The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-18 00:00:00

of burning coals must be adopted so as to consume
the smoke, which is offensive to the senses and in-
jurious to the lungs. Churches, chapels, theatres,
and .other public buildings, as well as crowded
dwellings, where people drink each other's breath,
and draw in disease, must be purified. The pumps
having shallow wells saturated with impurities
should, as Dr. Thomson, Dr. Lankester, and other
health officers have proposed, be suppressed, and
the water supplied by the companies should be still
further improved. The streets should be cleansed
every day ;.'for .it is evident that the cleansing
arrangements of the boards should keep pace with
the increase of traffic. and population.
"To all this work the representative metropo-
litan boards will, we may hope, anxiously address
themselves, as on their shoulders rests the respon-
sibility of improving the health of the greatest city
in the world, the metropolis of the British empire.
" When this and other work is done, much wilt
remain to be accomplished. Sanitary science is
yet in its infancy. ; it can be greatly advanced by
bringing into the field the great medical profession
of the kingdom, armed with all its science and art,
and working under the most advantageous circum-
stances. There thre more than two thousand medi-
cal men in London and its vicinity, but-they are
• employed chiefly in treating diseases. They are.
often paid only in proportion to the quantity of
medicines that their patients take. The art of
preventing disease is not cultivated ; it is not taught
in any of our medical schools ; it is not formally the
subject of examination in our universities. The
fat-her of a family does not go to the doctor and say
to him plainly, How can I preserve my health ?'
Instead of this, the common course being never to
consult or to pay the medical man until the evil is
nearly done; until consumption has set in, diphtheria
is developed in the throat, small• pox is furrowing
the skin, fever is rackinf, the brain, and then there
is a midnight rush to the great blue and red lights
burning in- the street ; or in some cases even to the
nostrums of quackery. How vainly the returns
show. The utility of curative medicine is evident
to every rational mind ; the utility of preventive
medicine is still more clear. Witness the health of
the British army in the Crimea, which Miss
Nightingale has shown experienced an annuual rate
of mortality ranging from 1,174 to 7 in 1,000 of the
force, according as the principles of preventive
medicine were disregarded or observed.
" A beginning of a movement has been made in
the right direction under Sir Benjamin Hall's Act.
Medical Health officers are appointed in all the
London districts, and many of them are working
courageously in the midst of unhealthy places, and
against ignorant opposition, with success. Their
reports are replete with interesting facts, and con-
tain many woras in season of sanitary truth, well
calculated to influence and direct the boards. They

have deserved the public approbation; for they
have done quietly a great deal of good work, and
it is probable have saved many lives, and prevented
much sickness."