And, lastly, the frequent use of private, and public warm and cold baths. For the establishment of the latter, the citizens of Philadelphia are indebted to Mr. Joseph Simons.
The following circumstances have an unfavourable influence upon the health of our citizens.
Ice creams taken in excess, or upon an empty stomach.
The continuance of the practice of attending funerals, under all the circumstances that were mentioned in describing the customs which prevailed in Philadelphia, between the years 1760 and 1766.
The combined influence of great heat and intemperance in drinking, acting upon passions unusually excited by public objects, on the 4th of July, every year.
The general and inordinate use of segars.
The want of sufficient force in the water which falls into the common sewers to convey their contents into the Delaware, renders each of their apertures a source of sickly exhalations to the neighbouring streets and squares.
The compact manner in which the gutters are now formed, by preventing the descent of water into the earth, has contributed very much to retain the filth of the city, in those seasons in which they are not washed by rain, nor by the waste water of the pumps and hydrants.
The timbers of many of the wharves of the city have gone to decay. The docks have not been cleaned since the year 1774, and many of them expose large surfaces to the action of the sun at low water. The buildings have increased in Water-street, and with them there has been a great increase of that kind of filth which is generated in all houses; the stores in this street often contain matters which putrify; from all which there is, in warm weather, a constant emission of such a fœtid odour, as to render a walk through that street, by a person who does not reside there, extremely disagreeable, and sometimes to produce sickness and vomiting.
In many parts of the vicinity of the city are to be seen pools of stagnating water, from which there are exhaled large quantities of unhealthy vapours, during the summer and autumnal months.