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Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwork.
hundreds of fungoid spores. A bottle of this water, after being kept for some days, showed
minute creatures moving about. As much air as would pass through the lungs of a man in
ten hours, was thoroughly washed in like manner; and one hundred and fifty drops of this
solution, when examined, was found to contain innumerable fungi and dust; from which
latter proof???ed numbers of animalcules. This air, crowded with embryons of low and
foul forms of life, and with morbific germs, we are "churning in our lungs" as often and
as long as we continue to breathe. No wonder wo sulfur from disease: rather is the
wonder that our diseases are not more varied and grave, and our deaths more premature.
The danger lies, not so much from diminution of oxygen in the air, or even excess of
carbonic acid, as from the presence of organic matter given off from the lungs and body.
Wo are often met with the question—How is it that the children we sea in these courts,
alleys, and wretched streets seem so healthy and hardy; indeed, far more so than is seen
in any of the classes above them, if overcrowding, neglect, dirt, and bad food be so
prejudicial as they are asserted to bo? The answer is ready. These children are but the
gleaning of the harvest, gathered in by death. Only these possessed of strong and vigorous
constitution? could have struggled successfully through the difficulties with which they have
had to contend. They are the choice of the whole. The result of wealth and poverty on the
duration of early life, has been strongly shown by Caspar of Berlin: he states as the result
of his inquiries, that of 1000 children born in the families of affluent persons, 911 attained
the age of fifteen years; whilst of 1000 paupers only 584 arrived at that age. Thus, simply
from poverty and its consequences, 327 children perished. Poverty is one of the most
powerful predisposing causes of disease; with poverty, however, we are not called upon to
strive, only with disease, which tends so greatly to extend and intensify it. There is nothing
so precious as health, and yet there is nothing so recklessly squandered away. It should
simply bo the aim of every man and woman to bo as healthy as possible. Health, not
wealth, constitutes the safety and permanence of a nation. "For performance of great
mark, it needs extraordinary health. Sickness is poor-spirited, and cannot servo any one;
it must husband its own resources to live." The deliverance from these causes which fill
our graves with the young, our homes and hospitals with pain and sickness, our prisons
with occupants, and which exposes our country to the periodic death sweep of plague and
pestilence, must be the work of our own hands. "We must no longer attribute these
disasters to any supernatural cause, and so sit down bemoaning our fate with more or less
of resignation. Every plague and pestilence with which we have been visited, have been the
consequence of infringements of the laws by which we are surrounded. As these laws are
more clearly understood, and more rigidly obeyed, the loss shall wo suffer the sure punishments
that follow from disobedience. We are now bearing the consequences of evils committed
by our ancestors. Many a startling crime, and brutal exhibition, and conduct strange
and wayward, are but the development of hereditary tendencies. "There are thousands
now sowing the seeds of corruption, moral and physical, which others shall reap and garner,
when they, the living seed of pestilence, walk no more in darkness, but have laid down
therein." The problem is—How the race of man shall be exalted, and the life lived worthy
of him and his destination. To bring about a solution to this problem, lies within the
compass of your duty, a duty than which none more great and responsible can be mot with.
HENRY BATESON, M.D.
May 7th, 1870.