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30
purchase a circumscribed exemption from the
disease by the judicious application of sanitary care.
In the remarks which I have made on the local
distribution of Cholera, you will have observed that
I dwell particularly on one class of sanitary evils as
concerned in its production ; on that class, namely,
which consists in the retention and soakage of
organic refuse—on that class, which has its appointed
antidote in a system of inodorous drainage, of
uninterupted pavement, of complete and punctual
scavenage.
On this I particularly insist, because I believe
that here is the very atmosphere without which
Cholera would cease.
Sanitary evils abound; and, if I were speaking of
other diseases I might have more to say of other
causes. I am unwilling, even for a moment, to
seem indifferent to those remaining fertile sources of
suffering that surround the poor of our metropolitan
population—to their over-crowded condition, to
their scantiness of ventilation, to their insufficient
or disgusting water-supply, to their frequent personal
dirt, to their habitually defective diet. These
several influences have their own characteristic
sequels and retribution, on which I have often
addressed you, and which I am little likely to
underrate; believing as I do, that the aggregate
of their effects in the lapse of years, is far more
fatal than any periodical epidemic visitation. Likewise,
I cannot doubt that, under certain