The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-08-23 00:00:00

IMPROVED

STRAAS SPECTACLES

Manufaetured by
JONAS ea JONAS,

WIOLISALB OPTIIIU7/11,

ntiCKINGHAM PALACE ROAD.

LONDON, S.W.

The IIdnOTED STEWS LENSES recommend
thernaaves, psessing as they do, so many advantages
over the ordluvy glasses at present before the public.
They nay be used for reading, writing, or any delicate
work several hours at a time without fatiguing the sight.

They do not require repeatedly eleani-g. as the
material they are composed of does not allow the natural
moisture ef the Eye to condense upon it.

AMID all the gloom and disapppintment
caused to many interests by the excessive
rainfall of the late summer, one gratifying
fact stood out in bold relief in the midst of
the dismal prospect. The rate of mortality
in our great towns was lower than it had
been since the last abnormally wet summer
nineteeen years ago. Many people recollect
the dreary year 1860, when, out of fifty-two
weeks six only were dry. And it is well to
note that if the hot weather does not fill our
granaries and our barns, neither does it fill
our graves; and that if the rain is a depress-
ing influence on agriculture, it is a blessing
in disguise in our crowded cities. Thousands
now tread the pavements of our towns who
would have been numbered with the silent
hosts of the departed had the summer which
is now passing away been marked by fierce
heat instead of by an inordinate quantity of
rain. With this result sanitary reform and
medical science have had a great deal to do.
If it be true that man, in his past history,
has been ever struggling against natural
obstacles to wards greater advantages of
health and towards the happiness which
accrues from the possession of that acquire-
ment, a notable improvement is shown at
the present day in the conditions of health
that are manifested amongst our modern
civilized communities. The results compare
favourably with those which existed in pre-
ceding and loss-favoured civilizations, or
that exist to this day in uncivilized tribes.
It is sometimes urged that no comparison
can be instituted between the current civil-
ized States and those —practically— lost
! civilizations which marked the Baby-
lonian, the Egyptian, the ancient Greek, and
the ancient Roman Empires. Their admirers
have contended that if we knew all the de-
tails of their inner life which are now hidden
. from us, we should probably see in them a
standard of excellence which this age, in its
, most refined aspects, does not approach. At
the same time it may be pointed out that
the surviving literature of those extinct
nationalities fails to convoy to the mind any
idea of a period when the human race, ex-
isting under any form of known civilization,
was more free of great pestilences, or of
slowly-killing diseases than it is at this hour.
Far back in the records of Egyptian history
—so far indeed that the human mind almost
fails to grasp the immense distance repre-
sented by the lapse of time—Cambyses,
King of Egypt, gave his son Cyrus lessons
in sanitary science which were then so much
needed. Cyrus told his father that, in an
. expedition which he had organized, he
should take with him physicians for the sake
of the soldiers. To which Cambyses replied
, that those physiciars were like menders of
torn garments, curing those who had fallen
sick. The chief anxiety of his son should
, be to provide for health, and to take care to
. prevent the army from falling into sickness
, at all. He pointed out what was to be
dreaded, and what to be avoided. He re-
minded Cyrus that the bodies and souls of
men were the signs of good health and of
L bad health; :nd he adds other advice and
, oofbsaervle-artyi observations whichhan e
ancient
ns show oc
civilization,
i ltihz
aatti
oinn, the e
there
far-off
as
: days of
illstll t
ato
which barbarian
vieh
flesh is he v
ruler,es
the
ine the
a smidsttig
no special exemption from the thousand
n
heir. 'With true civilization health ever
appears in friendly communion.

- At the same time it is well to bear in mind
that health and longevity are not always
developed with every phase of modern civil-
ization. In these more regenerate days we
conquer and drive the savage out of existence
or leave him part of a mere fragment of a
wandering tribe. But however refined
civilization way be, and hvi intellectual,
inventive, or learned, it is helpless to cheek
disease und death unless it is also wise and
, self-saeritioing, and unless the passions of
men, which civilized life so variously modifies
are influenced by it in such a manner as to
; be held from the influence of destructive
; c eivil:zation leads to exCess of
• 1,„r1 ;to excess of strain after wealth and
its a - ; when it spreads too eagerly
,fif sp,..:uulation, and when it grasps
! • iierccly oftee conquest and domiinon,
it is net, an agency for the steady pro-
of health. Steadiness of national
life requires steady national repose; and the