Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-31
THE PUBLIC HEALTH.
A TERRIBLE WASTE OF LIFE IN
 EVERY COMMUNITY.

Death from Certain Diseases Unneoessary.
 Dangers That Surround the Poor-Awful
 Condition iN Cities-When Carelessness
 Is Criminal.
 Reason declares that sickness and death will be moro likely to prevail among the poor than among the rich and those in comfortable cir cunstances, and statistics prove such actu- ally to be the case. The man of means Is able to consult his health, to rest when its condition requires him to do so, to take needed vacations, to seek a change of climate, to ob- tain leisure for wholesome recreation and pastimes; he habitually dwells amid comfort able and sanitary surroundings, enjoys the best air, food and clothing, obtains medicines and medical attendance when and as soon as he requires them, and, in fact, commands all the resources that civilization and science have to offer for getting and keeping him well and for prolonging his life into extreme old age~ The poor man necessarily can pro- tect himself much less
 THE DANGERS OF POVERTY.
 We hear of no diseases peculiar to mem bers of the learned professions, merchants, bankers, capitalists, etc. Almost every trade has it's distinguishing ailment. For instance. painters colic," ''potters asthma" "coai miners black lung," ''knife grinders con sumption" 'coppersmith's green hair," etc. It would be well, it may be remarked in pass ing, if the law would take steps to reduce the liability to these, by compelling factories and workshops to be supplied with the best means Of counteracting the effects of nox- ious gases, masks for the eyes, respirators for the lungs, and bath house for workmen, and by shortening the hours of labor in espe- clally dangerous occupations. The mortality in the trades Is two or three times that in the professions, among which, by the way, the deaths among the doctors exceed those among other professional men, owing to their ire quent contact with communicable disease
 Farr's "Law of Density" states that ''the nearer men live to each other, the shorter a1e their lives" Not only are the poor more ex- posed to disease aud death than the rich, but the poor in cities than the poor in the coun- try. The general mortality in cities is two to three times higher than that in the country. Twenty-Five per cent of our population to- day dwell in large cities Here exists the greatest poverty, contamination of the soil and mortality. In New York 2,076 people were recently found inhabiting single block, fourteen or fifteen sometimes in two rooms, or even one, which served as kitchen, workshop laundry, bed chamber and parlor Among such rookeries exists what Is known as the tenement house rot, i" and two-thirds of the mortality of New York occurs in them. The hkehood of the spread of disease, when once it has found lodgment In such dens, and the difficulty of arresting and eradicating 1t can scarcely be exaggerated Among them corpse Is allowed to lie two days Ill the same room in which the fam lily eat, work and sleep, with possibly an in- valid in bed, and the thermometer often ranging over 100 degs The food and water are bad, the slops imperfectly disposed of and the sewer e1hales poisonous gases Poverty Is forced to endure unhealthy surroundings. and unhealthy surroundings, in addition to their probable direct effects, deprive human beings of their self respect, deaden their in- tellects, render their blood impure and so iu- directly make them more liable to contract disease. In the cities of Scotland 1t has been found that where tho average of persons to the room Is highest, the mortality Is the high est; in Glasgow, that where the number of largo houses exceeds that of small, it Is least, and vice versa In England and Wales, in every 1000 persons 25 die in cities to IT in the country. In Rhode Island, satisfies for ff- seen years show that mems lives average three or four years longer in the country than in the city of Providence In Michigan she reports received by the state board of health prove that poverty, by preventing iso- tAton, has been potent factor in the rav- ages of communicable disease.
 THE VICTIMS OF ONE DISEASE.
 Among the diseases to which the poor are specially liable may be instanced diphtheria, and, in fact, contagious disorders generally, those which are produced and affected by bad air, overcrowding and soil contamina- ton, wasting and nervous diseases, those due to exposure, rheumatism contracted in damp cellars or basements, pneumonia and bron- chitis in winter, cholera infantum in summer, etc. Says Professor Vaughan: "We shudder at the ravages of cholera, but let us come nearer home. Typhoid fever stays it's hun dreds where cholera stays its tens. Every death from typhoid fever is unnecessary. If the soil were not contaminated none would occur. Yet there are 1000 deaths from this disease in Michigan each year, and for every one who dies there are ten sick, and not . case Is 5ustifiable. Each patient is sick on the average about four weeks and there are 10000 sick during the year. This means not only great loss of wages, but & nurse Is required for each person sick, so that 20, 900 people in Michigan give up their entire time to this disease four weeks out of each year. You may keep your premises clean, but only 0 little fence separates you from your neighbor, and he may be careless If that neighbor should knock you on the head in a dark night, he would be sent to prison; but he may contaminate your well, and rob you of your life and your family, and you can do nothing. The time will come when it will be criminal offense for any man, through carelessness, to give his neigh bor communicable disease"
 Health being the first consideration in in- dividuals and communities, laws framed to protect and secure it are among the most necessary and valuable humanity can possess The old legal maxim, 'dc utere tuo ut allie mum non laedat"-''so use your own that 1t shall not inJsre others"-expresses tt.. prfn- ciple which underbes them so far as they re- late to communicable diseases. This, of course, Is also principle in ethics, and if mems ethical natures were perfect and their intelligences 90 cultivated that they were able always to give effect to their normal iuteu- tons, sanitary laws would be needless Hu- man beings ought to feed it to be the highest part of manhood and womanhood to sacrifice their own interest or convenience, when necessary, for the good of society-as, for instance, in incurrtn1 ,quarantine-or in the isolation from the outdde world, and the de- tention from business, of infected districts, houses and individuals. The means of se- curing this result Is the education of the indi-