Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-10-09

Like drops OF dew, which the wings OF SER
apis scatte pearls and gems cleaning
ever with a eady light-stars in the night
of life which may guide us home to Heaven.
From the London Times.
MORTALITY IN THE U. STATES.
The. Americans were, perhaps, the most
express, if not the most efficient, in the ac-.
knowledgment of the need and the duty Of
sanitary rule. We all know what the na-
tional complacency and expectation are ia
the United States; and we may conceive the
effect of sudden awakening to the idea
that the rapid decline Of the general health
threatened to annihilate the future Of their
country The first great stir look place o.
bout tweuty-three years ago. The cxtraor.
diuary mortality from consumption, the dif.
iculty of rearing children, the early decline
of their women, and the rarity of old age
among them, first fixed their attention, and
then appalled, the imagiuations of those who
studied the facts. doctor, said an, eminent
clergyman to the family physician oncday,
'look at that girls tongue pointing to his
little daughter. 'Ah, yes observed the
doctor, 'it is like the most of the tongues
l see.' And he declared that white tongues
were to clean as 10 to l. Being further
questioned, he showed that in that country
uufavorable influences were concentrated in,
remarkable manner, and met BY no ade-
quate sense and prudence. TWAS true, and
everybody began to see it about the same
time, that the country was raw, and subject
to the defects Of climate caused by recent
settlement and clearance; thatfr the same
newness, there were not the provisions of an
old country for outdoor exercise and amuse-
mcnt; that the paucity Of native people
caused over-work and ovcr.exeitement, and
frequent intermarriage of blood relations,
while immigration brought in the vices and
maladics of low class Of foreigners; .hat
imitation of supposed European manners was
as pcrnicious to the health of the rich as the
beer boozing of the Germans and the whis.
key drinking of the Irish were to that Of
the working class; and that above all, the
absence of the quietude of an organic state
of society-the perpetual fluctuations of q
protracted critical social condition-were in
an alarming degree unfavorable to the gen.
eral health Of body and mind. It was dis.
covered that in Europe it is nowhere COM
mon thing for parents Of large families be
left childless in middle age, nor for physi-
clans to say that all parents must expect to
lose so many children out of SO many. Il
was discovered that each generation was
Trailer than the last; and citizens began to
ask one another what would be the state of
things in two centuries hence. The results
of the alarm presently showed themselves
The temperance movement was one; audsno
one can wonder at any amount of liquor law
legislation who has witnessed the amount Of
drinking which has become habitual amidst
the excitements of American life. To us it
appears that enacting liquor laws which must
be either anomalous in republic or imprac.
ticable, or both, is beginning at the wrong
end; and that it would answer best to work
against the causes of the vicioust thirst; but
still, nobody who has seen the particular
social condition can wonder at the effort
A general convention to consider tic public
health was another result; aud it occasioned
plentiful denunciation of the unwholcsouc
diet and hours, the hurry, the oVerwork aud
worldly anxiety of the citizens of the fer
vent and busy new republic. Absurd dress
among the fashiouables, exposure in winter
sleighipg, and over heating in unyentilated
houses, and, in regard to young men, the
excess of tobacco chewing, then Gas we fear.
still) the prevalent practice-all these bad
methods, and many more, we're reprehended,
and with some effect Since that time there
has been no knowledge or device in medical
practice, no quackery or wild Imagination,
which has not been eagerly grasped at in the
United States, as an escape from the threat
ened doom. Some of these which imply
practices of temperance, cleanliness, bodily
exercise, mental repose, and repudiation Of
druggiug have wrought so we'll as really to
improve the prospects Of the community;
aud new hope is now opened by really
effective movement for the improvement Of
dress, in sanitary view. For this curious
subject we have at present no space, We
can only point out that the duty which in
the United States is go sorely needed and so
clearly perceived is needed among all civil
lied peoples, and ought to be undertaken by
the general conscience. Great advances
have been made in England and France Of
late in sanitary precautiou and supervision.
The work would 60 on with something like
due activity and consistency if the medical
profession of all countries would unite their
knowledge and experience in opposition to
those chronic and departmental maladies and
evil conditions which are perpetually more
fatal, physically and morally, than the pest
of the Dobrudcha or the slaughter in the
Crimea.
Il