Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-08-31
4anraster f,,telliQeilccr.
THURSDAY EVENING. Apu. 81. 1854.


Popular Science Monthly. f........ ... .
"Woe to them that are at ease :" says
Carlyle, but his anathema does not pre-
vent the English village parson from out
living every other class of his country
men, not excepting the British farmer,
whose peace of mind cannot always te
reconciled with high rents and the low
price Of American wheat. Whero agri-
culture is what it should be-.a contract
between man and nature, in the United
States, in Australia, and in some parts Of
Switzsrland-the plow- .furrow is the
straightest road to longevity in Canada
where nature is rather hard taskmaker,
the probabilities are in favor Of such half
indoor trades as carpentering and certain
branches of horticulture-summer farm
ing, as the Germans call it. Cold is an
antiseptic, and the best febIfuge, but by
no means a panacea, and the warmest
climate on earth is out and out preferable
even 10 tho border lands of the polar zone.
The average Arab outlives tho average
Esquimaux by twenty-five years.
The HYGIENE benefit Of sea voyages, TOO,
has been amazingly exaggerated. Seafar-
ing is not conducive to longevity the ad-
vantage OF tho exercise in the rigging is
more than outweighed by tho efiiuvia OF
the cockpit, by the pickle diet, the un-
natural motion and the foul weather
misery and, from a sanitary standpoint,
the sea air itself is hardly preferable to
may have been a marine product, but our
PilOcenc ancestor was probably forest
creature. ~
"For what length of time would you
undertake to warrant the health of sea-
man." VarDhagcn asked Dutch marine
doctor. "That depends on the length OF
his furIOugh," replied the frank uOllan-
der, and it will require centuries OF reform
to redeem our cities from tho odium of 4
similar reprosch. In victuals and vitality
towns consume the boarded stores of the
country, and only the garden suburbs of a
fcw North American cities are hygeni-
cally self-supporting. Permanent indoor
work is slow suicide, and between tho
various shop-trades and sedentary occu-
patiOns the difference in this respect is
only one Of degree. Factories stand at
tho bottom of the scale, and tho dust
md vapor generating ones below zero
the weaver q chances to reach tho average
ago OF mis- species have to DO expressed
by a negative quantity. In France, where
the :abu!atiOn of comparative statistics is
carried further than anywhere else, the
hcatb:ulneSS OF tho principal town.
trades has been ascertained to decrease in
tho following order Housebuild;ng,
huck stering, hot-bcd gardening (florists),
carpenter and brick-maspn trades, street
paving. street cleaning, sewer cleaning.
biacksn:iths, artisansmiths (silver, copper
and tin cOncerns), shoemaking, paper
making. glass blowing, tailor, butcher,
housepainter, baker, cook, stoncmasons
and lsridar;ts, operatives of paint and
lead ta-tOries, wcavers, steel grinders
tho wide difference between brick and
ktoncnasons being due to the lung -infest
ing dust of lapidary work, which, though
an .ntal"or occupation, is nearly as un-
healthy as steel grinding. Lead paint
makers have to alternate their work will
Jobs in the tin shop. and after all car
rarely stand it for more than fifteen years
NecdIc-srindcrs generally succumb after
twelve or fourteen years.