Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-10-04
support claim for libraries devoted to host

support claim for libraries devoted to host
of special followings. The most that can
of right be demanded of the State, or of
any local government in the State, is pro-
vision for the maintenance of general Ii
braries, suitable for the people generally.
There is but one justification that has any
force for the system that taxes portion of
the people for the support of the Law Lii
brary of San Francisco, and that is, that the
Courts need it in order the better to dis
pense justice. In all other respects it is an
arbitrary exercise of power and wrongful
one to maintain it, even in part. at public
cost No similar justification can be adj
vanced for medical libraries at the expense
of the people, or any class of them.
Regarding the cholera, the address takes
the ground that the disease is contagious,
and that insanitary conditions invite it. 1t
also calls for every possible effort to be
made to prevent the introduction of yellow
fever into the State. Only objectionable
neglect can prevent the removal of insan-
itary conditions favorable to yellow fever,
since they are so well known, SAYS the
author of the address. He continues g 1t
is well understood that the most malignant
epidenlics of both cholera and yellow fever
have chiefly been in towns and cities where
the scientific application of sanitary pre-
cautions had been neglected; where organic
substance had accumulated in all stages of
decomposition-under circumstances and
conditions best calculated to generate pes
tiferous gases in great quantities. The insan-
itary conditions of the breath of life thus
produced lower the vital powers, impair the
general health and establish a susceptible
ity to the so-called zymotic diseases-dis-
eases of low and often malignant type
Concerning the germ theory, the paper
holds that there has been no affirmation of
it by positive demonstration-tha it is not
settled that bacteria, bacilli and the various
micrococci sustain causatiye relation to
the diseases in which they are found. The
essayists view is against the germ theory of
causation in almost all diseases, for the So
called demonstrations thereof admit of
other explanations. But whether the germ
or the gaseous theory be the true one, he
points ont that the investigations had i'll
both arrived at one positive agreement, the
importance of perfecting sewer systems,
and especially the disposal of noxious gases
through high stand pipes or other means
SO rs to prevent escape at inlcts at the
street crossings. Imperfections of trapping
in drain and waste pipes are sources of
great evil. Garbage should be carted away
by night, and before fermentation and de-
composition commence. Cellars, back
yards, cesspools, closets and all plumbing
should be under legal surveillance, and
kept in condition above suspicion. We
recall that when the RECORD UNION urged
last spring just such precautions i'll Sacra-
mento, there was a considerable class of
people who believed all these things I'M
necessary, and as for pipes to lead foul
gases into the upper air. they held them TO
be simply abominable and damaging to the
city because unsightly Yet we find these
same sanitary precautions advanced before
the most learned and the largest medical
society of the State, where they would not
have been accorded the distinction of
hearing and of print if unsound. When
the spring season again opens, and special
sanitary regulations become necessary of
enforcement. it is to be hoped that ignor-
ance, blind prejudice, and shor!-;ighted
officials will not again prevail, and check
work which in other towns and cities says
our essayist, has accomplished so much in
diminishing mortality, as to justify the
hope that if the so-called zymotic diseases
cannot be stamped out they may be shorn
of their terrors, and devastation therefrom
be no longer horrible dread in our centers
of population.