Morning journal and courier., 1883-06-01
Friday, juno 4, 1883.


MODERN SANITARY SCIENCEs
Modern sanitary science has not been in
operation long enough yet to be fairly judged.
1t viii take many years and many statistics
to really reveal its good and bad features and
show what effect it has on the public health.
Many still think that it does not amount to
much, but the fairest and most careful OBJ
servers are convinced that It does, and the
facts SO far obtainable seem TO support the
latter opinion.
An interesting contribution towards the
settlement of this important question has
been made by Mr.. N. A. Humphreys, an Eng
llshman. Mr.. Humphreys shows with much
clearness that since the passage of the first
public health act in 1872 the longevity of the
English people has increased, and also that
the English people are healthier and more
efficient than they used to be before their
health was looked after by the government.
The mortality from epidemic diseases in Eng
land has suddenly declined. Between 1885,
"a the mortality from thesediseases was 22.5
but the death rate of 1882 was only 1913,
an improvement of nearly one-seventh. Men
in England live two years longer than they
did thirty years ago and women three years
and four months longer. This is an improve
ment taking forty years as the usual term of
life, of fourteen per cent, and would in a
generation leave a country of thirty millions
with two millions more of people in it than
it would otherwise havehad. Mr.. Humphreys
also says that the very old live longer and
they do not sink SO much into the senile con-
dition of second childhood. The ole, ,howev-
er, do not share in this longevity of the very
aged. Both in men and women the chance
of survival between ffty-five and seventy
has not increased, but rather declined. They
do not benefit so much by the declined power
of epidemics, they are more subjec to the
stress and worry and exposures of life. The
greatest improvement is in the young.
The mans chance of life is increased most
decidedly bstween five and thirty five, and
the womans between five and ifty.fVe.
All this is very encouraging, for an increase
in the health and life of people means a
great deal. As the London Spectator says:
A healthier race is a happier and q more en-
ergetic one, Whether it is better one is
not quite certain, the "pride of life" as we
understand that phrase, having its own vices;
but mental energy depends greatly on physi-
cal energy-great generals say dysentery ex-
tinguishes soldiers courage, and certainly no
man can be enterprising under bilious at
tack-and that must be beneficial. Courage,
endurance, cheerfulness and resignation are
all fostered by good health, as is also the
charity which, though it often blossoms in
the feeble, is seldom strong in those who ssf-
fer pain.
1t is to be hoped that somebody will do for
this country what Mr.. Humphreys has done
for England in collecting and comparing the
figures which show the condition Of the pub
lie health. We believe that il would be dis
covered that life has improved in this coun-
try during the last twenty or thirty years.
There has certainly been marked gain in a
number of ..the cities, including New Haven.