单选题 The problems of the American cities -- pollution, crime, transportation, a lack of planning -- are bad, but they were worse in the so-called "good old days", according to Dr Charles Adrian. He gives pollution from automobiles as one example. He agrees that it may be bad now, but he states that there was a lot of pollution from horses and other animals in American cities in the 19th century.
"Most cities had their own slaughterhouses (屠宰场) where cows and pigs were killed a century ago. They were careless about throwing out the remains of the animals and that sort of thing," he said. "And no measure was taken for waste disposal."
Some of the problems that bothered people living in the cities during that period are still with us -- poor planning, problems in low-income neighborhoods, police relations, and public transportation.
"Pollution was a very important problem for city governments in the last century, particularly with regard to water supplies," Dr Adrian said. "They had some idea that water could be polluted, but they didn't know how. Trying to get pure water was a big problem."
"People like to talk about the good old days, but, actually, the cities of the 19th century were dirty. Communicable diseases like smallpox were great concerns. The infant death rate was high, and there were other dangers as well./