New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-07-17
PUBLIC HEALTH.

/
The ordinance recently adopted BY the
Board Of Health comes up before the council
tonight We cannot permit ourselves to
doubt that it viii be adopted. Of course it
would be superfuous to argue the propriety Of
availing ourselves Of such hygienic measures
as may be suggested BY science and experience
Tor the preservation Of the public health. At
this day discussion on that point would be
entirely out Of place. The time, fortunately.
has passed away, when men regarded the evil
consequences oftheir own ignorance and neg
lset as the manifestations Of divine wrath, and
deemed an attempt to avert impending mis-
fortune q querulous opposition to the DEGREES
OF Providence Cities, to be sure, are nowhere
as clean as they ought to be; but We
are no longer left in doubt as to
the benefits of cleanliness, In this respect
vast Improvements have been effected during
the last fifty years ! and the marked extension
OF the term Of human life IN highly civilized
countries shows that much can be achieved
by q rigid enforcement of hygienic laws. 50
far as those laws are known to Us. If we
cannot IN this way avert disease, We can al
least mitigate It's raYages. If we cannot STAY
the destructive touch Of the endemic. Va
can ct least rob it Of half its terrors. IF We
cannot extend human life to the patriarcbel
we can at least increase its Term
beyoaad that Of the traditional thirty years
which, not very long ago were assignedas The
duration Of a generation. The search for
the elixir. Of life was vain and futile If |
ls true but the elixir which br;nos I
length Of days and health to III. 1
mainly IS within our grasp. 1t is Moth.
ing more nor less than cleanliness nue.
much we know that clean streets ANA
clean dwellings are the ingariable eoneo,.i-
ANTS Of low bills OF mortality, and tbat eltb,
itreets and filthy dwellings, are the insenars
'ble companions of disease and death. Il ID /
rue that our investigations have not VET
nahled us to ascertain the remote causes oil
isease more especially of those epidemics
rhieh at intervals Jseouge humanity but We
9 know that the intensity Of all epidemics q +
aggravated by neglect of hygienic precautions.
We known moreover that wherever filth
bounds disease prevails, and that typhus,
eholera, and other epidemic dis
asses grow milder in @efr form Just as they
g eoiapates by the enforcement Of clean
Z Me 40 not Eaean by these remarks to imply
nay a tlere mas been culpable indifference il
ms respect IN New Orleans. what Ne do j
mean as' that the system heretofore in use has :
'eeessaally FILLED Of its intended effect IA !.
ause It's effective application depended sc a. Ii,
fst instance, on the efforts OF persons I'M i
ld not possess the leisure for the task ana \
ld not kno@ the extent Of their antboFity J,
: long as the enforcement of sanitary reonlo !,
ehsls left entirely to them, we cannot expost !,
iat anything edectual viii be accomplished z z
ne ordinance drawn up by the Board Of Heath =
'Ateap plates q remedy for this defect The Il
tails Of the ordinance are, for the most part Il
pied from existing ordinances but several y
ditiopal provisions have been added, and M i,