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15
atmosphere is the medium through which vapours are carried
from house to house, and that it diffuses the miasm of fever
as readily as it does the perfume of flowers or the freshness
of the morning. Every one should know that clean and
pure water is as much a necessary of life as food or raiment,
and that the sun which cheers us with its light and warmth
promotes evaporation and putrefaction, and so causes every
little cinder-heap and dunghill to become an active centre
of dangerous disease. To the combination of the products
of a number of these small nuclei are to be attributed the
origin of contagious maladies in many defined instances,
attended, of course, with their accustomed mortality. Nothing
in nature is destroyed, but only undergoes change; but
during that change, certain causes of disease are at the same
time generated ; the principal among them are the result of
disorganisation of animal and vegetable matter. Therefore,
if no pains were taken to render innocuous the refuse of our
homes, the sewage of our streets, etc., we could not wonder
if we found contagion flying on the wind, and carrying death
into every corner of our streets and houses.
In our day very much has been done to promote the
health of the people. Efforts are being continually made to
render the vast congregation of cities known as London as
pure and cleanly as possible. The intercepting drainage
scheme, the ample supply of water (which is capable of some
extension), the improvement in cottage homes, the opening
up of narrow thoroughfares, the improvement of highways,
the regular inspection of lodging houses, the removal of
nuisances, the inspection of factories, the Thames embankment,
the establishment of baths and washhouses, the closing
of churchyards, and the supervision of markets and slaughter