Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-04-28
stistellameuns &eading.
PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE.

Professor E. G. Janeway lectured in New
York about the prevention ofdisease, advising
that great attention should be paid to it in
order to obviate the necessity of curing the
disease when it should come. All, be said,
were familiar with the cost Of Sickness in.
volving the expense of medical attendance
and loss of time, work and wages. but many
were ignorant of how to prevent it. A man
should first learn his hereditary tendencies,
and if he was likely to inherit disease he
should guard against it by his mode of life,
his choice of occupation and of dwelling
place, etc. After enlargng somewhat upon
the tendency of consumption and gout, he
spoke particularly of hereditary insanity.
If child were liable to that, the greatest
care should be taken from the earliest in
fancy-frst to develop the body. AS he
grew older he should be trained to avoid
worry and anxiety. Action was desirable
for such person rather than undue refiec
ton. All mental shocks should be avoided.
1t was bad for him to be wrapped up in one
idea, such as the acquisition of money or pow
er. He should choose congenial pursuit
and by no means be forced by his parents
into distasteful one. There were good rea.
sons why he should not marry, but if he did,
he should carefully choose a congenial wife.
The lecturer then spoke at great length on
the necessity of pure air, water and milk,
giving several instances Of the deleterious
effects of bad air, among others that of the
passengers on the ship Londonderry in 1S4S,
$50 of whom were shut up by the captain
during a storm, in the steerage, an apartment
18x11x7 feet. Seventy of them died in an
incredibly short time, having convulsions and
bleeding at the eyes and ears. Speaking of
the dangers of improper air in dwelling
houses the lecturer described house he had
examined in which he found the cold air-box
of the furnace connecting directly with the
sewer. In another house he knew of three
cases of malaria where the tenant, imagining
a drain that the owner had warranted, to be
alt right, found cesspool under the house
He has also known people to put their gar
bage barrels under the cold air. box Of the
furnace. People should examine the plumb
ing in their houses for themselves and not be
satisfied when the plumber said it was right
Whenever it was possible tenant builder OF
purchaser of house should insist that the
| pIuluUluS MOIh Uc oil Ill slSiI, ouu NV ou' ~
in walls. If people would insist upon II
houses would soon be built so. But if tht
plumbing is in the walls the peppermint tes
should be applied A considerable quantity O.
the essence of peppermint should be poured
in the highest trap in the house, and if there
was break anywhere the peppermint odol
would betray it, Bad odors in house were
like the rattles of q rattlesnake They mean
bad plumbing and danger.
He then spoke earnestly in regard to vac
cination, saying that hundred years ago ter
deaths in every hundred were caused by small
pox. Now, by vaccination and isolation, thu
disease was checked. By being vaccinatee
in infancy and once fifteen or twenty year,
afterward person was comparatively safe
but by being vaccinated once in seven year
he was as safe as he could be. He then con
cluded with few directions in regard to dis
injecting and nursing in cases Of infectiou
diseases.