American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-03-20

agement, in a highly fiourishing condition
in China. 1t would be well if it were
the interest of doctors, as 1t is undonbt-
! eddy that of the people, in America, as
| elsewhere, to promote this most lmpor-
| tant branch of medical science The chi
| nese method would hardly succeed with
us, as our grip of the dollar is too tight
| to be loosened on the remote possibility
of sickness We require to be well shaken
with fit of ague, pressed hard with a
fever or pinched light with a collie before
| we can be made to let drop fee into the
| doctors hand. 1t is only by appealing to
the intelligence of our people ana prov
| ing to them its advantageous necessity,
| in fact-that preventive medicine can be
| made welcome to their acceptance.
| DIR. Lancaster, of London, who lately
died after an active career, chiefly de-
voted to the service of the public health,
estima ted that there persisted every year
| in England and Wales 100, 600 persons
| from preventable diseases. All the deaths
which annually occur from railway ac-
cidents, fires, explosions, shipwrecks and
foundations in Great Britain do not
amount to one-tenth of the number
| caused by diseases which need not have
| occurred if people only knew enough
| about their causes, or cared to remove
| them. Ignorance and heedlessness are
| responsible for the most severe and fatal
| diseases which atllict the human race
| throughout the world.
1t is not only the deaths which count
| by the hundreds of thousands, but the
| illness and debility of millions, which are
| to be estimated in the sum OF destruct-
tiveness of preventable disease. The an
nual loss OF money to England from the
| latter cause alone is put down by the
| best authorities at more than SO, 000,
600. In Birmingham, town of about
| 100000 inhabitants. the preventable
deaths are 5000 year, with pecuniary
| damage in consequence OF S2I0,0O0!
| This, however, is by no means the whole
loss, for the human race is not only dew
astated but deteriorated by these pre-
| ventable diseases. The physical and
mental vigor as well as the moral STAN
ina of the people is sapped. Who,
moreover, can estimate the depressing
effect upon human happiness?
There is no mystery about this art,
| with its somewhat ghsounding name
of preventive medicine. 1t requires no
| diploma from a college to practice it
etfectually, and its prescriptions are not
| in cabalistic or barbarouS Latin words
| which only learned medical conjurer
can write, or an expert apothecarv de-
cipher. The possession of common sense
| is the only license the practitioner needs,
and nature indicates to him in the plain
/ est language ucT TtHcuitS.
Cleanliness, which, according TO the
old proverb, is next to godliness, but
which, in its widest sense, is godiiness it
| self, is the great pTeservatIve against
| that numerous and most dangerous class
| of diseases called preventable. With
purity of the body and purity of air,
food and water, not only would the en-
| joyment but the extent of life be greatly
increased Mankind might then bid
defiance to all those dire maladies which
are known to medical science as zynlotic
cholera, typhus, typhoid and scarlet
| fevers, smallpox, and the rest of those
| affections which terment and work cor
ruption of the blood, and are SO widely
prevalent and destructive.
| The home, which is supposed to be
constructed for the purpose of pro-
| lection, is made the great destroyer of
health and life, and every tenant is great
| ly responsible for this fatal perversion.
| While he stiles himself with his own
| breath, taints himself with his own cor
| ruption, and sickens and dies like i rat
| in his hole, he need but open window
to the pure breath of heaven, and cast far
from him the filth of his own cngender-
/ ing, to breathe freely, become disin-
fected and restored to vigorous health.
Much certainly ought to be done by
the public authorities for the removal OF
means within their power. The hygiene
of the city, town and village should
have their especial regard, and dirty
streets, polluied streams, adulterated
food and drink, demonstrated houses,
oveCrOwded tenements, and those eX-
tensive generators of poison known as
nuisances - slaughter houses, market
places and such like-and the vast varie-
ty of receptacles of refuse and garbage
De annihiated. Every householder,
however, has his life more or less in his
own hand, and the inaction of the public
authorities makes it only the more in
cumbent upon him to guard against
those evils which threaten it. He, there
fore, and the female householder espe-
cially, for she is more constantly an IN
mate and possesses the greater control
of the house, are commended to the dill
gent study and ceaseless practice OF
Preuentapc Observation-Disclosures Bdzdr.