The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1869-02-09 00:00:00

WAWA Netus.

BOW TO PRESERVE THE HEALTH OF THE

RURAL POPULLTION.

At the last mean of the Dorchester Farmers' Club,
Dr. Aldridge read sa exesilent paper on agricultural
hygeine, or the Meese of presming heath amongst our
rural popul•Uou. lie treated the subject In four
divisions, as follow :-1. An meg*" Into the air they
breathe. 2. The houses they inhabit. 3. The food
they en. 4. The labour or work they us engaged in.
As to the first point he urged that their homed or
cottages elemid be sreeled rez annewhat shamed situ.
Wow, wellolrainerl, with a mele or sestii.westarn
aspect, sad removed from the Weer Of mush malaria
on the cm hoed, sad the noxious gases ermaiding hem
confined and exposed faial matter in farrayarda on the
other. Clesumstaeoes, no doubt, Wm eorapel families
to live in unhealthy situations for the means of liveli-
hood ; but It is that we amid all be
aorealated with the therm": oialleslih, width yin do math
to mitigate, if not MiIIIOVIN attendant virile Wood, it
is generaly the wait of mak bowledge that moms the
evils to spring up, for where it bee been penseht to
direct men they have bon kept healthy, even in the
most unfemarabk einumstenees. The sesemity of the
sir we breaths being pere—trat is, that it riontaies 21
p.no of oxygen and
79 park Cle nitrOgge Or •11018, with
about 1 per cent of carbon!' sold pa, formed by •
chemisal rambinetiost of aortae parte of oxygen end
carbon-As evident when we seneidne the use or
of respirariee—vix, to Fully the blood, and rirl:
hese and think, viral fogra Impure sir, (allowed by
imperfectly rayesabed blood, being Wearable of duly
nourishing the times, outset Word • due etlinalus to
the nervous system, mad this Is onn of the common
causes which piratic, physical debility, and tends to the
production of tshoroulons dame% and if this be for a
time averted we shell and mental languor spa
demean with dissetiaseithe &Mooing all tin
dormant mil dispositions of the isdnidaids„ sea
trivtg them for ridelsl sod useful emegleo.
et ilfs bea
iang the old Win tosibo—" Mons sass
Oi (orlon sono.::p , air it IS "VA
portant that them . mama
to
"Doe ttlei ee :
iti
et
some he
It .is formed
for this purpose • migraines of 250 ear feet 4
fresh tar should be hoer!) seed for every
individual. The languor, ezhaaslika, headaches, he,,
which Oalnir in donna, amass, ballrooms, am just
so many warnings that ventilation Is not properly
attended to, and that the eyries Is sugaring In con-
sequence. All healthy and vii people More
=y should not regard the el doors and
ia Char amigo' or Marin apartments, &ail
when the ipso tment Is left ears abd be at ones taken
that the window-sand domain open, for certain it le
that more disease Is engendered from poisoned or
imPar, air than from any *wean by the ingress of
cold au, and if pare air be neeseisp in the day-tiese it
is more particelarly no during She hoar, of siaaP' a"
every bedroom shoal rave Musa assess to the attar
air either by the window being elightly opened or the
door ajar, which with an open chimney secures the
proper supply of pare air. Now what do Weiss in oar
cottages mama the labouring shwas in rural dis-
tricts —not only cottagee built on LE-drained situations
and surrounded on all sides by noxious game, small,
low, ill.eonstmetod, with tile entire abeam of all
sitectioe to ventilates ; bedroom—toe seldom do we
find more than ora—without • ample" lighted by •
window perhaps 21t. square, half of which perhaps only
opens- the rOinn 004 Mara than 51t. fin. in heedik sod
accommodating • family of perhaps two wenn and dive
or six childrea of different ages, the atmcophere of
which when I have bad 00011Sion to visit such houses
In tin," of gainless toad only in compered to tbo binds
bole of Cabana, end quite.. injurious and fatal la •
degree from the Mame of the same causes. And if
the respiration of pare sie Is so important to our ma
Walt population in their oottthea, bow much more
Important lilt to young children. And to what other
erase is to be attributed the greet mortality which
exists amongst the &Mesa of the poet, as the
test oxygenation of the blood through the daily
respiration of almospinete sir impregnated with
excessive carbon from the want of proper ',saber*?
This may be more particularly kneed by the develop-
ment of tuberculous disease in some form or other,
which proves yearly so fatal to large numbers of out
'era and town districts. But whilst loathing on this
subject of ventaaties of cottegra I would remark that,
having been restarted to make aa inapeeroe sad
report upon the fteditka of the dormitories of our
county gaol, I wee much gratified to end that so much
attention had been paid by the magistrates to the
Importances of pare air to the heath of the inmates.
There I found the cols or sleeping apartments (swathed
with • most complete system of ventilation upon the
most approved and Meade principles, each individual
having the advantage of about 000 cable feet of air,
supplied from the outer atmosphere, with the regulate
means of ogress for tho impure sirs Doubtless this, in
oonnectien with attention to other sanitary laws,
mounts for the healthy condition of that establish-
mem t, the mortaity averaging no more than eta deaths
for the past years, he a floating populate. of 6,449
paeans. This fact leads me and you to bone that as
the magistrates, who are mainly composed of the large
landowners he the county, have devoted their attration
to the sanitary condition a the inmates of our primes,
the, will see the Importance of providing necessary
accommodation for our agricultural poor on their
different estates, by erecting a sufficient number of
cottages upon the most approved and Menage pun-
steles, and upon the most eligible sad hoaltlstel
situations. MLICII has been does the last few years Is
this direction by many of our landowners, more per-
Unholy since the passing of that excellent bai. the
Linton Settlement Bill, but much more remains to be
accomplished, and will he, I feel moored, when the '
subject becomes mere ventilated, and brought to the
notice of our large esteem of land, and hence the vane
and importance et Chambers of Coonneree being I
appointed in every county. These institutions have been I
most invaluable to connection with trade and manufso-
bores, and will, doolstree, be equally successful in the
interests; of agriculture. We now come to the gabled
of food, on which it will be only neoriesary for mats
make slew general remarks. It is very important that
the agricultural labourer Medd be supplied with
proper food for the nourishment of his body. In his
ore the waste of tissne roast be great, sod, therefore,
he requires • due supply of nutritious food to make up
for the daily lora The food should, therefore, be of •
character easily ingested and eramilated, arthritic')
and inexpendve. But soar gene= FAY that "it is
very difficult to combine them In the me of the agri-
cultural labourer." This I gnat, but still at the wine
time think I shall be able to show that something in
the way of improvement may be does. The food of the
poor principally consists of wheaten bread, cheese,
vegetables, and sometimes milk and butter. Milk when
it can be hail is certainly one of the beet articles of food
we can have, as it contains all the elements of blood
requisite for maintaining the support of the body.
Cheese can be digested in small quantities by the
healthy and active, but I sometimes think that too
much of it it eaten by the labouring poor, so there is
not that support end nourishment is the common
theme which is requisite for maintaining the strength
of the body. When we turn to the vegetable kingdom
we come to bread. This certain!, deserves our first
attention, and it is clearly the duty of the farmer,
acing how dependent hie blouse isi epee the nutritious
character of the bread, it being that upon which he
principally subside, that the bread be made from the
bat wheat, and not, as too often Is the cese, from the
pierAed and ionemered core railed the tailing, w hob
contains necessarily IRMA less of the nutritious elements.
With rimiest to the diet of children, I would mast
strongly Weiss the use of the blotch oatmeal as a most
economic, nutritious, and healthful food, sod I am
satisfied that, could we introduce this article late eon.
sum ption amongst our labouring poor, their little ones
would grow innately stronger sad more robust, tad
very many lives now escriiised for west of sufarent
nourishment would be saved. Tie districts where the
labourer has • cottage and made' Method he may have
the mesh varied by the pegetabies he gate from the
garden. The soilage and garden plan so aseellently
given by our esfeemsd prescient is by far the best for
assisting the labourer in nuking up his horarasepiag
threats labourer his pay in moray, and with his home
and garden he will., hide to liaison, comfortably::
bring tip his family heathfaily and vigorously,
supplied with as adequate amount of nourishment.
Time would fail were I to enter more talent!, into the
various bowlegs of this Mratianifirah/eat- Mkt I may
say, before leaving the inkiest, thiss I kare not the
slightest doubt bat *Acme deal =UM be des, be im-
prove the diet of the labouring man by the ladies of the
district teaching the labourer's wile how to arra the
beet use of the feed wrath a kind Provides/le has
bestowed %PDS them, se well es pointing on to the,
that which le met nutritious sad within their limited
mom. With reaped to the employmnt of the NlA-
cultural labourer very little can be saM on that subject,
for of all employments that of the agricultural labourer
1.1 not only the MOSS grisslitim, but also the most health.
ful, for they and he their calling ample alt and exercise,
and of that Amster, mob as walking, which is V•l7
:originating. But I menearees think tha the orathesed
nd exhausting laboar of the piosehenan seperielle In
njuriuus, hy Endwise a collapse of the vital forreer
•hich the period of rest end the slight nutrition afforded
is not suffiaisat to relieve him from. WeVtes nod that
exertion has an effect upon the eczema sad =amputee
tissues, shish-gives rim to enfeebled health, from whirr
oftentimes the individual never movers, more parties-
larly as he has not, as isnoy other more favoured
individuals, the opportunity of laying by, and getting
weeks, nay months, of complete repose. How often
was it observed during ties Pcialusular War that rase
numbers of our eddied, became invalided from long
marches without intervals of repose and rest. Theee
fore I woad nem strongly advise a division of thi;
labour to be made; instead of the ploughman working
eight hours consecutively, that the period should be
divided equally, and at the end of four boars there
should be two hours' rest, and then the labourer and Ids
horse would, I feel amused, resume their work with
renewed energy, whilst at the same time m airiest .
labour woad be momplished. If such a plan e would be I
useful and bearileial to the adult in the way! have
spoken of, bow mach more important is It that Ur
young and growing should be exonerated from the effects
of earned., labour, which not only prevents their
Proem' daralaetuent, hot oftentimes lays the seeds of
disease, from which so many are yearly morifloxL The
sail end minions enema of early and excessive work i
the young have been for neeny years noticed and deplore:
by philanthropists rail mammon, aad by none emceeemceethan our illustrious and noble-hearted Lord.liontement,
the Earl of fibefteribur, who awoke lap, SO it were, the
paternal deers a our Governmente, sod drew th
attention of our leghlaistre to the onion evil, Irloa
'ram
tituringia". . and hence the= n
OK IiSISadO
Pitting
In fortis PasØl LAI rig Ten Hours' Bill of the
nook lord, which .less has been lb, mosso. tbrossok
God, of saving the lives of Ramberg Of ilia young 4-
Mow districts. Aillsrnote red ls sot no snares
&enlist our rural posirwa'isaart Mill aoinsabse may
be done even by our - . . :uerearis__atr_ow 'b.
phy..ical power, thus
emus them frallArairlair perinaterewl= The
tatir— . ratit,„.o.,..rwie will ends vat
that the h W. Individual contributes to the
wealth of the , isassub as health indoors cheer-
ful labour and rialtos ? The high rate of saortality
et:
In out saint* proves fie derfaculas eta° of its ohnitur