The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-10-21
THE GREAT LONDON REVIEW ON
PUBLIC HEALTH

Writing of sanitary matters and the
public health the Messenger has more
than once pointed 10 the low death
rate Of the greatest city on the globe
London II has over 4,5g0, 600 popula-
tion-a kingdom in itself. Il has a
lower death rate than any large Amer
lean city. and thorough c~anitation and
the best police in the world mainly
contribute TO this most gratifying re-
suit The London Contemporary Re-
view avs OF means TO bring forth such
results:
Pure water, unlimited in quantity.
accessible 10 all. fresh air. spacious
highways, ample recreation grounds
these things are d necessity of health.
and the health of the citizens Is a pri-
mary public concern. II has been the
pride OF the last half century that vast
sanitary reform has been accomplish
ed. And the proof OF il is found in the
diminishing death-rate of most great
cities. and in the highest degree of
London. There are cities in Europe to-
day where the death rate is double that
OF L~ondon-nay, where it is three times
what the death rate of London has
been for whole months within the last
year"
How man towns in North Carolina
can say that the people have pure
water. unlimited in quantity, accessi-
Bile TO aH?" Not one we think. We
know that Wilmington can make no
p%retense that way. Poisoned water for
the most part is just what most people
here are forced TO drink. AS to fresh
air'-pure and life preserving-how is
it. Walk around the town at nights
ana be thankful if 0 car get back
home alive, and not be overcome with
multitudinous stinks. The Contem-
porary Review thinks that London's
Mortality rates now being under 20.
that, in good time it will fall to 10.
Think of il, that in one week Whining
ton had 20 deaths. Dou you know what
rate that is? We will tell you-it is the
rate of 1.040' deaths in a year and that
means 1912 deaths in every 1000 inhab-
ltants. No mar that knows any thing
OF health laws, sanitation, the demand
Tor pure air and pure water as positive
conditions of health, can hesitate in
saying that 20 deaths in one week
would not have occurred under rigid
laws of sanitation, with pure water,
a thorough drainage, a perfect system
of sewage and no sinks and no filth
scattered around n all over the town
and nothing else offensive to hygiene
and decency, and intelligence. Are
our people asleep? Who is responsible
for the large death rate? Wilmington
fortunately has not the average death
rate Of that week, but there was a
cause for it. Fortunately its death
rate is probably not more than half, if
so much. The great London Contem-
porary Review says:
That word will not be said until
every is as free from poisonous
gas and deadly ferments as a scullery
sink in a we'll found house; until the
suspicion of ~preventable infection and
cOntagiOn is entirely removed, until the
infants of the poor are no more de-
stroyed by u~nintentiOnal infanticide
than are the infants of the rich; until
birth, measels, whOoping cough, and
sc%arlatina have ceased to decimate the
homes of the careless, the ignorant,
and the INDECENT. AS it is, at least a
quarter Of our present death rate is
due to conditions which,, if those re-
spOnslble were not SO helpless and so
ignorant, would amOunr to manslaugh-
ter and even murder. And perhaps a
NTH Of the death rate over and above
this is due to conditions which are dis
tinctly ~preventable by science anG by
organization"
And now hInk of this? 1t says that
in the future it will come to pass that
when positively informed of the pres
ent needless, ~preventable slaughter of
the people Sin London alone by our
stupidity and mismanagement will be
told by our descendants as an abnor-
NAL barbarism, such as caused the
Plague and the Black Death of old"
1t says it amounts annually to so, 900 or
$4,000 and all might escape death.