Wilmington daily commercial., 1873-02-05
LsTreRs FReaa rNg PEoPLE.
BONE MILLS AND soAP FAcromEs vs. HEALTH AND
HAPPINESS.

BONE MILLS AND SOAP FACTORIES vs. HEALTH AND
HAPPINESS.
To tie Editor Of De Commercial:
Not many of your readers will deny that our
capacity for enjoyment or achievement, is largely
dependent upon our Health condition. Health
and the consequent capacity to enjoy and Achisve
are normal and desirable, while diseaSe. with lie
concomitants, pain and impotency, are abnormal
and hateful.
Health is the natural result Of obedience to
physiological law, and disease IS surely follows
disobedience hence each individual is mainly
responsible for his or her condition OF health.
Natures laws are immutable and neither igno-
rant apathetic nor wilful transgression, can es-
cape the penalty attached thereto.
Those Of your readers, MIR. Editor, who are
willing to accept the above propositions As true,
and who desire to be neither wilful nor careless
transgressors of the lAws OF life, will doubtless
be anxious to escape the results Of untriiling
violations Of the same laws.
No person or persons have any moral right
nor should they have any legal icense-whether
in the pursuit OF pleasure or profit, 10 interfere
with or jeopariize the rights, health and happi-
ness OF any other individual or community Of
individuals.
However enlightened we may be as to the laws
OF Hygiene and earnest in our desire to be in obe-
dIence thereto, it is impossible for us to do so
in this city. Men pun vile tobacco smoke in our
facea on the street, and yitiate the atmosphere
in our places of public assembly by the foul ex-
cretions from their slcholized aud narcotzed
bodies
This evil, terrible as it is, is, however only
incidental to my present thought. l wish to
protest in the name of Hygiene, and in behalf
of those who value her teachings, against the
continuance in our midst Of those psstilentiAl
nuisAnces Bone Mills and Soap Factories. The
noxious gases and fetid vapors which almost
continually arise from these plague spots, not
only annoy and disgust our citizens, but every
int EFnt hat fNnN fful
causes Of disease.
They are inflicted upon us against the general
protest OF our citizens and in direct opposition
Of the best interests of our city. Whatever pro-
ht accrues TO the proprietors of these nuisances
from their business, ts utterly insignificant, as
compared to the annoyance and disease which
they cause. Moreover they depreciate the value
Of property in all parts Of our city. Were
stranger visiting Wilmington sthis
morning with the intention OF seeking home
for himself and family, and business in which
to invest his capital, would the foul stencil that
to-day ill the atmosphere of all the Northwestern
portion of the city, even far out the avenue. be
an inducement for him to decide in our favor
Would he not leave us in disgust when he learned
that we had submitted for years to breath such
8 contaminated atmosphere, every time south
erly wind plays over the sources Of the foulness
and bears it into our very houses night and day?
But these gentlemen andtheir friends say that
these industries form an important part OF Jour
manufacturing interest that capital has been
invested in the same. and that its investment
has added to the general prosperity Of our city
that it would be bad faith to now interfere
with them. In reply, 1 again urge that they have
no right to interfere with the health and comfort
of the many that the best interests of the ma
jority must take precedence in q question Of this
kind, and especially where the health Of our
citizens-the very basis of our prosperity-is in
yolved.
II health is q natural right and necessary to
happiness and achievement, certainly, this COM
munity has the moral aud legal power TO secure
to themselves that right. HYGIENE.
WILMINGTON Feb. 3, 1873.