Semi-weekly Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1871-1872, 1871-09-21
THE STUDY OF HYGIENE.

the art Of preserving health, which
is founded upon common sense and
the obvious distases Of experience;
it is also to be regarded a. . sGsnoe
which consists Of q knowledfs d
the conditions Of health and tha
causes of disease. Art is an affair
OF rules for the guidance Of practice;
science goes step further back-it
establishes the principles which un-
derlie and shape the rules, and make
action intelligent and effective. Art
being older than science. and grow
ing out of mems earlier and ruder
strivings, historic hygiene will be
the record of the first attempts Of
individuals and communities to
carry out sanitary regulations. As
an art, hygiene was carried to a
high pitch by various of the older
nations! The Jewish economy en-
bodied many careful and wise d.
rections for guarding the health.
at is to the strict observance OF
these sanitary regulations that one
of the best known writers on hv-
giene of the present day, NJ. Michel
Levy, does not hesitate to ascribe
the singular immunity of the Jew
ish race in the midst of fearfully
fatal ep;demics; which immunity was
30 marked in the Middle Ages that
it brought upon them accusations
the most absurd, prosecutions the
most atrocious. Again, the water
supply of Rome afforded an aston
ishing complication of hygienic
value attached to that agent, and of
the resources by which it was made
available Oh an immense scale by
the Roman people. Frontinus, writ
ing A. ID. 80, informs us there were
nine large aqueducts by which wa
ter was brought into Rome, besides
some smaller channels. These aque-
ducts, several of which were covered,
were OF great length, one being AZ,
one 40, and another SO miles long.
Frontinus, who was controller of
the aqueducts, gives the measure
ments of their carrying capacity,
which has been computed to be
equal to stream twenty feet wide
by six feet deep, at fall six times
as rapid as that of the river Thames.
The supply appears to have been
equivalent to more than 1872, OOO, 900
gallons per day, or assuming Rome
to have contained million of in
habitants it was 1872 gallons per
head per day; certainly a luxurious
allowance Of this important element.
The drainage system of Rome was
correspondingly extensive. This
was truly grand, and the ancients
are entitled to large credit for re-
ducing the little knowledge they had
upon hygienic subjects to efficient
practice.
But in becoming science in mo-
dern times hygiene was greatly Wild
ened in scope and multiplied in its
protective resources, for with the
increasing knowledge of nature
came a better understanding of the
causes of disease and increasing
power of prevention. Men do I'M
doubtedly live in ignorance of the
laws of life, but that is only a frac-
ton of the truth of the case; the
fatal half of it is that they also die
from ignorance. Hygiene is there
fore an affair of knowledge, and of
knowledge so familiar that it be-
comes an unconscious guide of the
conduct. 1t is the high claim of
scientific education that, if proper
ly organized, a knowledge of the
conditions of health and of the |
causes of disease will be its neces-
sary outcome. DIR. Corield, Pro-
fessor of Hygiene in University
Col lege, London, in a late address
thus sums up the subjects which
must be understood for the efficient
prevention of disease: "To this end
we must study all the agents of
whatever kind which modify the
health of man. We must study
man himself as regards his consti-
tuition, age, scx, habits, professions,
etc. And again we must study all
the notifications of the conditions
in which man is placed, all altera-
tions of the medium in which he
lives, all the effects of various soils,