The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-03-27
Preventable Disease.

the truth-that In Great Britain LOG, 600 /
deaths annually can be traced to zymo-
tic diseases and epidemics, generated or
propagated distinctly by foul air, de-
fective water, and pernicious food, to
filth, noxious gases and the Iil1e,-all Of |
which originators and agencies might |
be extinguished or neutralized by |
prompt and energetic obedience to we'll |
known sanitary laws It is needless to |
60 into any details on so threadbare a
topic. 1t is certain, and viii not be dc
MED, that, for example, TO take London |
alone, if unwholescme over-crowding
were prevented by an adequate supply |
of dwellings for the poor; and If all |
these dwellings, were well drained and |
ventilated, and furnished with an ample |
supply Of good water, not only might !
pestilences and epidemics be almost !
certainly exterminated, but a number
of other evils, now acting and reacting
on each other, would be eliminated or
enormously mitigated First of all,
the craving for strong drink, 80 con-
stantly created and stimulated almost |
into a passion by breathing fetid air,
would be removed, and thus the intern |
peranee arising from that cause would |
be cured, and the destitution, brutality, |
crime and sickness thence arising would !
be subtracted from the sum Of human |
suffering. Next, that further amount |
of drinking which is incidental to the
habit among working-men of frequent
ing public houses, because their own
houses offer them no comfortable,
warm, cheerful room to sit in, would |
be minimized, and few know for how
much drunkenness this cause is indi- |
rectly and in its Origin answerable. |
Then, again, with the universal estab-
lishment of wholesome and decent |
dwellings for the poor, we should es-
cape, not only the 10000 or 80, 900 pre-
mature deaths caused by the want of |
such, and the Slapped health and |
strength of thousands more, but the |
restitution, misery, and insufficient |
nourishment of countless families where |
preventable maladies have swept away |
the bread-winner, and, in consequence
and in addition, at least one-half the |
pauPerism, which is eating like a gan
CREME into the moral and material we'll |
being of the country. For-and this is |
the encouraging feature of this matter |
amendment and reform in one point |
brings amendment and progress in all !
others. You cannot improve dwellings
without, pro tanto, lessening intemper-
Ance and vice; you caunot diminish |
drunkenness without diminishing pau
perism and brutality, disease and death;
you cannot give people comfortable |
houses, sobriety, health, education,
virtually if not actually increased |
wages, and raised moral feeling, inevi-
tably and by a thousand indirect chan
nels, advancing also, and aiding the
good work in modes as yet undreamed
of. Every valuable influence put in op-
Grafton is potent ally of every other.
Look for moment at the perverse
course we have hitherto pursued how
we have fostered all our social maladies
as it were with n sort of cooperative
zeal. For generations we have seen
that most ominous of all symptoms,
that most dangerous if most natural OF
of oil tendencies in productive and adj
vancing country, the concentration of
the population into great towns, with
out-we do not say any attempt to con-
troll or counterfeit it, but--any effort, or
any adequate effort, TO provide for it.
or forestall its consequences. We have
scarcely dreamed of the necessity for |
expanding our social garments as our
social body has grown beneath them. |
The same municipal government-or
rather the same municipal makeshifts
and neglect-which suficed for the vii
lage or the country town, we have fan
cied would answer for the vast manu-
featuring hive. The same drainage sys-
tenn, the same sort Of water supply. the
same hap-hazard mode of multiplying
buildings which did for town of 5000
inhabitants, have been applied 10 the /
same town grown TO $4,000. Look at
London, which needed more care, skill.
science, administrative wisdom. than |
any other city, and as the seat of wealth.
rank, and the central government might |
have been expected to receive more. and !
considering its oontrivances for obtain
ing gas, water, drainage; look at its |
rookeries and its alleys its squalid |
dens its mingled luxury and destitu- |
ton; its no government its provision |
for Ere, and against fire.-W. r. Grev.
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EACH IN ALn.-Man longs TO live in
the life OF humanity Who does not
know how even ordinary men are inter
ested in fellow-creatures and events.
far beyond the boundaries of their par
ticular community; how their sympa-
thies, aspirations and hopes extend to
and embrace whatever man is doing and |
suffering over the face of the whole
earth How do they become parties
to conflicts of another hemisphere. con-
federates in heart with distant nations
in their struggles and sacrifices, and
glad witnesses of the progress of free
dom and civilization throughout the
world How the daily newspapers are
devoured by thousands and millions of
readers, not for selfish ends of gain or
to discover channels through which |
they may pursue profitable enterprises,
but simply from sympathy with men of |
every kindred and name, aud anxiety
TO learn the fortunes and fate of human
nature, throughout the vast movements
of mankind This same interest in the
whole human race gives popularity to
books of travel, whereby many, who |
have trodden no soil but their natal one.
n spirit circumnavigate the globe, and
establish friendly and fraternal ac-
quaintanoe with the inhabitants alike |
Of the tropics and the poles. The
dovout man worships with new zeal,
when he feels that innumerable kindred |
souls are made one with his, in the love |
OF the q Onn God n,,H Enll,nr e III |