The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-05-13
Dry Earth, in its Sanitary Applications to
Farm Houses and Village Dwellings.
BY THE RT. REV. HENRY c. LAY, ID, Lid,
BISHOP OF EASTON.

Of late years there has been an amount
of labor and research expended in efforts
to promote the public health, of which
most of us, dwellers in the fair State of
Maryland, have little knowledge. The
results arrived at, moreover, are most prac-
tical and most satisfactory; for it is no
longera matter of speculation, but TRUTH
reached by extensive observations and dem
onstrated by figures, that many of our
most fatal diseases are preventable; that
others may be greatly diminished in their
range, or mitigated in their intensity; that
the slaughter of the teethiDg innocents
may be very much reduced, and the aver
age duration of our several lives consider
ably prolonged, by an attention to sanitary
precautions. The good fairy, whose magic
broom sweeps away so much evil, bears the
simple and humble name of CLEANLINESS.
Dirty things and dirty ways are the great
foes to human health. A clean skin, to
begin with; clean soil to stand upon; a
clean house to live in; clean food to eat;
clean clothes to wear; clean water to drink;
clean air to breath-these more than all
the drugs in the apothecaries' shops, avail
to assure our bodily health and comfort.
Now, cleanliness is something like hon.
esty; it is easier to wear the appearance of
either than to secure its reality. Very
much depends upon the standard to which
we are accustomed. Without gross fraud
or actual cheating. man may be greatly
| lacking in integrity; and SO, also. together
with the semblance of a neat and orderly
housekeeping, there may exist unsupported
uncleaniness. True honesty and true
cleanliness alike must 60 beneath fair APP
pearances; they can be attained only by
scrutiny. by suspicion Of ones self and Of
ones belongings, by constant vigilance and
carefulness.
! In preparing paper to accompany the
Report of the Maryland Board of Health,
| the writer is well aware that he is no au-
| thority in sanitary matters, and that the
| public rightly look for information and
advice in such things to those whose voca-
ton it is to study and to treat disease.
But there are good reasons why those of
us who can claim no more than general
knowledge of sanitary literature may use
our pens and our tongues in aid of the
scientist and the physician. These per-
sons are greatly INSTRUCTED in their inqui-
ries even, in the endeavor to collect the
facts appertaining to vital statistics, by the
indifference, amounting almost to hostility,
of the public. People think that this con-
Germ for the general health is a mere
crotchet of the doctors, and their ques-
tioning about our home matters an imper-
tinent curiosity. The writer is glad to
testify, in his place and according to his
ability, to the exceeding value of the work
contided to the Board of Health, and, in
some sort, to interpret between them and
the public. The theme suggested to him
is not as elegant and refined as some others;
but he would consider his time and ener-
ges we'll expended if he could so handle it
as to excite the interest of intelligent men
in the effort to remove the impurities
which now defile our dwellings and corrupt
our health.
And once more let it be said that this
paper is written in the interest of the
farmers and villagers of Maryland. The
effort is not to treat the general subject
exclusively, but to present such consider
atoms in connection with it as may be
practically useful to us here at home.
AS one travels through the rural dis
tricts of Maryland he meets everywhere
with certain things revolving to the deli
| cacy and offensive to the senses of civil
lied man. He finds. for instance, neat
school houses all along the road, attended
by girls and boys together. But often
there is no retiring place for either sex, or
else there are two small sheds situated in
open view, not fenced off or concealed in
any way. The scholar who would step
aside is exposed to the observation of the
| other scholars and of the passers- The
houses are neglected and filthy.
Just here begins a child's education in
other things beside the spelling book. He
becomes familaiized with an immodest
publicity and reconciled to unwholesome
sights and SMELLS
But fathers and mothers do not care
about such matters. l remember once in
the far West to have officated in new
school house, well built and pleasantly
shaded. The neighbors prided themselves
on it. But there were no accommodations
such as those alluded to, and the region
behind the house was simply disgusting.
Having opportunity later III the day to
converse with some of the trustees, in the
main sensible although uneducated men,
suggested how easy it would be to fence off
the corners of the yard and make decent
and suitable provision; indeed l waxed
somewhat eloquent in urging the value of
teaching children early modest and deli
cate ways. When l had finished, the
great man of the neighborhood replied
that it was hardly worth while, because,
said he, site children is young."
And when one visits private dwellings,
still the otfense recurs. If in the country,
there is ricketty, ill-smelling house, dis
tant from the dwelling and scarcely accessi-
BILE to delicate perso ms in wet weather for
the weeds and grass.
If the dwelling be in village, the house
in question occupies conspicuous position
as if people were rather proud of it. 1t is
cleansed at long intervals only, when it has
become uncomfortable. Even at the best of
to &c of
long as possible.
Some of our villages are simply abomina.
BILE to eye and nose in hot Lther. Prvies
and pig sites infect the air, and the muir
murers are laughed at. 1t requires more
nerve than every town commissioner has to
brave the popular Indifference and to abate
the nuisance. Who has not seen a COM
pany of ladies and gentlemen in Sum-
mer's evening fairly driven away from the
southern porch or window by the intolera-
BILE bad smells borne upon the breeze.
/ suggested that my theme is an unsav-
curry one, but is not the very unsavouriness
of the facts reason why some of us should
lift up our voices and demonstrate, in the
name of decency and civilization, against
these careless and unclean ways Of living.
But this is not all; there is something
worse than that which meets the eye and
drinking water which is contaminated by
the filth that accumulates around our dwell
ings. In the country the pump used by
the family is sometimes planted close to
the stable and the DRAWINGS of the barn.
yard soak into it through the porous soil,
while in the villages many of the wells are
receiving all day long the contents of the
neighboring privies quietly leaking into
them.
Especially is this true of the Eastern
Shore and of other alluvial portions of the
State. The water is near the surface, and
the soil open with no "hard PAM to arrest
surface water. Here is we'll, the surface
of the water within eight or ten feet of the
ground; on the same lot and on adjoining
lots are privies with pits three or four feet
deep. AS matter of course the rain dis
solving these superficial impurities carries
them at once into the streams and wells
below.
just think of it. How we would revolt
from drinking out of a we'll into which we
saw daily discharged even small portion
of the household slops! And yet some of
hob, oil Tor,