Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1860-03-24
THE PHILOSOPHY OF SINKS.

A late number Of the London Saturday Re-
view, has an article under the caption Of the
Philosophy of stinks, which contains some
valubie information respecting this very unat-
tractive subject. We know well enough that
some of our most delicious perfumes are alb
stracted from the most noXious materials, but
that the odors arising from the decomposition
of animal and vegetable substances are not in
themselves injurious to health, is something
new under the sun. According to latest, and
from all appearance, very extensive and elab-
crate experiments, this axiom is laid down as
absolute, Wis, that stinks, although very un-
pleasant to the nostrils, are rather good than
bad for the public health. Here are glad IL
dings to all lazy gutter commissioners, grave
ward inspectors, and sanatory regulators of cit
les which will do them good TO hear. But let
US see how the case is made out.
Dr. Parker, in a work on the "causalion and
prevention of disease" declares that neither
cholera nor fever are produced by the decay Of
organic matter; and the Review writer takes
the Doctors facts as he finds them, and startles
us with the conclusion to which We have already
referred. Here are some of the experiments
which are offered in proof of the theory.
"Majende arranged a cask in such way that
the bottom would hold putrid substances
whilst animals were placed on a grating with
a double bottom, exposed to the emanations
which constantly escaped. Rabbits, guinea pigs
and pigeons were left thus for month, but did
not experience any ill result. Dogs on the
contrary, began to lose flesh on the fourth day
and although they preserved their gaiety and
appetite, died at the end of ten or fifteen days.
But the dogs showed none of the symptoms of
poison-thcy showed none of the symptoms
observed in dogs into whose veins putrid mat
tiers had been injected. Their death was obyi-
ously caused by imperfect respiration. Rabbits
and guinea pigs require less oxygen in a given
atmosphere than dogs, by reason of their small
er size. But that exhalations from decaying
matters are not injurious when respiration is
unimpeded, seems evident from the experience
of leather dressers, knackers, butchers and 9TH
crs DIR. Twecde says, Though every descrip-
ton of mechanic was at some period or other
admitted into the Fever Hospital, do not rec
ollect single instance of butcher being sent
to the establishment
With respect to graveyard exhaations, which
for years have been regarded as centres of
pestilence and fever, it is urged that at Bridge
Town, Barbados, 5000 bodies were buried in
six weeks in space of two acres, yet neither
fever nor any other disease attacked the inhab-
itants afterwards. The same remark applies to
nearly all the large towns in the West Indies,
in consequence of the practice of burying chol-
era victims in ore spot. In the burial grounds
near Seville, 10000 bodies had been recently
inferred, when, in 1900, the French Govern
ment sent Commission to enquire into the
causes of yellow fever; and although a fetid
odor was exhaled from the decomposing bodies,
no i'll result followed to the thousands of the
inhabitants who went daily to visit the graves
of their relatives and friends. And what shall
we say to the Cemetery of the Innocents at
Paris? In the course of thirty years, 90, 900
bodies have been buried there by one grave
digger, and it was calculated that. more than
100000 bodies had been buried there during
the six previous centuries. In a space not eX-
ceeding two acres, it had been the custom to
bury the bodies of the poor in common pits,
and they were placed so close to each other as
to be only separated by planks of six lines each.
These pits were twenty feet wide and twenty
feet deep, and each contained 1000 to 1,5O0
bodies 1t is difficult to understand how Paris
escaped from continuous attacks of cholera, and
how the gravedigger managed to breathe this
atmosphere during thry years, if graveyard
exhalations are the fatal poisons they are de-
clared to be.
Here we are then in a regular "fx," and our
Sanatory Commissioners may take up their
beds and walk and leave graveyards and sew
ers and shambles to remain masters of the
ground.