New-York tribune., 1874-10-24
ISJ5-5g. 1SSI-7O.

Let not Scotehmen, cried DR.. Playfair-himseh a
Sootchman-saturated they. are with national
pride. shut their eyes 10 tins startling fact The
facts he went on 10 give were more startling still.
The death rate bears. doubt. general proportion
10 the density of population but not to mere aggega
tion Of numbers in one city. In London it is 22.4
per I.OOO-the same as that OF small Scotch towns
In Glasgow 9O4 per 1OOO The difference means that
in Glasgow every year 3S17 persons are killed who
ought not 70 be killed and need not be. Itisa waste
of money and of productive power, well of
life and not only the 3,sl7 dead sufferers. On
the average "a people i'll for one death each for
Isl days and their wages at only two shilings day
make a yearly loss of s24O,OOO. Would the canny
Scotch think of that little 7 There was not a
doubt that proper sanitary arrangements would
bring the death rate of Glasgow down to that of
London, OF lower.
What, then. are proper sanitary arrangements 7
There is no mystery in the matter The problem Is
simple enough it only in the application that
complications arise. great part Of sanitary sci
encr can be summed up IN word, cleanliness, and
on this text Dr. Playfair enlarged through a great
part of his address Clean houses, clean water,
and clean air, those are the enemies which no
endemic can resist. For illustrations of
their power. DR.. Playfair went back even to
ancient times aud famous books. A respect
for antiquity and a disposition TO discover
that new truths are old have been much devel-
oped of late among scientific men, We saw that at
Belfast The book of Tobit. declares DR.. Playfair,
is distinct hygienic aegory. and there are no bet
ter rules for disnfecting foul smells than those of
Ulysses as described in Homer. Hercules, too, was
one Of the oldest and most thorough of santarians
and Moses was among the most practical. The
nv gienic laws supplementary TO his ten moral COM
mandments were full of wisdom. Religious purif-
cations were in the main hygienic precautions and
be thought il clear that the ancients knew well
the rnoderns the main conditions of public health.
The substance of all our sanitary science accumu-
ated by ages ght be summed up in the pregnant
advice of the prophet. " Wash and be clean Not
that the most profound inquiries into the origin of
disease are TO be undervaued. When we
found that the virus of smallpox repro
dueed smallpox only. and that of scarlet
fever bred scarlet fever only we were much
inclined TO refer their origin 10 specific organism
as TO attribute a puppy to dog or thistledown to
thistle. The popular tradition that the body
changed itself only in years was nonsense.
The fact was-al the particles Of the body changed
svery weeks. But the researches on the micro
ymie origin of disease, though vastly important
we're scarcely yet within the domain of practical ap
'hcatlon. These bodies of low organized types were
always associated with fOulness But whether
putIid emanatOns were the result of the growth of
these organisms, or whethes the emanations formed
the only soil IN which they bould grow neither he
nor any one else could tell them with certainty. Nor
oes II perhaps matter practically the certain thing
bong that # tlth were prevented, none of these
e"i"zOa would remain permanently. What he meant
" sisAaiiasse Wa not ueIely personal absolution