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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1871—72.
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lief from the poor rate. Insanity is. one great cause of pauperism. Such results show a
long continued violation of the laws of nature. They are the punishments for such violations.
Not always have we erred wilfully, often from ignorance, but ignorance is not
accepted as a plea for exemption. The cause why a law is broken does not affect t!ie
result. "Our ancestors," says Kingsley, "fasted and prayed, but in vain. They called
the pestilence a judgment of God, and they called it by a true name, but they knew not
I what God was judging thereby—foul air, foul water, unclean backyards, stifling attic-ks,
[house hanging over the narrow street, till light and air were alike shut out. That there
lay the sin ; to amend that was the repentance God demanded." It would seem as if in
the middle ages sanitary knowledge had gone out: for in long past ages it was known and
practised. Great cities existed and carried on mighty works; and vast armies marched,
and camped, and fought, which could not well have happened without the practice of
sanitary measures.
But the legacies left by those who have preceded us, have not all alike been thus injurious
and demoralising: generation after generation have worn themselves weary, and
lain them down to die in their endeavour to make England what it is; and it behoves the
Present Age with its increased means and its greater knowledge, to labour and struggle
with unsubdued energy, not only to hold fast that which has been bequeathed to it, but to
add to, and to extend those precious possessions, the chief amongst which is—health.
HENRY BATESON, M.D. Lond.
June 4th, 1872.