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10
dwelling wherein such improvement has been effected
is rendered permanently more salubrious, and is therefore
increased in value.
In every Report I have had occasion to dwell
upon the subject of Fever. It is indeed a disease that
can never fail to excite interest and inquiry so long as
it shall prevail. The progress of observation appears
to me to prove more and more distinctly that it is
essentially dependent upon local conditions. It is
therefore a test of the sanitary condition of any given
locality or dwelling. It is a test always available: for
unlike Diarrhoea or Cholera, it does not require the
heat of summer or autumn, or the concurrence of a
specific epidemic poison for its developement. It is a
far more certain test than the general death.rate
deduced from a comparison of the mortality with the
estimated population; this is liable to sources of fallacy
which it is in many instances impossible to unravel.
Granted that Fever is the great Sanitary Test, it
follows that wheresoever Fever is, there is the indication
for sanitary work. It follows, unless it be further
proved that there are other diseases that depend for
their developement or aggravation upon causes operating
from a distance, that it is absurd to look for any amelioration
of the general health.condition of a locality,
from the execution of presumed sanitary works in