The record-union., 1891-09-24
LOCAL SANITATION.

LOCAL SANITATION.
From the 10th to the 18th of August last
there sat in London 1.-THE International
Congress Of Hygiene and Demography."
France, Italy, the United States, Eng
land, Prussia, Germany, Austria, India,
Hungary, Russia, South America, Cam
ada, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark,
Sweden and Australia were represented.
About two thousand persons attended
the opening of the Congress, over which
the first day the Prince of Wales pre-
sided, to give it governmental recog-
milton and favor. 1t was distinguished
body of emiuently representative medi-
cal men and sanitarians.
Among the first papers read was by
DIR. Joseph Fayrer, Chairman, on Pre-
ventive Medicine" 1t was followed by
others in the same line. He proved that
about one-fourth of all the mortality in
England is caused by preventable disease.
He found from statistical proofs that I25,-
ventable disease, and that seventy eight
and one-fourth million of days of labor
are lost yearly from preventable sickness.
Very largely this sickness and the deaths
referred to are the result of unsanitary
conditions in thick populations, and there
is a striking parallelism between the
Il Of ho
cases and the dryness of the soil result
ing from the construction of sewage
works.
Preventive medicine has made wonder
ful strides in the last fifty years; it has,
indeed, become the motto of the medical
profession, with an emphasis not before
given to it. that the aim of the physician
is to prevent rather than to cure. Sani-
tary science has made magnificent ad-
vances also, and there is now no excuse
for any considerable community living
under unsanitary conditions, or suffering
from preventable disease as described at
the International Congress. True some
may always be better than others, due to
natural advantages, and some localities
may be unable to establish proper con-
ditions in single generation. But we
all know that there is no city or town, no
matter what its location, that can be ex-
cused for maintaining a cesspool system;
for poisoning the soil by saturating it
x.-i+l
sanitary practice that invite preventable
diseases.
The mortality rate of town or city
may be low, but that is not the best test
of the desirability as place of residence,
but rather the health conditions. What
Is needed is to reduce preventable sick
ness, to have a high standard of
health as well as an enviablo
mortality rate. In India it has
been demonstrated that sanitary
regulation and the adoption of sanitary
devices have immensely lowered the
malarial sick rate, and proved that it can
be almost wholly eliminated from con-
sideration. Whether justly so or not, it
is a fact that it is useless to deny, that
abroad Sacramento is reproached for
malarial conditions. Physicians in other
localities in ninety cases out Of one hun
dred tell Sacramentans, consulting them,
than their illness is the result of malaria.
We know, and the medical fraternity
here knows, that 10 per cent of this
charge is groundless; that the convenient
and easy response of the physician
abroad is malaria" and that he gives it
without reflection, and as matter OF
course to those from Sacramento. That,
indeed, it has become a fad and dogma
with most of them.
Now, the fact is that bad air may exist
anywhere, and that is malaria 1t is to
be detected on the very seashore and
upon the mountain tops. 1t is not the
reproach of Sacramento any more than OF
the region in San Francisco beyond the
Mission Dolores. Sacramento can re-
move her reproach, however, whatever
it may be, utterly and convincingly by
making it impossible for any one to say
truthfully that she is polluting her
soil. BY wise sanitary method
of disposing of her sewage the bottom
lands below the city will no longer re-
ceive the city filth drainage and be no
more the breeding place for polluted air.
Experience in the past summer, in which
the drainage has been diverted, proves
this to be true conclusion. By abolish
ing eesspools that drain their liquid con-
tents into the porous soil and pollute the
ground beneath and about our homes
we viii be absolutely free from any JUS
charge of artificial unsanitary condition
while natural ones are few and steadily
disappearing.