New-York tribune., 1872-07-06
DFATU IND THE SUN.

Now that the sun has sent in his quota OIL
dead this week, il is worth while to see Wnere
any fight could have been made against hlm'
Epidemic or contagion we can ward OIL, Dut
what street-cleaning OF vaccination will avail
against the SUM- From three days to ten in
each Summer the most blessed of Gods gifts
becomes curse in the cities, where 1t Is
impossible for that class which is most sus-
ceptible to its attacks to escape from IL 10
shelter Several scientific statements were
published last month, expecting the cause,
prevention, and cure of sunstroke, contra
dictory as to theories, it is true, but all con-
tanning an excellent basis of practical advice
In many cases of accidental exposure to the
clear, inexorable heat which has scourged us
during this week, or when previous exhaustion
had resulted from Incorporate habits, extreme
old age, or feeble health, death was perhaps
unavoidable But in every other instance 1t
resulted from culpable carelessness.
1t is not the lazy or rank -blooded man who
is so often struck down, as the worklDgman
ignorant of ordinary precautions, or the stu
dent or excited business man, whose BRAIN
is already on fire and whose nervous system Is
prostrated by overwOrk. Our ordinary muir
derous high-pressure system shows its nature
nowhere as in the records of last weeks NOR
tality. Directions for care in exposure, dress
and diet are well enough in their place !;
but why should we invite death at every mo-
ment of our adult lives to give him this cold
shoulder at the last7 The proportion OF chill
dren among those stricken down by the heat
this week was appalling. Yet the heat was
Al. 20 fharo h0rp and lived
to tell us of; and it is quite true that the
children carried about with them neither
exhaustng cares in mind nor too hardly
worked bodies; but they had nothing TO
oppose to the fiery test but the hac-
cid limbs and rasped nerves bequeathed to
him by either liquor drinking ancestors or
those who made the stimulant of energy and
overwork take the place of liquor The more
highly placed by blood or breeding is the
child, the more likely is it as man to run
the same suicidal cOurse-tO throw all the
vital energy which should have lasted and
lent a feeble glimmer to well-presefyed old
age into the swift electric flash of the first
years of manhood.
If any man chooses to count the cost and
make his choice the results of the sum are his
receipts, not ours. 1t is his own account-Dook
he is making up for final inspection We only
wish to show where the broken spot in his
armor of health is into which every disease
goes in and finds welcome, and through which
by even the SUMS rays Death gains admls-
sion as into wells mouth. We see a
friendly old Quaker go about between
the burning plane overhead and the burn
;o,. br;ol,o balow Partly 1vmnhatic easy-
going, moderate in his opinions as his success,
and the sun grows cool on his thick drab cloth,
and barely warns him, while his lean black
a-visGd neighbor, who has recklessly exhausted
his vitality by the keen business contests of
this maddening center, clothes his feshless
limbs in linen and fills his hat with wet hand
ker-chiefs and falls dead before he reaches
his own doorway. There is no sham-hater
like the sun, and no sham meets less mercy
from it than sham cures.