San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-03-02

TN years SHOW unat mems lives average
three or four years longer in the country
than in the city Of Providence. In Michigan
the reports received by the state board Of
health prove that poverty, by preventing $50
lation, has been potent factor in the raw.
ages of communicable disease
THE VICTIMS OF ONE DISEASE.
Among tho diseases to which the poor are
especially 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 easements, pneumonia and brOn-
chitiS in winter, cholera lnfantum in sumner,
etc. Says Professor Vaughan: I'VE shudder
at the ravagcs of cholera, but let us come
nearer home. Typhoid fever Stays its hun
dreds where cholera Stays its tens Every
death from typhoid fever is unnecessary. Ii
the sol! were not contaminated none would
occur Yet there are 600 deaths from this
disease in Michigan each year, and for every
one who dies there are ten sick, and not u
case is justi.iable. Each patient is sick on
the average about four weeks and there are
10000 sick during the year. This means
not only a great loss of wages, but q
nurse is required for each person sick, sc
that 10000 people in Michigan give up their
entire time 10 this disease four weeks out OF
each year You may keep your premises
clean, but only a little fence separates you
from your neighbour and he may be careless.
If that ncighbor should knock you on the
head in q dark night, he would be sent &c
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 a criminal oifense for any
man, through carelessness, to give his neigh
Dor a communicable disease"
Health being the first consideration in in
dividualS and communities, laws framed 70
protect and secure it are among the most
necessary and valuable humanity can possess
The old legal maxim, sic utere tue ut allie
mum non laolat"-''sO use your own that il
shall not injure others"-expresscs the prin-
ciple which underltes them SO far as they re-
late to communicable diseases. This, of
course, is also a principle in ethics, and if
mems ethical natures were perfect, and their
intCligenceS so cultivated that they were able
always to give effect to their normal inten-
tiOns, sanitary laws would be needless. HUI
man beings ought to feel 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 mourning quarantine-or in the
isolation from the outside world, and the de,
tention from business, of infected districts,
houses and individuals. The means of Sc.
curing this result q the education of the indi
vidual, and it has been one of the objects of
The Herald so to instruct its readers that in
matters pertaining to health they should
possess the right desires and the knowledge
necessary for fulfilling them Moral and
sanitary education, however, are of slow
growth, requiring for the best results to be
begun in childhood, and continued through
out life, and even through generations =
Boston Herald