Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1893-03-18
Health and Wealth.

Twelve sanitary officers are going from
house to house in Washington city IN
speeding premises and resolutely report
ing people whose dwellings, yards, or wa
ter-pipes are not what they should be. AZ
= general thing they report that house
holders recognize the Importance this
year above all other years OF q faithful.ob-
servanee of the strictest hygienic laws,
and tenants Of houses provided with ola
styles Of plumbing ARRANGEMENTS are
anxious to have them condemned" 30 that
better ones may be furnished them.
Information gathered by these Wash
ington sanitary inspectors establishes the
fact "that the alleys of Washington have
been comparatively free from diphtheria
and scarlet-fever during the last year,
while great numbers Of children have died
from such causes in the weaithiest por-
tions Of the city,"
We had q somewhat similar experience
here in Richmond in1s91. when d%iphtheria
ragged and carried of so many OF our chill
dren. The ne:ghborhood of Shockoe
creek and Jackson Ward did not suffer
from the disease nearly so much as some
other more %pretentious neighborhoods.
In Washington the experience Is that
"whooping- cough. measles, scarlet-fever'
and dIphtheria are most common IN the
wealthiest families of the city. while ty-
phoid- and malarial-fevers and diarrhea
prevail chiefly whore the drainage IS de-
fective and conditions are generally un-
sanitary"
The DISPATCH long urged an %appropria-
ton by our City Council to prepare from
the reports of:the Board Of Healthy for
the past 25 years q statistical table and
colored map showing at q glance what dis
ease each precinct in this city is distin-
guished for. whether the chief NOR
tality therein is from white or colored peo-
pie. children or adults.
Physicians generally said that this in
formation would ne of incalculable vaiue
TO them and the public. but they took no
pains 10 press the matter upon the atten-
ton Of the City Council. aud after the
diphtheria scare passed the subject was
dropped. and so we are still without the
table and map. We doubt not that 1t
would disabuse the public mind of many
erroneousi impressions with regard to the
healthfulness or unhealthfulness OF GER
tain localities in this city.
At present nearly all of the cities of this
country are preparing TO avert a cholera
visitation. Money is being literally APP
propriated, for it is conceded that any
city could better pay out ten or twenty
thousand dollars than have a single case
of cholera appear amongst its inhabitants.
Everywhere the boards of health are get
ting large funds placed at their disposal
CITY councils dare not refuse them. Each
city will have its emergency hospital, its
trained nurses. its fumigating experts,
DC, and as soon as O case OF cholera APP
pears the authorities will send the patient
10 the hospital and fumigate the premises
where he or she has been.
This matter of preparation against
cholera is OF far greater consequence to
poor people than to rich people. When
cholera appears in q city the rich can fly
to the mountains. The poor, however,
must stay at home, and ma cholera plague
all manufactures close their doors and the
wages of the working people cease. Thus
disease and hunger come coupled to-
gether.
There is cholera In Europe now. aud it
may reach us. For Heavens sake let us
not invite it by indifference or stupidity
on our part.
The appointment by Governor McKIS-
NEY of a State Board of Health is 10 be
commended. Let the board go to work OF
once and cooperate with all the city
boards, and let the members rest as.
sured that a grateful people will compel
the General Assembly to reimburse them
ut least to the extent of expenses that they
may incur il striving to ward off Virgins
soil that great scourge which spares
neither young nor old. rich nor poor
man nor woman. and which leaves a bust
ness community as badly stricken as a tree
shivered by o bolt of Lightning.
This is plain talk. but none too plain
because there is an amazing amount of In
difference on this subject.