The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-11-14
HYGEIA.

H1GEIA.
At the Social Science Congress at Brighton,
October IL, DIR. B. w. Richardson. President
of the Health Section, delivered an address
under the form of an allegory, in which he
described an imaginary city of Hygeia. The
address is the subject of much humorous
comment in British journals.
The London Telegraph thus discourses
rpon the ideal abode Of health and longevity,
after defining its position in the realms Of
Utopia:
In the right-hand top-corner, or there.
abouts, of this remarkable island, Dr. Ben
iamin Richardson, FRS, has lighted upon q
remarkable city, upon which he has bestowed
the name of Hygeia, or the Abode Of Health,
and of this agreeable sanitary metropolis he
gave on Monday, at the meeting Of the Social
Science Congress at Brighton, an exhaustive,
ingenious, and most entertaining account.
DR.. Richardson, it is true, does not put for
ward any claim to have been the chief builder
of Hygeia.
It's founder was possibly Esculapius, as
sisted by Galen, Hippocrates, DR.. Southwark
Smith and DR.. Graveyard Walker; and
eventually came the benefcent Mr.. Chad
wick, G. B., with his four-leaved shamrock,
aud "engineered everything to perfection
1t has long since been the opinion OF this sage
that, precisely in proportion to the use or ne
elect of his tile, trap drain-pipe and water
tap, q city deal -rate might be produced
ranging from fifty or any higher number down
to five, or perhaps some number less, In the
thousand The rate of mortality in Hygeia
does not exceed five per mile. The popula-
ton is 100, 600, dwelling in 10000 houses,
built upon 1000 acres Of landau average OF
twenty five souls per acre.
DR.. Richardson forgets to inform US how
much of the b"Slse property in Hygela be-
longs to the 1mL,s Of Totum and Omainm,
and whether any fines are exacted for the re-
newal of leases. The houses in Hygela are
all built on brick arches, forming subways,
and thus providing q perfect system of drain
age. The kitchens are on the top Il oors OF
the houses, and there are no underground
cellars, rooms, or Offices whatsoever The
roofs of the dwellings are fat, laid out with
fower-beds and pleasant paths, which can be
utilized as recreation grounds precisely as IN
the case of the existing city OF Mexico. The
streets are paved with wood set IN asphalte.
In the interior of the houses the walls are ab-
solutely devoid Of any papering or painting
and are formed of glazed bricks which can be
laid to any pattern and colored to any hue
the householder may desire, gray being the
tint preferably suggested as most refreshing
the eye.
Wonderful fire-grates, and still more mar
yelous baths, laundries, and culinary appar-
atus. are to be found in the city. There are
banks, theaters, gymnasia, dry skittle-alleys,
literary and scientific institutes, board school;
all with backgrounds attached-concert
halls, corn exchanges, chapels, churches, and
we hope, enquiry rooms and American
organs; but there are no places whatsoever
for the public sale of intoxicating liquors. and
the last remnants of the tobacconists shops
are rapidly disappearing. Whether the good
folks Of Hygeia smoke cigars and pipes uI
their sleeves or up their improved iues, OF
whether they keep any illicit whisky bottles
in the cavities of their perforated brick walls
which must be remarkably cool corners to
sit in-the doctor does not tell us. But the
place must be an extremely nice one.
There are no cutters; consequently there
are no gutter children. The soil is composed
of gravel in its lowermost, and clay in its up
permost strata. When one of the i've pei
thousand OF Hygeians liable to mortality hap
pens to shuttle off this mortal coil, his body
is either packed up in hamper, a Ia Seymour
Haden. or simply wrapped in shroud, and
is quietly deposited in a cemetery "artltlcl
allv laid with fine carboniferous earth, anc
stone is erected over his remains, but simple
tablet bearing his name and date OF exit iron
this world may find place in hall adJoln
ing the cemetery. This strikes us as being
almost a work of supererogation; and more
over it is clumsy. They have someWha
rougher but certainly reader way IN ne
Maiestys jails.
After Mr.. Marwood has done with muir
derer, the corpse is flung into hole which
filed up with quicklime, and then warde
scratches with his pocbet-knife on the adJa
cent wall the felons initials, and the date o
his strangulation Considering the e1cep
tional healthiness of Hygeia, DR.. Richardson
appears to have found an unusually larg
number of hospitals in the highly favore
city. There are in the Utopian town no les
than twenty infrm aries for hundred thout
and citizens; and, at such rate, we shout
possess in four-million- peopled London
least eight hundred hospitals. But those Il
Hygeia are not huge barracks for "warehous
ing" the sick; nor are there any special II
situations for the treatment OF particular al
ments.
The hospitals are externally constructed o
the block system; but internally each invalit
if his case requires isolation, has whol
ward to himself, which ward appears to be
kind of vivarium made of iron and glat
warmed Dy neateo ait uueS. II Inc Patieut
disease be infectious, his iron and glass COZ
servatory is to be taken to pieces afSer his n
moyal. disinfected, and then set togeth.
again. The vivarium opens into q gardel
and in fine weather the convalescent may
vheeled. bed and all, into the verdant plea
aimee to inhale the fresh air and the odor
fowers There are, in addition, innumerab
Gardens in the city Of Hygeia, besides unde
ground railways for the heavy traffic.
The slaughter-houses, moreover, are col
strncted ON a new and improved principl
There is no pole-axing Of oxen, no sticking
nha animal destined To b