The Portland daily press., 1876-10-12
The Offending Earth.

IA enO 0aiiy aSoS udu attributed QlSeaSe u
the will of capricious deities who were easi
ly offended, and who sent plaques upon tn,
earth as the marks of their resentment
Even now in the East men picture to them.
selves the cholera as a fiend in the form of a
large white woman of loathesome look who
stalks over the land with death in her train.
Later on in the beginnings of science OBJ
servers, recognizing the agency of the at
mosphere as bearer of heat, cold and moist.
ure, believed that the distribution of pre-.
yailing diseases was due to climate. This
view largely obtains to-day, except with those
who have made a. study of climatic influ-
ences sand disease, or who are familiar with
the results of that study, In the minds oil
students it no longer has place. While it is
admitted that climate is powerful to modify
the forms and conditions of life, it is now
known that the prolific source of disease is
in the earth beneath our feet.
At the session of the American Public
Health Association in Boston last week pa
per was read by Professor James T. Gardner,
Secretary of the American Geographical So
ciety, bearing upon this subject and discus
sing the relation between typographical sur
veys and the study of public health. He la
bored to show that the sources of many pre-
vaiing diseases are to be found in various
natural conditions of earth's form and sub
stance. Many striking facts were adduced to
convince the intelligent householder that the
topography and geology of his immediate
neighborhood are exercising controlling in
fuence on the condition of his family.
Throughout the paper Prof. Gardner fortified
his position by facts and the legitimate de-
ductions therefrom. When Que learns from
the health reports of New York that two
thirds of the deaths from diphtheria in that
city are among the occupants of first and
second floors the conclusion is irresistible that
the condition of the ground had much to do
with swelling.the death list. So too the dis.
tribution of that dreaded New England
scourge, consumption, shows the governing
influence of the soil. Towns where the dis
ease is most rife are side by side with those
where it is rarest, and the indications are un-
mistakable that the most powerful agent of
production is soil moisture. In a single
town even, the geological structure may so
vary that consumption will be prevalent in
one district and absent in another The town
of Greenland, N. H., for example, has three
distinct divisions of soil: First-A higher
and dryer sandy plain. Second-A medium,
fqrtIlQ
sive low marshes. Seven hundredl and fif-
teen residents are about equally divided be-
tween the three districts. During ten wears
three people died of consumption on the
sandy plain, five in the medium and ten in
the wet region. Here, out of the same num-
Der of people, three times as many died in the
lowland as on the higher ground. But in
the village of Saccarappa, Maine, where the
hills are Of clayey loan, and the valleys
gravelly, thirty-one per centum of the deaths
on the bills were from consumption, and only
sixteen per centum in the plain district.
These are but few of the many facts
brought forward by Prof. Gardner to sustain
his position-facts which must convince all
Ludl Gu6Tc Is Ill lutlII1dLe connection between
the earth's surface-structure and many forms
of disease. That the connection has been
discovered is matter for congratulation. So
long as it was held that disease had its origin
in the winds that blow where they list, un-
controllable by man, so long could little be
done to avoid it. But the form and hygienic
characteristics of the earth beneath our feet
can be changed by man. 1t only remains to
discover exactly what structural features pro-
duce certain diseases. In this respect we are
as yet, Prof. Gardner acknowledges, forced to
content ourselves with probabilities instead OF
the certainties of physical law which can
only be ascertained by long and careful OBJ
servation. That observation he implores,
and believes it possible to deduce with abso-
lute certainty from the uaited results of to-
biographical, geological and sanitary surveys
of large area the principal causes of PIE
vailing diseases, and to point out practical
rsmedies which will reduce the death-rate at
least one-half