The mountain Democrat., 1864-11-26
Cleanliness ana Health.

That most startling results accrue,
among the lower classes especially, from
q due attention to matters likely to affect
| heslth-i 10 anpAreUt Ia the very. low mot.
taIity-rate or ette puuper schools placed
under proper management In the Cen
tral London district pauper school at Han
well, the late Mr.. Aubin succeeded in re.
ducing the rate to less than two per cent,
notwithstan andiDg that the scholars were
taken from the very heart of london,
many Of them being aIfstarved, stunted,
scrofulous, and suffering from ringwOrm
and opthalmia. 1t cannot be too widely
spread abroad, that the secret of this clev-
er and philanthropic uperintendent's rule
consisted in the practice and maintain
ance of extraordinary cleanliness. The
eight hundred or nine hundred children
placed under his care were we'll washed
all over in warm water twice week, as
well as down to their waists twice day !;
and the younger children we're washed af
ter every meal. Directly a garment was
soiled it was changed, although, perhaps,
it had only been worn a few minutes; and
in the regular way, every elder boy was
allowed three clean shirts weekly. The
sheets of every bed, too, we're changed
weekly, and oftener when required The
profusion Of clean linen caused as many
as fifteen thousand pieces to be washed
weekly. But the systzm worked won
ders. Instead OF hundred little graves
being made in the graveyard yearly, the
sexton was not called upon to dig many
more than dozen. Far finer children in
country warehouses furnish death rate
of twelve per cent. But this unpromising
selection, with this management, yielded
a smaller death rate than the wealthiest
com nunities in the land.
Thus it will be seen that the secret of
the preservation of the health lies in one
ord--cleanliness. This quality, long
and worthily held next to godliness, must
be applied in its widest sense, and be un-
derstood to mean cleanliness in our houses,
our streets, and our towns, as we'll as in
our food, linen, and persons. Air, earth
and water must be kept sweet and clear +;
and even our fires are not exempt from
influences upon health. for we may burn
substances that emit unwholesome odors.
Sanitary reform, therefore, resolves itself
into an old, old story. The patriarch ia.
cob gave the pith Of it when he CON-
manded his household to abe clean and
change their garments" and Moses only
enlarged the same command when he de.
clared that, if household should be un-
clean, the priest should look upon it, and
cause it to be thoroughly scraped aud
clcansed and, should signs Of uncleanli-
ness again present themselves, it should
be taken down--stoncs, timber, and NOR
tar, and these materials cast out of the
city upon an uncean place and in the
minute directions he issued respecting re-
peated ablutions. 1t will not be of much
use to tell the story, even with its Assy.
rian associations, to grown up people
they know it already, but habit is second
nature, and It is difficult for them tc
change their ways. Those to whom san
tary reform must be preached, are schoo
children. They should be taught, if We
are dirty, we shall become diseased; if We
sin, we shall suffer, as certainly as twice
two are four, and twice four eight. 1t is
in the minds of little children that we
should SOW this Seed Chambers Jour
nal.