The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-11-14 00:00:00

TEI4STOTTIMRIPGE 011S1RVE1I

he has to put his hand in his pocket as a conse-
quence. The Continental tourist, on the other
hand, moves freely about, and when he comes to
England he cannot help contrasting the impedi-
ments thrown in the way of railway travelling.
However, it is evident that the time has ar-
rived when the judicious removal of restrictions-
and the granting of alt possible facilities for mov-
ing about, is likely to find favour in the eyes of
railway directors. Months ago Mr. Gladstone
ads ised them to go deepest down into the masses
of the people, and there is no doubt that the re-
sult will r..juy for the exploration. For years
this mho) of wealth—the available means for
tvr li log p.: saes sed by the humbler classes—was
, as unproductive as though it never existed at all
und if a wan could not afford to spend a sove-
reign on a journey, no effort was made to take
the fifteen shillings which he reallAcouldiafford.
Times have gradually altered, and us the Midland
Company tells its neighbours, its resolution to
take all the money it can from third-doss pas-
sengers, so far from ending in ruin, as had beeu
predicted, has had quite a contrary result by
augmenting the receipts and increasing the di-
vidend. There is reason to hope, and to believe
that other popular reforms, now looked upon as
dangerous innovations, so far from terminating
in disaster, will also end in a beneficial way.

afforded to them during illness; or whether it be
the convalescent home, which has only been called
into existence during the last generation ; they
are all of them noble institutions. Amongst these
he considered the convalescent homes, where the
poor sufferer who bad just risen from a bed of pro-
tracted illness was introduced to kind treatment
and those litle luxuries that were necessary to their
complete recovery were affoided them, were some
of the best in the country. Those who had been
receiving treatment in un infirmary or a hospital
, where sent thence to some quiet place, some beau-
tiful spot, where they might receive gentle treatment
from kind hands and loving hearts. He thought
there was no one there who, should they be sent
to one of those convalescent homes, but would find
that they had fallen into the hands of good Sam-
aritans. And whilst those present had done right
in coming there to support the Dispensary, which
has been and is doing so much good in this neigh-
bourhood ; whilst they were contributing to the
best of their ability, as he trusted they would do
that day for that institution, be wished to draw
their attention for a few moments to a subject
which was worthy of careful thought,and that was
the necessity there was for attention to sanitary
matters. They, perhaps, would object that this
was foreign to the subject; but he did not think
so. Our blessed Lord had said, "They that are
whole need not a physician, but they that are
sick," and from that they should draw a practical
conclusion. It was for the sick that medicine was
provided, It was for the sick that the physician
went forth with his healing arm. But they that
were whole needed not a physician, and, therefore,
he might tell them that they had much to do not
only in providing forthe care of their own children,
but for the prevention of disease. They might say
that sickness had come in the order of Providence.
Sickness came amongst us without our knowledge
or control, and that they had nothing to do with
the prevention of disease; but he would tell them
they had much to do with the prevention of dis-
ease amongst their own families and the neigh-
bourhood in which they lived. One of the subjects
that attracted most attention at the present day,
was a tendency for a movement in favour of sani-
tary reform. To go before disease and extirpate
the causes which might lead to it and which threat-
ened the health of the population, as much as it
lay in our power, was an imperative duty devolving
upon us. And the prevention of disease was very
much more in the power of all of us than some
were apt to imagine. Science had discovered that
epidemics of the most deadly character very often
sprang from the simplest and plainest causes. In
times past learned wen looked for extraordinary
means for dealing with disease. They looked up
to the comet with its fiery tail, and fancied it car-
ried disease, pestilence, and all manner of tribula-
tion in its train. This had been given expression
to by the poet Milton, who described two shapes
as representing pestilence and war, and that when
they cometh there should be pestilence and war
among the nations. And then others looked for
the cause of disease in the bowels of the earth.
It was not many years since a great physician
looked into the bowels of the earth; but science
taught us not to be star gazing or looking into the
bowels of the earth for the secret causes of die-
ease, but to look at our own premises and those
in our him ediate neighbourhood to see that our
sewage is right and that cleanliness is observed in
our households and in ourselves. Science had only
brought us back to these simple elementary truths
—let us have cleanliness in our persons; let us
have wholesome food and drink; let us have pure
air, and wholesome sanitary conditions in our
houses, and the chances of disease propogating
itself were reduced to a minimum. In proof of
this he would quote the death-rate of 200 years
ago as compared with that of the present day.
Between the years 1660 and 1660 the average rate
of death annually was eighty persons out of every
thousand of the population. Now it was onlyt
22 in every thousand. That showed that
the laws of health were very much more under our
command than we were apt to imagine. Napoleon
said life was an inheritance about which we all
knew very little, but in which we threw obstacles
in our way of living through ignorance of the laws
of health, and lack of cleanliness in our homes
and in ourselves. And one of the greatest autho-
rities said that the greatest preventive of sickness
and disease was cleanliness in our persons, in our
houses, and our water, and cleanliness in our food
and clothing. The whole of these suggestions
might be summed up in these simple words, " Wash
and be clean." He appealed to those present to
do all that lay in their power to help forward the
great movement for sanitary reforiu. Ile beeeeched
them, if the Government took up that question, to
assist them and strengthen their hands with a
hearty unfaltering countenance and support. Let
them resolve to break down the barrier of preju-
dice which was opposed to sanitary reform. It
' had been well said. by Mr. Richard Hume that
There is no epidemic that can stand before clean
air, clean houses, and clean water." Prevention
was better than sure; and it was much better
to prevent disease than to cure it. He hoped,
therefore, they would attend to these things for
the sake of themselves and their children. Then
I let some cesspool send around its noxious fumes,
and if they believed it was not designed that
they should be prostrated by sickness, surely it
was their duty to give their sympathy, support and
aid, to those who endeavoured to make cleanliness
the means of promoting the health and salubrity
of the neighbourhoods in which they lived It was
his duty to tell them of this. These laws of
; health were the laws of God as much as those laws
of morality and religion which they found in the
Bible, and it was as much his duty as a minister
to give them any inforeuttion respecting the laws
' affecting their bodily health, the neglect of which
would bring its own punishment, aud which were
of as great importance as the information con-
: tamed in the merely moral laws in the Bible. He
; trusted they would take these facts in good part,
as, he had taken this opportunity of giving them
a few practical hints that might be useful to them,
because he saw many strangers before him some
of whom he might never see again. He assured
them that such movements as were in the direc-
tion of sanitary reform were worthy of the hearty
co-operation and support of the people, and it was
for them to help those who were trying to draw
attention to these matters by using their influence
, in the neighbourhood in which theylived to spread
a wider sense of the necessity for sanitary reform.
But there was one evil which he had not yet men-
tioned, and that was one of the most terrible with
which they had to deal—whether it be the minister
, or the physician—and that was the intemperance
, of the people. It was said that this was the evil
, which was paralysing the trade of the community;
r this it was that struck down the strong man ; this
, it was that left its victims upon the sick bed with
, wasted energies and ruined constitution, frequently
, to finish their days in the workhouse or the Mantic
, asylum. This was the giant evil with which they
, all had to contend. It mattered not what form
Christian enterprise might take, or what efforts
might be made for the rescue and preservation of
the people of this country, all the tides of charity
broke in vain against the sunken rock of intern-
pentnce. lie asked them if they valued the future
, welfare and spiritual well-being of their children;
for the sake of those whom they were pledged to
, love; and for God's sake to rise and do battle with
this giant intemperance that was stalking through
, our laud. He asked each of them to ask himself
what part they could take in thisstruggle. Be could
, not exaggerate the evils that were being wrought in
this country by intemperance. He did not plead for
total abstinence. He did not think that any theory
, to that effect could be maiutained, becauseour blessed
, Lord, by turning water into wine at the marriage
feast plainly indicated that to drink it in moderation
was not prohibited: but if any of them knew any one
who could not shake off the deadly incubus of intem-
perance he would say to such, " Give it up altogether,
, and join some society where you will receive min-
, tenanee and support to aid and encourage you in
; temperance." "They that are whole need not a
physician, but they that are sick. Did not our Lord
describe himself as the grand healer of all the sick-
nesses of humanity. Did he not tell them there that
besides the evils that afflicted our bodily frame there
was a more deadly one still. It was an evil that was
as wide and universal as humanity; and that was the
evil of sin. The rev. preacher then expatiated at
some length on the deadly effects of sin, and wound ,
up an eloquent discourse, by exhorting them to come
to the Lord who came to heal the soul; to apply the
remedy to root out the disease; to bring tone and
health to the sick soul.
The collection, which was for the benefit of the
wide of the dispmsary, amounted to £l2 ss.