Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-12-01

In Liverpool, per cent. In Manchester, and In
| tation ia London has also been reduced in the
death rate from 1875 in 1855, to less than half
this rate in 1880.
FACTS EoR PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE.
J., Carefully studied records show that
often producing disease. which is con-
veyed into the human body through
the sgsncles Of bad food and d. polluted i.
water, coming from cess pools and like expo
sures. Sewer digging is another and serious
| source of evil.
2. Scarlet fever and scarletina may be d.
| minished, IL not stamped out, by proper exclu-
| sions and restrictions in schools, in families,
| and among large bodies of people collected
| together. Not alone the personal presence, but
even clothiog not used for year, has produced
| this disease.
| g. Diphtheria onca started increases in pro-
| portion TO the neglect of sanitary conditions.
| Decayed vegetables, fruits and all perishable
| fruits and products, il neglected, mean dis
| ease; and especially is this apparent where
| the soil is moist, as near swamDs, marshes and
immovable bodies of water. Eighty per cent.
| of the. worst cases were found at Lynn.
| Massachusetts,, during the worst year
| of the disease in that locality.
| The fact of communicating diseases
| to persons, families, schools and neighbor-
| hoods from such causes is beyond dispute.
| Even the kissing of friend or the breath of a
| friend may com municate diphtheria. The soil
| also needs watching whenever this and kindred
diseases are found. Malaria is always most
| prevalent near the surface.
On the marshy district of an infected town
on Lake Michigan filth has been traced through
| the ground over one hundred feet. Where it
| is the least visible it is often the most penetra
| Bile. All malaria and intermittent fever revels
In extreme moisture.
But far more important than what is tangi-
| BILE and traceable are the characters and
| habits of the people themselves. Chill
| dren are the first victims, and
| children can communicate diphtheria to
| strong mothers and stout fathers. Sometimes
| this disease comes from natural conditions; but
most frequently from positive filth. Surfaces
| of mud are part of this filth. and even the
| sun and air may stimulate it. Though this dis
| ease is comparatively new in name, 1t was
christened at Tours, in France, in 1878, and is
| even described by Hippocrates. The new facts
seem to be its propagation in the form or a
| microscopic plant
4. Wafer used for drinking especially needs
| watching and an analysis, where there is doubt
or ignorance of its source or supply. is required
| The transmission from wells, brooks and
| springs to dwellings also need watching. Even
| ice, with the pures5 surface, may be contami-
mated where the water is not pure. Polluted
| waters are rarely detected by touch, taste or
smell, and only chemical and micro.
source of soil. Surface wells are
dangerous and sub-soil wells are undesirable
Rain water Is the best Of all for purity.
| 5. Sewer gas is another public enemy. Sui
phuretted hydrogen and ammonium sulphide
| are found in our sewers, creating organic fetid
| yapors; and these, if not wholly decomposed
| make them fatally foul. Even one part of
these gases to two bundled and fifty OF pure
| water, in the common atmosphere, it is said,
will kill a horse, and double the quantity a
| dog and only six parts small birds
The schoolmaster who teaches whole pages
| OF grammar books of arithmetic and the
higher mathematics, chapters OF logic and vol
| umes OF history and literature, should be re-
quested to teach more OF chemistry and phYsi-
| ology, of anatomy and hygiene, and even
the principles Of life Insurance may
| eb taught wisely. and timely. Cor
rect speaking, calculation, reading and
writing are well; but some knowledge of
| hygiene. of the structure of the human body,
| of the stomach and the brain, of the natural
causes of diseases. if not their remedies, are
at least of equal value. The common schools
and academies teach practically little or moth
| ing of these subjects; aud the colleges
| and universities but very little
Men Of all professions may become public
benefactors, as from the desk and the forum
| they from time TO time become instructors of
that kind of cleanliness which is practical god
| illness alike on the person. in the household
| and on the water and on the land
| One other source of heath, depending more
| upon the people than the State, may be traced
| to tenant homes-homes such as have recent
| ly been partially begun in New York (where
| there are upwards of q, 900 tenement houses)
in Brooklyn, and more extensively in England
| as described last month by Sir Sidney Water
| low. III. p, in New York, philanthropist who
has given many years to tenant reform. In
| 1854 he sought to secure, in the humber homes
| of the people, immunity from disease, by in
| spection and safety from fire; and the effect of
this little more than individual effort, was to
| reduce the average death rate from forty to
| eighteen in each thousand persons, and the
| rate Of insurance, properly built tenant
| dwellings, to seven cents on each $780, with
| small rental for each comfortable room dur
| ipg the time of occup alton.
The homes of the people are the real sources
of happiness; and what is best for health should
be established and recognized here and in
| properly constructed and regulated workshops,
| school rooms and churches. In the latter,
physiology and physic may at times enter
into that divine philosophy which teaches the
nf frtpfl IN md he FfaDf
rank of this intelligence should be the duty
| and wisdom of creating, establishing and
maintaining the health Of the people
| The work OF Florence Nightingale in England
| and the Crimea, in peace and in war,
| in the hospital and in the camp,
shows what one woman can do to save life and
| relieve suffering In like spirit, in different
field of labor, but inspired by the same Divine
| thought, Octavia Hill, in London possessed
for long periods of time various pieces Of tene-
| ment property, each one wretched in itself,
and worse in the character of its inmates,
and, as a lessee, visitor and friend. cleaned
and repaired, made habitable and comfort
| able, all these hitherto miserable dwellings.
In the same spirit committee of benevolent
ladies. to the great saving of health and life.
have in charge as many as possible Of the
more than twenty-five thousand tenement
houses in the city of New York.
This kind of service, much Of which, and the
| best Of which, is voluntary, has proved one of
the grandest physicians of the land. At times
| it Is seen in the direct cure OF maladieS, at
times in the general diffusion of knowledge,
and at times imparting personal comforts and
positive civilization in the worst habitations OF
| the land.
read of the lives of 1000 children saved in
a short time id England. simply by the agencies
of proper care in the use of the gifts of God to
| man. These agencies have been the medicine
| of nature, prescribed by a little practical wis
| dom. l read also in thirteen towns of England
| of decrease OF more than II per cent. in the
| death rates from proper sewerage alone; but
there, as here there remains immense room
| for improvement. In a country like Belgium,
the average lives of the clearly and thrifty
| fifty years, and of the filthy and negligent, the
| average length of life is only thirty-two years,
and Belgium in this respect is not peculiar
country.
All OF us, my friends, have many and in
alienabe rights; but the right of moral, physi-
| cal and material communications of the city,
the town, the country, the mandatory, the
| workshop, and of the dwellings of the people.
are not among the rights. The State may re-
press nuisances may maintain public, and as
far as possible, private health; and all
the law, but as far as possible also
present in their own lives and living, good
example of loyalty for the many who are nat
urally diSobedient.
The wise citizen will not only check disease
in himself but as far as he is intelligent avoid
the necessity OF calling upon physician to
| State be called upon to perform any kind of
| work which belongs to the citizen.
/ leave it to experts and to the doctors to be
| specific as to the origin, character and extent
| and definition of diseases. AS layman see
and comprehend the effect they have upon
organized communities peoples and large
| bodies of individuals. l know what foul air,
| impure water and bad food mean, and would,
| if | could, remove them from all conditions of
| household and animal life Yes, and would,
if could, remove them from the face of the
| earth.
try to distinguish between abnormal decay
| common to human existence, and the decsy
| which comes from disease.
| The study of chemical combinations of bio
| logical conditions, and of epidemical relations
| as layman, l may not understand; but every
| one can comprehend what epidemic is
| when in the midst of it--and if he can trace it
| to foul water, to exposed cesspools, and other
| tangible offenses, the way is pointed out to re-
| move the cause and to remove the effect of
| the evil. The sick animal and the sick plant,
| and whatever causes or enters into the decay
of man must be cured, or the natural conss-
quences follow. 1t is enough to know
that the presence and spread of filth
ease. There may be other causes of sick
| ness, but this one IS self-evident tangible and
| remedial which may not be the fact with the
the atmosphere alone, Or by diseases which
| only skill and study can detect and cure. In
| the country a belt of trees and sheet of water,
| absorbing disease, have often arrested its pro-
gress
| The art of prevention in disease, as in other
results. is, therefore, the best lesson for the
| teacher and the student. AS the proverb saws,
| An ounce of prevention is better than
pound OF cure" Even the brute creation, as
| in the marshes near Rome, have, through ex-
| pertinent symptoms of malaria produced by