The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-02-08
Preservation Of Health.

The Prevention Of Disease was aen-
yered by Dr.. GEoaeE DERBY. The subject
is important, and growing more so IS the
population. Of This country increases, ana
the populous cities become more and more
oppressed with the crowded masses OF men.
The lecturer glanced at the early history
Of medicine, the crude ideas prevailing in
former days, and the great advance that has
been snade In The discoveries Of the causes
/ of disease and the means Of preventing it.
Abiding to the early notion that death, in
whatever form, was according to the viii Of
Providence, and whether from one disease
or another, We should be thankful that 1t is
no worse, the lecturer remarked that free
will is ss applicable to the physical as the
moral man. To prove which we have only
to look at some Of the demonstrations Of
latter days to see that immunity from some
Of the most destructive diseases is withih
our power. At the present day we stand
face to face with facts showing the compare
tive duration of life in different communi-
ties, the causes Of deaths, the influences Of
soil, Of climate, Of race, Of inheritance, Of
occupation, Of contagiou, Of putridity.
TYNDALL, and JIEBIG, and HAUGHToN,
and PAsTEUR, and WYMAN, with their CO.
laborers, have shed q food Of light ON this
subject which FRANKLIN never dreamed Of.
| The discoveries Of these learned men relate
to the " conditions under which people live,
aand the diseases associated with those
conditions" SO that it may be claimed
to-day for one of the departments Of medi-
cine, public hygiene, or the medicine of the
State, that We are brought into such relations
with disease that its teachings are almost
entitled to be regarded as fixed.
The lecturer presented typhus and ty-
phoid fevers, and the connection they had
with the decomposition of organic sub
stances, as an example. One of the mo-
dern names Of this disease is "pythcgenic
fever" or fever born Of putridity this
being it's ACTUAL cause. The proneness or
disposition of some to receive the poison
does not alter the fact that without filth
the disease is not born. The revelations
in proof of this are irresistible they con-
meet the disease and oil it's kindred diseases
with uncleanness and putridity Of decom-
posing matter, and particularly the excre-
ment of the bodies of men and animals
conveyed to the human system by air and
water. .-.. ..st ass... ..r.
The plaques and pestilences Of the mid
die ages, which sometimes swept off one
third of the inhabitants, are examples of
the virulence of such diseases when people
were huddled together in great towns with
out drains, or sewers, or any provision for
the removal Of human excrement. As civil
lization has increased, and the means of
purifying and draining cities have been
improved, that unerring guide, the death
rate, has corresponded exactly with them
steadily diminishing as they were improved.
Yet, with all the advances that have been
made in this respect, much remains to be
done. The questions of sewerage--what
ought to be passed off by it and what should
be done with the fecal matter of towns 80
as best to promote health and husband the
resources for restoring fertility to cultiva-
ted soils--are just deriving fresh interest
and attracting the consideration Of the most
scientific. AS an illustration of the bene-
fetal effects Of removing putridity and of
purifying cities, the lecturer alluded to the
cleansing of New Orleans by General But
LER's orders, which prevented the annual
return of yellow fever, notwithstanding the
presence of the large army. and probably
increased population besides. This was
one good thing that BUTLER did in his life
time. Suppose Norfolk had undergone
such publication prior to the plague of 1856,
would it have been 80 destructive And
here let us ask, on the question of sewage,
whether the discharging of all the filth of
that city into the tide, ebbing and flowing at
her wharves, will not be at some day a
great source of disease Our cities have
much to learn on this subject.
The lecturer alluded to consumption as q
disease amongst the most subtle and most
difficult to trace; yet some of the condi-
tons under which it originated had been
clearly defined. Mr.. SIMON, medical officer
of the English .privy council, has estab-
lished by statistics that " in proportion as
the people of q district are attracted to
any collective indoor occupation, in such
proportion, other things being equal, the
district death-rate by lung diseases will
" be increased"
DR.. BowD1TCH, Of Boston, has discovered
in forty-fve thousand cases of death from
consumption that the mortality in some
towns was two and three times that in
others, and soil moisture was prominent
cause of the disease. Twenty-four towns
were selected, in which improved drainage
had been established, and it appeared that,
while the general death-rate had greatly
diminished, it was most strikingly evident
in the smaller number of deaths from con-
sumption. DR.. BowDITcH concludes that
the drying Of soil from laying the street
mains even has diminished the deaths
from, consumption. Then exposure to the
open air, wood fires, and active life, are as
well preventive as curative of consumption.
If Of two families inheriting consumption
one takes to making shoes in an ill-venti-
lated shop, and the other goes a-lumbering
in Wisconsin, the latter will live the long
est. This was not believed in old times,