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cleanliness . Personal cleanliness and clean food are highl y important elements of health . Dr . Snow considers that the cholera poison u actually taken in with the food , more especially amongst the poor , who live in 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 have vet obtained , this neglect of cleanliness has been a terrible cause oi the ot disease
spread of dysentery at Scutari . In obviating such like sources , the new model lodging-houses , and the baths and washhouses , must have a most beneficial effect upon the sanitary and 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 U a most prepossessing individual ; even your professional mendicant exercises a hi <* h 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 it has 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 wlands , and over the whole surface goes on the wearing off of particles of and definite form
the scarf skin , little scales of a certain general . Now , when we consider the clothing up of the skin , an artificial state that 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 unfit for marts 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 be found the safest path . The commonest " stink" is sulphuretted hydrogen gas ; it is so poisonous that one part in 1200 of air is strong 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 to life 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 garlic , our favourite flavourers , with their less favoured cousin the assafcetida , all owe their virtues to a compound of sulphur and allyle . The universal and ancient relish for this flavour is remarkable . " . Among Jheancient ^ Egyptians themselves the onion formed an object of their the
worship , and the modern Egyptians assign it a place in paradise . J . o present day the onion of the Nile borders possesses a peculiar excellence and flavour . The Eastern Asiatics appear to require more powerful condiments , with them the assafcatida takes the place of the milder onion and the stronger garlic . "— ( Johnston . ) 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 quarter of a grain " will impart to his breath and to the perspiration from the 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 bo made , which resolves itself into a deadly vapour the moment it comes in contact with the air , dill using " 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 kakodyles and their cyanides arrest our flight by almost as suddenly depriving us of life . These kakodyles might certainly be employed in warluco 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 do gone indeed , if the heroes of Inkermnn wero to be armed with smells 1 Many of the injurious smells aro produced by our factories ; upon this point the opinion of so expert a chemist as Mr . Johnston is dccisivo . He says : " There is scarcely a . manufactory ; indeed , which involves the immediate application of chemical principles—and this includes by far the greatest number—which , if carelessly conducted , may not become a source of real annoyance or . even injury to \ W neighbourhood . I speak from a very wido experience , however , when I say that the escape of injurious substances into the opon air , from uuch works , is rarely necessary to the prosperity of the several branches of manufacture . For the comfort of common 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 Mr . 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 , laboratori es , hosDitals , dissecting-rooms , or the holds of vessels , these vapours be permiasms and
ceptible and offensive to the smell , or whether , like the malaria which marshes and festering ponds exhale , they be imperceptible to the 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 hereafter 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
ill 4 . 1 * 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 . Hassan ' 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 horse ' s 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 as chalk ever used . Gums and starch are , however , employed to thicken it and give the appearance of richness . But the most serious injury to which which the wretcneu
the public health is liable arises fromthe horrible state in . cows are kept—many 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 bis 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 to its 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 put . Potted meats and fishg £ em ; to ^ " cohsisrehiefly of a red earth called bole armenian . 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 , ouch 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 b y 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 . . . T 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 > s only during the last fifteen years that science has been directed to the subject of public health , and has created the new branch of research , Hygiene . Chemical analysis and microscopical examination , such as we find brought to bear upon the subject in the works of JJr . Hassall and Mr . Johnston , and researches so minute and patient , conducted with so much professional intelligence as those of Dr . Snow , show how science is in earnest about the matter , and wo predict great results couiu
great benefits to the race , from these investigations ; in no cause science be more -worthily applied . Medical science has , wo suspect , been too long absorbed in reveries about the nature and habits of disease , as though it wore a natural object of creation , instead of studying the sources of the mortal affliction . Lot us hope wo may live to see the natives ot our crowded cities , now sacrificed by hecatombs to manufacture and commerce , no longer the stunted , haggard beings they are—degenerate boys born into a debauched old age—but indulged for a brief hour of life , at leasr , with the rude health of the rustic . Legislation -will , however , have to
Untitled Article
236 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 10, 1855, page 236, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2081/page/20/
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