New-York daily tribune., 1854-09-07
THE MORAL or THE CHOLERA.

We listened, not many Sundays since, 10 one OF
our most eloquent and popular preachers, re-
Gently returned from pleasant sojOurn in the
country, who discOursed of the moral lessons
taught by the cholera. His principal topic was
that these vistations OF disease like the casmites
of a short harvest and pecunia-y distress were
the marks of Gods dspleasure at the vices aud
sins of the community They were an evidence
that the nation had been doing wrong and that
the time had come for it to repent of its avidty
for gain, its political corruption its Slavery prop
agandism, and its private icentiOusness and ex-
travagaDce.
The leading principle of the discourse we
could readily admit namely that nations like indi
yiduals which indulge themselves in the cOmmis
sion Of crime, must suffer the consequences OF
their conduct; but in what way the cholera was
connected with either of the great national sins
to which he referred, we could not discern. On
the contrary, that epidemic seemed to us clearly
related to quite another order Of negligence and
misdeeds. 1t is not slavery, nor the lust of gain
in general nor the prodigality of the rich that it
came specially 10 punish, but the thorough and
persistent disregard of society for the means of
public health.
The medical faculty has specuated not little
on the causes and characteristics Of this frghtfu
disease, but thus far with no remarkable success.
Scarcely a single conclusion has been arrived at
in regard to it which lay claim to the title of
a settled principle. 1t has been said by some
that it prevailed chiefly in limestone localities;
yet there are large districts of this class, as
Berkshire Valley for instance, in Massachu-
setts, where it has never appeared. Others
have argued that the use of rain water
is prophylactic, but experience at the
West has proved that the drinkers of rain
water are as liable to attack as the drinkers
of spring water. As TO the remedies prescribed
for it, their name is legion; and yet il seems that
the proportion of deathsto cases whether treated
by these remedies or not treated at all is pretty
much the same.
There is however, one exception to this al
most universal Know. .NOthngism-one fact which
stands out prominently in the whole rec orded or
remembered experiences of the scOurge. 1t is
this that persons in good circumstances, who
occupy large houses, who eat good food, who live
cesnly-in short who possess the means and ap-
plances of comfort, are more exempt than the
poorer classes 1t is in the filthy localities
among the crowded tenements, ill-yentilated
rooms, spare kitchens, that the cholera riots. 1t
is there too, that the fever-vapors curl and blast
and death in a hundred other forms resps its har
vests. 1t is hayd that the poor in addition to
their numerous other trials, should be the pecu-
liar victims of the plague, but so it is. Even
when they are upright, temperate, neat and care
full themselves, they are afflicted through the
reighbori Gods which they are compelled to in
habit. An atmosphere Of danger enyelOps them
like the ring of some foul magician. They can
not run away TO the country-they cannot pur-
chase the wholesome things only of the market
they cannot call in the assistance OF the most
skillfnl pAysicians-they cannot rest from eI-
bsustipg toll at the slightest approach of the in
vsder.
Now IL this is the fact and if epidemics
are sent as OUT preacher contended. as punish
ment of the vices for society, ii must be the specific
vices in which they originate that are aimed at,
ard not vices in general. Itis this dirt, this IN
cleanliness, this crowded dwelling place, this
mean subsistence, which Providence condemns,
end not any remote and vague and general
offenses. But who are responsible for these
Not the poor man who suffers, nor his family
They would be glad to live in better quarters and
on better food, if they could. Not one of them,
unbesotted BY habits Of drink, we venture to say.
would refuse fine house in the Avenue ii it were
rendered him; not one would cA.t away good
milk. or sound meat and fresh vegetables and
bath night and morning if they could be obtained.