New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-11-16


tissues. Beginning the race of life with this
climatic disadvantage as drag-weight 20
carry, it behOoves US to be dOubly watchful In
guarding against every other danger. But:
according to these experts in the science or
health, our carelessness and ignorance actually
expose us as much as though we were saw
ages in the heart of Africa, and the perils that
beset us are such legions in number and so
powerful that the wonder is not that so many,
but that any of us are left alive.
The very ground upon which we stand reeks
with death. The sanitary arrangements Oh
Nature, as DR.. Hunt clearly shows in his adj
mirabc paper, are perfect. Her processes
above and under ground are in complete har-
mOny: the heat of the sun, the currents OF
air. the drainage Of subterranean and surface
streams, the myriads of insect life, remove
poisonous decay or exhalatiOns. "When the
aground evolves unhealthy decomposition,
cit also evolves its enormous vegetation
"to dispose of it. The ground which 10y Its
&c trees and herbage shuts out sun-heat has its
"millions ofleaves to absorb noxious material,
aand even uses its woods and heritage to regu-
"late temperature. The city has no such COM
"pensation." The city checks and removes
each Of these misunderstanding agents. The
vegetation is banisbed the sun-hcat breeds
| unchecked decay; subterraneap streams are
brought to the surface; the currents of air are
| laden with the poisonous exhalatiOns OF human
bodies; and the soil on which they are built
is most frequently left undraued, to be
"clogged with decomposition. stagnant water
"and air, the deposits of cesspools and
H. lIor al fba trin pa
ter is drawn from local wells, and foul soil
involves foul water. So little is this matter
of under drainage and the removal of decay
from the surface understood that not Sum
mer passes in which one or more of our cities
are not swept by some pestience produced by
this cause recent instance will occur to
most of our readers where one or the Summer
towns founded year or two ago by relig-
ious body on the sea Shore for the purpose OF
regeneratng both the souls and bodies OF its
citizens, was left totally unDrOvided with
any means for drainage or removal OF
refuse matter until the typhoid fever came
like q scourgc to correct the ignorance OF the
community.
The importation of fruits and vegetables,
too, into the cities was shown to be another
food which Nature devised as most healthful
for the heated season reaching us green OF
rotten and generating, from close packing,
poisonous gases. When, however, the air given
us as the breath Of life, happens to reach us
pure and free from any Of these taints, we
proceed with what appears the very insanity
of ignorance to receive it into our furnace
heated houses, bar its egress, and to con-
vert it, by long breathing, into tho most
active of poisOns. We are assured
that every person requires at least 800
cubic feet of air to breathe, with the air
changed every 20 minutes to maintain the
supply. Less than this produces disease
These poisonous efiluvia, Of often re-bleathed
air "predispose to blood roisons OF every
I" sort and become the hOt-bed of propagation
" of specific poisons, such as smallpox, scarlet
"fevcr," ETC., etc. The present prevalence of
contagious diseases among the children
in this city is referred to the shame
full lack of proper ventilation in the
school buildings. The Philadelphia school
houses were also instanced as disgrace
fully faulty in this respect. We might add
that 1T is only necessary to enter any car,
church, or theatcr in this country to be con-
WINGED that the Americans taste as well as
habit is for foul air, AMI that he accepts his
breath pure only when it is forced upon him.
1t will be long, we fear, before the Public
Health Association will work reform in this
particular, for it involves the action of every
individual, and is not limited. scientific
"men," as DR.. Black shrewdly observed,
"cannot manipulate health. vIgor. or good
constitutions into their fellow beings" Mean
while the average American rejoices in and
coddes his diseases, is ready to try hydro
patty, allOpathy, or any other complex system
of cure but when he is told to drain his eel
lar or air his sleeping room, scouts the idea
as Naaman the Syrian did the prophets injunc
ton to battle and be clean.