The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-10-21

msnt with his meals; but you never saw |
man with dirty face who would not great. |
ly prefer some poisonous and ill-tasted com.
pound. At the tables of the upper classes
you find the water karaf most in demand;
at those Of the lower classes the beer-iug.
The quality of the beer is Of no conse-
quence. We never knew il so freely drank
in our own neighborhood as at time (some
twenty years ago. when the sole effect Of
the worthy brewers manufacture was de-
clared to be to spoil The ,oater. Even
amongst the abstainers from these deleteri-
Gus liquors, there are many who must still
have their water disguised; hence their ex-
tensive patronage of lemonade, ginger-beer,
and other weak though comparatively in
nocuous mixtures, The whole affair re-
minds us Of literary work published in
London nearly twenty years ego. by Bond
Street hair-dresser, which gave a sort OF
catalogue resume of the various materials
used for lathering the beard-all except
one; for the magnanimous barber scorned
to mention-soap.
The connection between the worst symp-
toms Of the two kinds Of hydrophobia we
have described needs little illustration. The
diItier an individual is in his person, family,
house, neighborhood, the more pestilent are
the expedienls he falls upon for Disgusting
the taste Of the abhorred water. In other
words. the progress Of the disease is natu-
| rally exhibited in the intensity Of its symp-
toms. A man of sublime cleanliness may
be found drinking pure water; with little
faint Of human weakness one may indulge,
likewise, but only occasionally, and in
moderation, in beer, ale, wine, or even
stronger brewingS while your true hydro
phoblst-a dingy, vulg gar desperate, whom
the very children on the street know and
detect even when he happens to be sober
Supplies himself habitually with the worst
form of alcohol. Does it not appear that
there is an Just distinction made in our
treatment Of human and canine patients?
We do not propose that the former should
be booted and hunted like the latter out oil
society, Or that they should be mauled with
sticks and stones, or shot, poisoned, hanged,
or drowned. They might not like it. Ii
might cause some discomfort. 1t would per.
haps be better to let it alone, and try to
manage some other way. But what Other
way! How would pump answer a. the
end of every street, to be worked by the 20.
lice! A passer-by, caught in the fact oil
Ihydrophoba, whether the dirty or drunken
form of the disease, might be bounced upon
and put under the spout, when the remedy
administered might be proportioned to the
intensity of tiA malady. To say that thi.
would be an Infringement OF the liberty Of
the subject is nonsense; for If society ha.
not the right to repress contagious disease
by any means in its power, we might a.
well lay aside the habits Of civilisation a
once, and betake ourselves again to woodl
and caves. Peter the Great was the ables
doctor in the world, and it wosld not b,
amiss if we were to take a lesson from h
school. The grand obstacle in the way O
: bis project for civilising Russia was tn,
boards of the mobiles. To expect 10 teacl
European refinement to a man with great
matted, beastly beard, was out of the oues
ton; and he uied by every Delilahlik,
suatagem he could think 0f TO shear off th,
strength of barbarism. All would not do
and Peter had then recourse to a coup d.
etdt. He sent against the malconle no
an army OF BARRIERS, who rushed in upor
them in their native woods, shaved tho
boards by main force,
And dragged the struggling savases into day
II
That some such plan as this may in time be
tried, seems probable from the fact, that the
slsier-malady, Ignorance, is already treated
by compulsory remedies When a dirty
little ragged boy is seen on the streets in
some of our more civilised towns, he is
picked up by the authorizes and sent to
school. He should in like manner be sent
to the pump; and this, you may depend up.
on it, would be great assistance in his ed.
ucation. When offenders are locked up in
Jail: the first process they have to submit to
is that of being well washed and scrubbed.
This is all very proper; but surely il is an
an absurdity to show greater solicitude for
the health Of jails than for the health of
dwelling houses. Ii the men had been
washed in time, we question much whether
they would have become felons at ALL
Chambers Journal,