On this page
-
Text (1)
-
236 THE [LEADER. [Saturday,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Science Of Health. The Mode Of Commu...
cleanliness . Personal cleanliness and clean food are highl y important elements of health . Dr . Snow considers that the cholera poison is actually taken in with the food , more especially amongst the poor , who live m one room only , containing their beds and their food , and with whom washing is seldom thought of . He reminds us that amongst the better provided classes the cases of cholera were always isolated , in consequence of their habits bein" cleaner and the food being kept and prepared in a separate apartment ; all of which seems to us extremely rational , and of the greatest practical importance . From Mr . Stafford ' s account , which is the most accurate we MT __ ... - _ m ' v _^ _ i % _ . _ __ _ . __ l _ 1 _» _ f ^_ r ^ vv s *_ fx _*^¦» _ rk _ ¦ _ . lect of cleanliness has been terrible ot the
^ ^ ^ " have yet obtained , this neg a cause spread of dysentery at Scutari . In obviating such like sources of disease , the new model lodging-houses , and the baths and washhouses , must have a most beneficial effect upon the sanitary an'd social condition of our large cities . We are disposed to put great faith in their influence , and even to reverse the adage— " cleanliness is next to godliness . " Certainly a clean man is a most prepossessing individual ; even your professional mendicant exercises a high moral tone over us—becomes an irresistible object of our charity , when he adopts the clean linen and well-brushed suit of the gentleman in distress . Cleanliness then is a good moral indication
The physiology of dirtiness has its points of interest to those who are fond of speculation ; and these it may not be out of place to mention , if it were only as a rational inducement to cleanliness . We said at starting that life was a consumption . Certain matter used in its maintenance—fuel we might say—must be got rid of after ithas been exhausted of . its properties for supporting the vital combustion . From the skin alone there escapes , during the twenty-four hours , from one and a half to two pounds of water , about a drachm of charcoal combined with oxygen gas , a considerable quantity of fatty matter secreted by multitudes of little crlands , and over the whole surface goes on the wearing off of particles of the scarf skin , little scales of a certain general and definite form . Now , artificial state that
when we consider the clothing up of the skin , an we adopt , it will be seen at once how much we oppose nature ' s efforts to get rid of this effete material . Unless with our artificial habits we take care to preserve the natural functions of the skin , all the diseases of dirt are engendered . Amongst the poor and squalid , every one knows what living examples of dirt-growth are to be seen , but the daintiest of the land are unfortunately equally liable to become the prey of these horrid creatures if cleanliness is made impossible , as it is amongst our army in the Crimea . Now the source of these degraded and loathsome forms of life must be in the particles rejected by the higher animal , which are not actually inanimate , but only iinfit for mar is life . This morbid creation accumulates especially when the body is weakened , and is not at all uncommon to see old and debilitated persons in a dying state suddenly infected with lice .
Nature does all she can to protect us by accompanying . dirt with a repulsive smell , and to " follow your nose , " i . e . the advice of that ready organ , will generally he found the safe 3 t path . The commonest " stink" is sulphuretted hydrogen gas ; it is so poisonous that one part in 1200 of air ismrong enough to kill birds , and one in a 100 will kill dogs ; so that ever so small a portion of it would be sufficient to render the air injurious toJife and health . We learn from Mr . Johnston's interesting lectures that sulphur and its allied substances , such as cyanogen , phosphorus , and tellurium , are the chief ingredients in nasty and destructive smells . But what is so curious is , that the onion and g 9 rlic , our favourite flavourers , with their less favoured cousin the assafoetida , all owe their virtues to a compound of sulphur and allyle . The universal and ancient relish for this flavour is remarkable . " Among the ancient Egyptians themselves the onion formed an object of worship ° and the modern Egyptians assign it a place in their paradise . To the
presentday the onion of the'Nue borders possesses a peculiar excellence and flavour . The Eastern Asiatics appear to require more powerful condiments , with them the assafcetida takes the place of the milder onion and the stronger garlic . "— ( Joh 7 iston . ) Mustard and horseradish owe their peculiar taste and properties to the same chemical essence . It must at the same time be remembered that these powerfully odorous substances would be injurious in a concentrated form ; and it has happened that infants have been nearly killed by suckling from the mother after a meal of onions . Speaking of animal smells , Mr . Johnston mentions the skunk—a creature that defends itself by a smell—and tells us that a perfectly salubrious person may render himself , and even his neighbourhood , perfectly intolerable for
weeks or months , by swallowing a single grain of the metal tellurium : a auar ter of a grain " will impart to his breath and to the perspiration from le skin a disgusting fetor , which makes him a kind of horror to every one he approaches . " Science threatens to turn the knowledge of these deadly smells to some account . A compound of kakodyle and cyanogen can be made , which resolves itself into a deadly vapour the moment it comes in contact with the air , diffusing " at the same instant two of the most deadly poisons with which we are acquainted . Mercaptan ( artificial oil of garlic ) expels us by its insufferable stench ; the kakodylcs and their cyanides arrest our fli g ht by almost us suddenly depriving us of life . These kakodyles might certainly be employed in warlike operations ; but how far the use of vulgar poisons in honourable warfare is consistent with the refinements of modern civilisation '
is open to much doubt . There may not be much real difference between causing death by a bullet and the fumes of deadly poison ; and yet , to condemn a man ' to die like a dog * does array death to him in more fearful colours . " ( Johnston . * ) Such weapons as these are the " asphyxiating shells" which have been proposed . The age of chivalry would be gone indeed , if the heroes of Inkerman were to be armed with smells 1 Many of tho injurious smells nrc produced by our factories ; upon this point the opinion of so expert a chemist ns Mr . Johnston is decisive . He snys : •* There is scarcely a manufactory , indeed , which involves the immediate application of chemical principles—and this includes by fur tho greatest number—which , if carelessly conducted , niny not become a source of real annoyance or even injury to its neighbourhood , I spbak from a very wide experience , however , when I say that the escape of injurious substances into the opon air , from such works , is rarely necessary to the prosperity of the several branches of manufacture . For tho comfort of coimnon life , there
fore , the intentional discharge of them into the atmosphere ought not to be permitted . " Various substances are recommended as smell-destroyers and disinfectants—such as chloride of lime and powdered charcoal . The sinfular properties of carbon in this form have been applied by Dr . tenhouse to the invention of a curious-and very simple sanitary instrument — the charcoal respirator — of which T \ lr . Johnston remarks , " All the air that enters the lungs must pass through this charcoal sieve , and , in so passing , is deprived of the noxious vapours and gases it may contain . Whether , as in the case of cesspools , laboratories , hospitals , dissecting-rooms , or the holds of vessels , these vapours be perceptible and offensive to the smell , or whether , like the miasms and malaria which marshes and festering ponds exhale , they be imperceptible to th e
senses , still the charcoal , it is alleged , will arrest them , and thus secure the wearer of the respirator from their irritating and unwholesome influences . It is also one of those cheap applications of scientific discovery to which the least regarded of . our labouring population—the humble grave-digger , the despised sewer-cleaner , and the Irish drudge in our filthiest factories- —may owe hereaf ter hours of happy health and painless sleep . " We have heard one of the most active and able of the Commissioners of Sewers express the highest opinion of this respirator , which has already been used in the metropolis- ; and it is only just to do honour to the generosity of Dr . Stenhouse , who has declined to restrict the advantages of his invention by securing to himself the profits of a patent . Another plan by which chlorine is available , is also described ; a few layers of cloth dipped in vinegar and sprinkled with chloride of lime , held over the mouth and breathed through , will protect from infectious diseases and the most dangerous receptacles of ¦ ¦
filth . . . Purity of food is almost of as vital importance as purity of air ; but the community has long been completely at the mercy of its purveyors . To read the results of Dr . Hassall ' s searching inquiries one would think that the honest trader is a perfect myth ; he seems to have become so infatuated with the commercial principle , that his maxim now is—Get money honestly if you can ; if not , adulterate . The age in which we live seems to be systematically spurious and religiously make-believe . The instances when a perfectly genuine article of food can be purchased form a very rare exception , and most of the food bought by the poorer classes is found to consist of some imitative rubbish—died leaves of various kinds , and second-hand ones , for tea ; sawdust and burnt beans for coffee ,
and chicory ad lib . ; and even baked horseV and bullock ' s liver . Milk is chiefly diluted with water ; the assertion that brains of animals , and snails were mashed up with it is found not to be true of London milk ; neither is chalk ever used . Gums and ~ starch are" however , employed ^ to thickeu . it and give the appearance of richness . But the « iost serious injury to which the public health is liable arises from the horrible state in which the wretched cows are kept—niany large sheds and cellars exist in London where large numbers of cows are crammed together , three feet six inches allowed to each cow ; and here-they are made drunkards in spite of themselves , by feeding them with brewers * grains ; they have all sorts of dreadful diseases of the udder and skin , but the milkman never releases his animal to the fresh pastures—she goes from him to the dogs ' -meat man .
Bread is not so much adulterated as it is sold under weight ; most of the loaves delivered at houses are deficient several ounces in weight . The law against this kind of cheating exists , but no officer sees toJts being obeyed . Butter is made to weigh heavy by beating water into it , and most of the choice " Epping" and " best Devon fresh" are Dutch butters with the salt washed out . Potted meats and fish seem to consist chiefly of a red earth called bole armeniativ The public is defrauded in its tobacco chiefly by making it weigh heavy , with sugar , or treacle , and water ; the sugar always attracting moisture from the air . In the poor neighbourhoods a very neat article is made up for the market of paper and hay ; the real Whitechapel cheroot is inexhaustible .
Porter generally contains injurious drugs , such as mix vomica , coculus indicus , and copperas , but the most expeditious and effective , perhaps the most harmless fraud , is dilution with water . It seems , too , that new ale is frequently made to resemble old by adding vitriol ( sulphuric acid ) to it . Pickles , preserved fruits , and olives , are universally coloured with some salt of copper of a poisonous nature , and almost all the coloured sweetmeats are injurious from similar admixture . One firm , Castell and Brown , deserves mention as exempted by Dr . Hassall from his ban of impurity . We may observe that in France , where the administrative supervision is supposed to be more searching , trade has , up to a recent period , been conspicuously fraudulent . Dr . Hassall reminds us of one great sanitary fact , which indeed is only too forcibly before us just now , that throughout the whole world more persons have died , and still continue to die , from the neglect of the simplest precautions , and from living in violation of the fundamental laws and rules
of health , than have ever fallen in battle . The public have for ages recognised the great truth that prevention is better than cure , but it is only during the last fifteen years that science has been directed to tho subject of public health , and has created the new branch of reseurch , Hygiene . Chemical analysis and microscopical examination , such as we find brought to bear upon tho subject in the works of Dr . Hassall and Mr . Johnston , and researches so minute and patient , conducted with so much professional intelligence as those of Dr . Snow , show us results
how science is in earnest about tho matter , and wo predict great great benefits to the race , from these investigations ; in no cause coulu science be more worthily applied . Medical science has , we suspect , been too long absorbed in reveries about the nature and habits of disease , though it wore a natural object of creation , instead of studying the sources of tho mortal affliction . Lot us hope wo may live to see tho natives ot our crowded cities , now sacrificed by hecatombs to manufacture and commerce , no longer the stunted , haggard beings they are—degenerate boys uorn in * o a debauched old age—but indulged for a brief hour of life , at least , with tho rude health of the rustic . Legislation will , however , have to
236 The [Leader. [Saturday,
236 THE [ LEADER . [ Saturday ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), March 10, 1855, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10031855/page/20/
-