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in staying the progress of diseases by destroying their
infectious properties in the places where they had
become fixed. Recently in the West Ward of this
Hamlet, where fever has been very prevalent for several
months, I have observed many marked instances of the
success of the course pursued, Whereas in houses in
which such measures had not been adopted the disease
continued to extend.
Overcrowding, Ventilation, &c.
There can be no doubt that these diseases have their
exciting causes, and their remote origin too, in the evils
attendant upon overcrowding and uncleanliness producing
specific blood poisoning, thus inflicting upon
us a fatal penalty for ignoring the fundamental and
even instinctive hygienic laws of nature.
The most complete system of drainage and water supply
with every other sanitary accessory would be rendered
useless by a continuance and disregard of the evils
referred to. Of course much may be done in mitigation
by improved methods of ventilation, but in calm weather
and in winter, when every means of ingress for air is
cut off to retain necessary wamth, nothing short of a
hurricane would suffice to displace and renew the air in
the houses of the "built in" old courts and streets
which exist in all large towns.
With a belt of air 40 miles in depth surrounding the
earth, surely it is the refinement of cruelty to restrict
its supply within limits which we know to be not only
injurious, but ruinous to the health and well-being of
present and future generations. If the enormous supply
of air above mentioned should ever prove insufficient,
no doubt the credulity of the public would be equal, as
is proposed in the case of water, to contribute the means