The Queen City’s Clean Bill of Health
Dr. L. Smith argues that Seattle’s location is its best sanitary defense, even as the city lacks a formal sewer system.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
To the Honorable, the City Council of the city of Seattle, W.T.: I herewith submit my annual report as Health Officer for the year ending July 1, 1883. It will be seen that only one-fifth of all deaths were from zymotic (infectious) diseases. The cleanliness of a city is best judged from this alone. Our proportion of deaths from zymotic causes is conspicuously low compared to other cities of this size on the coast. We have exceptionally good hospital accommodations here, which attract large numbers of the sick and injured from surrounding counties. Deducting non-residents, and estimating our population at 7,500, we have an exceptionally low death rate of 13 per 1,000 inhabitants. We may congratulate ourselves on the healthy condition of Seattle. It is not due to a perfect system of sewers, for we have no system at all, nor to any extraordinary care in sanitary matters. It must be that Seattle, from its peculiar location and surroundings, cannot be an unhealthy city. When proper interest is manifested in sewerage, deaths from zymotic diseases will very rarely occur.
“We may congratulate ourselves on the exceedingly healthy condition of Seattle. It is not due to a perfect system of sewers, for we have no system at all.”
In 1883, Seattle’s Health Officer was literally bragging about the city’s 'lack of a sewer system' because the geography was so naturally cleansing. Today, the city’s massive investments in sewage infrastructure, such as the West Point Treatment Plant, are a central, ongoing struggle against the growth that once flourished in the 'clean air' of the early boom days.
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