The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-07-08
AN EPIDEMIC INVITED.


If our authorities were to invite DR.. |
Blackburn, or some other miscreant, to
import yellow fever from the tropics, or
the plague from Russia, they could not
more surely bring disaster upon us In the
shape of disease and death, than they
are now doing by their criminal inaction
and willful neglect in attending to the
sanitary condition and cleanliness of the
city. Go where you may in the hidden
recesses of dark lanes and by-ways pen
citrate, whereverthe fouleff1uvia permits
you, into the "homes" (God save the
mark! of the miserable--the haunts of
squalid poverty or Of vice-the same OBJ
ject meets your eyes, and makesits pres
snce tangible to almost every sense
filth, filth, filth, everywhere filth; and
no apparent remedy for it. The city Of
Norfolk is a whited sepulchre; Main
street may be taken as an example-all is
fair and beautiful uponthe surface, while
all within is corruption and dead mems
bones. ~
Medical science, as we'll as the expert.
snce of all men, tells us that these fes-
tering plague spots that infect the at
mosphere with deadly malaria, stirred
to action by the summer SUMS warm
rays, and waited by the winds over the
land, are the fruitful causes of disease
and epidemic. Wherever an epidemic
has spung up in one of our cities Its
origin has been traced to the poorest and
filthiest portions, and the mostwretched
class of the community. Born amid
scenes Of filth and misery, nourished by
fostering corruption, 1t is perforce the
child of its parents and does full credit
to Its nursing. There is no instan .e re-
corded where an epidemic has commence
ed among the better classes of COM
munity, or made it's appearance in the
cleansed quarters, where domestic as
well us public cleanliness is preserved
Plaques always begin their ravages in
the filthy districts, and their first victims
are the poor and neglected inhabitants
Of these localities. But they do notlong
confine their deadly influences within
these limits; for, breaking through the
weak barriers that divide the poor from
the rich, they soon strike where wealth.
nor skill, nor power can save even the
prince, but levels him with the beppar.
AS speck of rottenn ess in an apple. If
left therein, will soon rot the whole apple
and that apple spread corruption through
an entire heap, so will one of these fes-
tering cess-pools of corruption, these
breeders of disease and rottenness in
city, infect an entire community, If not
removed in time. Therefore, If our citi-
gems would avoid the dangers of epidem-
ic, or disease, and Its attending horrors,
let them at once apply the remedy. II
they would escape the effects they must
remove the causes. 4
We call upon our authorities, whoever
they may be, military or civil, or civico.
military, to come to the rescue at once,
There is no time to be lost, and no half
wav measures will answer the purpose.
Let there be thorough inspection of all
the places in the city where disease il
likely to originate. There should not be
back. yard, a kitchen, howell, a street,
lane, alley or dock in any portion OF the
city left unexamined or unexplorsd.
Those appointed for this duty should be
persons of intelligence, and men who
are not afraid to take the responsibility;
and partieswho are found to have FL
thy premises should be forced to cleanse
them, even though they prefer to follow
their own swimish propensities and
wallow in filth. Those that are not
able to haul of, burn or otherwise des.
troy the cherished filth they are 80 fond
Of hugging to their bosoms, can be as
sisted in these duties by the authorities,
who should have sufficient number of
carts and laborers employed for that
purpose. This part of the work per-
formed, the streets and alleys should be
cleaned and kept clean, and the docks
and wharves carefully attended to, 10
order that no rotten fruit, dead carcases
ar otherfilth should be allowed to collect
there. for it was near these docks par
ftcularly that at the foot OF Commerce
street. the yellow fever originated IN
1s2l, and again In 1855, though these nc"