea,
and is built on a slope which attains an altitude of nearly seventy
feet. Notwithstanding these advantages, it is very badly drained, and
has, as it apparently deserves, an ill repute for healthfulness....
"The three suburban wards, Jesus del Monte, the Cerro, and Vedado, enjoy
the best reputation for salubrity, and also for their freedom from
yellow fever. Intelligent residents are readily found, who will assert
with great assurance that no one is ever attacked in these wards except
those who have been elsewhere infected. The summit of Jesus del Monte
has an altitude of 67 meters, or 220 feet, the highest point in Havana,
or its immediate vicinity. However, there are few, if any, houses about
the summit; the average level of the ward is only 80 feet, and more
inhabitants live below than above this level. The natural drainage is
excellent, the houses in the elevated portion occupy more ground and are
better ventilated than in Havana."
GEOLOGICAL FORMATION
"The surface soil of Havana consists for the most part of a thin layer
of red, yellow, or black earths. At varying depths beneath this, often
not exceeding one or two feet, lie the solid rocks. These foundation
rocks are (especially in the northern and more modern portion of the
city, towards the coast of the sea and not of the harbour) quarternary
and especially tertiary formation so permeable that liquids emptied into
excavations are absorbed and disappear. In the southern and greater
portion of the city, these rocks are of cretaceous formation, and so
much less permeable that sinks and other excavations readily fill to
overflowing. About twenty thousand persons or one-tenth of the
population, live on land reclaimed from the sea, in large measure, by
dumping on garbage and street refuse. Much of this reclaimed land was
formerly mangrove swamps, and Havana still lies adjacent to these
breeders of malarial poison. There are few if any towns in Cuba which
are not subjected to malarial effluvia from mangrove or other swamps,
and many of these suffer to greater extent than Havana."
Messrs. Ariza and Herrera reported a population of 3000 on the
reclaimed parts of the first district, 5000 on parts of the third
and fourth, 5000 on part of the fifth, and 600 on part of the sixth
district.
THE CLEANSING OF THE HARBOUR
"The sanitarian cannot hesitate to advocate, for general reasons if not
especially for yellow fever, the cleansing of the harbour, the cessation
of daily additions to it of large masses of filth, and the replenishment
of it by constant currents of pure water. To accomplish the last, it has
been much insisted on, in the United States, as well as in Cuba, that
canals should be dug. Out of Cuba it ought to be better understood that
Havana is by no means deficient in highly educated, skilful, practical
engineers, who are fully alive to the sanitary interests of the city,
and to the merits of this especial subject. Among these, Colonel Albear
stands pre-eminent, and in September, 1879, he delivered before the
Academy of Sciences an extremely able address on this subject, which is
so full of instruction, on other local conditions also of interest to
the sanitarian, that this address has been translated and is presented,
as a most interesting part of this report. Colonel Albear seems to have
conclusively demonstrated the impracticability of these proposed canals;
and my own conviction is that if practicable they could not possibly
place the small harbour of Havana in as favourable sanitary conditions
as are by nature the large harbour of Matanzas and of Cienfuegos, where
yellow fever none the less prevails."
DRAINAGE
"In Cuban cities, generally, good drainage is not found except in such
comparatively inextensive parts where nature required little or no
assistance. Even in Havana, the oldest and wealthiest city, the visitor
is often astounded, especially in the rainy season, by impassable
mud-holes, and green, slimy, stagnant pools in the streets and in the
backyards. This condition was found even in the Pueblo Nuevo ward, which
is located so admirably for good drainage that little labour would be
required to make it perfect.
"Messrs. Ariza and Herrera reported: 'Havana has no sewers save in a few
principal streets. These sewers have been built at interrupted
intervals, without reference to any general plan for drainage. They are
seldom cleaned and are generally obstructed in part or wholly with
sediment or filth from the streets, and exhale offensive odours. As the
sewers are few in number, the greater part of the water of the city
empties through the streets, into the harbour or the sea; but the
quantity flowing into the sea is comparatively small.' Mr. A. H. Taylor,
a civil engineer, thoroughly informed on this subject, testified that
the sewers of only three streets subserved any good purpose whatever,
and that the remainder were so defective that the city would really be
much better off without them. Through the gratings, which have large
interspaces, the dirt and refuse of the streets find such ready entrance
that a number of these sewers were soon filled up, with apparently solid
materials, to within a few inches of the surface openings. Since very
few houses or privies are connected with sewers, these are less
offensive than they would otherwise be, but no one who has seen them can
find any words except of unhesitating condemnation for their grossly
defective structure."
THE PAVING OF STREETS
"Less than one-third of the population live on paved streets, and these
are well paved and kept as clean, it is believed cleaner, than is usual
in the United States. The remainder live on unpaved streets, which for
the most part are very filthy. Many of these, even in old and densely
populated parts of the city, are no better than rough country roads,
full of rocks, crevices, mud-holes, and other irregularities, so that
vehicles traverse them with difficulty at all times, and in the rainy
season they are sometimes impassable for two months. Rough, muddy, or
both, these streets serve admirably as permanent receptacles for much
decomposing animal and vegetable matter. Finally, not less, probably
more, than one-half of the population of Havana live on streets which
are constantly in an extremely insanitary condition, but these streets,
though so numerous, are not in the beaten track of the pleasure tourist,
in which capacity the writer, in 1856, spent ten days in Havana without
witnessing many of the evils now testified to with emphasis."
DENSITY OF POPULATION
"Of the various evils recounted in connection with the subject of
houses, there are two which deserve special attention. Many facts,
besides those associated with the holds of vessels, justify the belief
that the growth of the poison of yellow fever is specially favoured in
warm, moist, ill-ventilated places, where air is closely confined. The
low-lying floors touching the earth, the small, densely packed houses,
the unusually contracted ventilating space in their rear, the large
unventilated excavation for privies and sinks, all furnish, as is firmly
believed, the most favourable breeding-places for the poison of yellow
fever. In addition, statistics prove that in great cities subjected to
their ordinary unfavourable conditions, the denser their population the
sicklier and shorter-lived their inhabitants. Common-sense and
experience unite to teach that the denser a population the more
widespread and frightful the havoc of diseases, especially of
communicable diseases. Elsewhere will be found a special report on the
density of the population of Havana compared with numerous other cities,
and it therein appears that more than three-fourths of the people of
Havana live in the most densely populated localities in the world. A
tropical climate renders this enormous evil still greater. Not only in
Havana but throughout Cuba the average number of inhabitants to each
house is unusually great, and this fact enables us better to understand
the great prevalence in Cuba of those communicable diseases which its
climate and other local conditions favour.
"The Registry Office in Havana reports that there are upwards of
eighteen thousand fincas in this registry district, which comprises the
village of Marianao in addition to the city of Havana.
"A finca is a piece of land, with definite boundaries or limits whether
large or small, and whether it has buildings on it or not.
"Of the eighteen thousand fincas in the district about fourteen thousand
have houses upon them, and the other four thousand being vacant lots in
the city, or fincas rusticas, in the rural districts.
"At least twelve in every thirteen inhabitants live in one-story houses;
and as the total civil, military, and transient population exceeds two
hundred thousand, there are more than twelve inhabitants to every house.
Tenement houses may have many small rooms, but each room is occupied by
a family. Generally, the one-story houses have four or five rooms; but
house-rent (as also food and clothing) is rendered so expensive by
taxation, by export as well as import duties, that it is rare for a
workman, even when paid fifty to one hundred dollars a month, to enjoy
the exclusive use of one of these mean little houses. Reserving one or
two rooms for his family, he rents the balance. This condition of
affairs is readily understood when it is known that so great a necessity
as flour costs in Havana $15.50, when its price in the United States was
$6.50 per barrel.
"In the densely populated portions of the city the houses generally have
no back yard, properly so called, but a flagged court, or narrow vacant
space into which sleeping-rooms open at the side; and in close proximity
with these, at the rear of this contracted court, are located the
kitchen, the privy, and often a stall for animals."
"Messrs. Ariza and Herrera report that in Havana the average height of
the ground floor is from seven to eleven inches above the pavement, but
in Havana, and more frequently in other Cuban towns, one often
encounters houses which are entered by stepping down from the sidewalk;
and some floors are even below the level of the streets. In Havana some
of the floors; in Matanzas more; in Cardenas and Cienfuegos many, are of
bare earth itself, or of planks raised only a few inches above the damp
ground.
"The privy and the sink for slops, the open kitchen shed, and the stable
immediately adjoin each other, confined in a very contracted space close
to sleeping-rooms. The privy consists of an excavation which often
extends several feet laterally under the stone flags of the court. Even
if the sides be walled, the bottom is of the original porous earth or
subsoil rock, thus permitting widespread saturation of the soil."
LA LUCHA OCTOBER, 21, 1896
"These houses are veritable pig-styes. Houses which rent from thirty to
forty-five dollars per month--an extremely high price for a country
where wealth has been destroyed by war--are devoid of all comfort. They
are unhealthful habitations. A very distinguished stranger, who visited
us some time ago, said of them: 'They are composed solely of four walls
and a pavement which are stained with dampness and a privy whose fetid
and constant emanations poison the air that must be breathed.'"