The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1879-08-01
sanitation I'm the NississIppi
VALLEY

i"' cities OF the South Will not
ana cannot be allowed to become the
| aooues OF bats and owls. With the i'm
provement of the Mississippi, better
drainage, large areas of swamp re.
claimed and opened to sunlight aud
air, larger settlements of productive
lands, the power of disease will be bro
ken' Measures in the interest of com
merce and agriculture will of themselves
largely relieve the South of liability to
disease. The effect of settlement Of a
country upon its health, and especi-
ally upon the peculiar character of dis,
ease arising largely from paIudal con,
dltlons, Is we'll known. Il will be
only necessary to let sanitary science
keep pace in preventing the peculiar
conditions which arise from the crowd.
ing together of men.
Thislow valley of the Mississippi,
and Gifts tributaries is an almost un-
settl.Sgilderness. The large produet
tic lstsresiou has-eloSed tbe syes
Of yrfd to the fact that it is really
an Unsettled country in comparison
with what it ought to be, with what its
soil aud productiveness entitle it to be-
Pari passu with this improvement; par
ty scientific aud with direct object of
health, and party commercial and
economical, Improvement must 60 on
in those countries which are, after all
the true abode of yellow fever. How
ever, the seeds of disease may survive
and reproduce themselves a second or
even third season, the evidence is
strongly persuasive that the tropics is
the real abode Of yellow fever. a wri-
ter in New York paper recently urged
the corporation of the United States
with Spain in placing Havana on a
sanitary footing, and this cooperation
! ought to attract the serious attention
of Congress. The United States can,
at least, use its influence, and the saui
tary knowledge Of its men of science
in which it would have the co-opera-
ton of all European commercial na-
tions. 1t is strongly believed that the
foul aud tideless harbor of Havana Is
the sole cause of yellow fever in that
city, and that canal to the sea would
obviate all dfficulty. A Yankee popula
ton in Havana, or an English or a
French population; would, at least
leave no visible cause for yellow fever,
not sit down submissive until every
means had been exhausted.
The first great point in this country
is to render local conditions as favora-
bic as possible. This is not the logical
| process which is to attack general eau
ses first but it is the practicable pro-
cess. Localities can give themselves
through drainage, perfect cleanliness,
and remove all local and surrounding
occasions of disease, assuring them
selves, at least, that no local occasion
shall cooperate with general causes OF
| i'll health, that epidemic disease shall
not strike a people already enfeebled
diseases having a local cause. Sanitary
| science can regulate trade and travel
| and keep watch against the transmits
sion Of disease. The settlement OF the
country, reclamation of swamps clear
ing up, draining, improvement oi
rivers and the application of sanitary
science to foreign cities where disease
is bred, or matter requiring more time,
but they are q work certain of steady
and gradual performance Both should
go along together, and if either pre-
cede it should be the latter, but impos-
sible. 1t is the duty Of the people OF
the South to calmly do the duty of
each year, making all possible progress
and steadily to agitate for the work Of
greater magnitude, 1t is work in
which the people of the entire country,
and esbecially of the entire Mississippi
Valley, have a vital and abiding in
terest; commercially, socially and f.
nancially.
The great necessity to the whole
country, in health view, backed BY
the great commercial necessity, is going
to render the improvement of the Mis-
sissippi river and its tributaries, and
the consequent redemption of this vast
valley from overfows, a great national
necessity. No lesser power than that
of the United States government car
successfully accomplish the great work
Improve the river BY Strengthening il
and confniug its waters inside Its
banks, and you redeem the land from
overflow; redeem tie land from over
flow and private industry will soon
clear its vast forests and drain its low
lands. This done, the finest soil and
best farming lands in the world is oper
to a toeming population. With the
forests cleared, no overfows, land:
drained aud in cultivation, the horde
of malarial diseases which now menace
the whole country, will be efectually
driven from this country.
Heretofore, the country has looked
to the redemption of the Mississippi
Valley solely from the Commercial
view, and as affecting the materia
wealth, but in the future the sanitation
view will carry large weight.
The Court of Appeals having decid
ed that claims of witnesses for the
Commonwealth in felony cases must b.
paid, those which have not been pait
heretofore can yet be presented whel
they will be paid.
The Empracs of Austr;a Eknc