View report page

21
Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1876—7.
It is in localities like unto these, that diseases ride and gather strength, and from
??? they are disseminated. One human being from unfortunate circumstances, or
???ppy and unwise conduct may set up a disease which shall spread near and far. Ex???as
of this fact abound. A characteristic one is given by Carlyle. "One of Dr.
???'s facta strikes us much" he says, "An Irish widow, her husband having died in
of the lanes of Edinburgh, went forth with her children bare of all resource, to seek
from the Charitable Establishments of the City. She in all cases was refused. Her
and strength at last failed her; she sank down in typhus fever, infected her lane
it, so that seventeen other persons died from the disease in consequence. And thus
proved her sisterhood by her typhus fever killing them." We need hardly call to our
???rabrnnco the Block Assizes, as history calls them, when the wretched, neglected prisoners
???d that treatment by raying out from their filthy ragged persons contagion, which,
???oyed Chief Barons, Baronets, Lord Mayors, Sheriffs, Knights, Serjeants at Law,
rtnen, Justices, Juries, and thousands of the Commonality. The fever born and bred
???e persons of the prisoners. spread from town to town producing dismay, disease and
???. This destruction was evokod by sheer neglect and inhumanity.
"A man dies of cholera in the Valley of the Ganges, and the disease there generated
??? Europe, Asia and America; a child in Arabia has the small-pox, and the disease of
child spreads and exterminates tribes of North American Indiana; the plague born in
???, or Ethiopia, prostrates the population of the Roman Empire, and sweeps away at
???vals through centuries a largo proportion of the population of Athens, Florence,
???on and other large cities." Man must help man or destroy him. The latter has been
???ly the oourse pursued, and with considerable success. The means of safety are placed
???r own hands, and whether we neglect them from ignorance, carelessness, or avarice,
???aaults will be the same.
In some countries about which I have read, the paying of taxes is a season of rejoicing
festivity ; a fact which seems hardly credible when we consider our own experience of
like demands. Yet it is possible to conceive that such rejoicing and festivity might be
???ifested here, did wo feel quite assured they were applied to the ends intended, and that
??? ends were wise and beneficent. Anyhow, we often voluntarily tax ourselves, and to
???rge extent, for ends which are neither wise nor beneficent. To celebrate some passing
???ronce, we raise up the moat tawdry foolish structures out of canvas and plank, which
???eaent nothing either in nature or art, and which vanish almost in the same hour that
them rise, and this is done at a cost which would have drained, cleansed, and made
???tiful a city or town, or built alms-houses, or laid out parka and gardens, which would
??? proved useful, and remained as durable memorials of events to future generations
this has been done by towns which for years have been discussing and haggling about
money which would bo required to wash and make themselves clean and healthy. I
??? not apeak about the thousands upon thousands spent over even still more transitory
even less satisfactory objects. Certainly the money spent over our pageants and feasts
??? be much more reasonably and effectually spent in the promotion of the health and
fort and elevation of the people.