There are some occupations that ought to be salvatory to those that
engage in them, as that of the physician or the minister. Yet all
occupations may so serve, if the man who works in them thus determines.
As an instance of service salvatory to the worker, an English writer
refers to the immunity from disease of those who work in the oil-fields:
There is no difficulty in accounting for this. Carbolic acid,
one of the most powerful of our disinfectants, is abundantly
produced in the oilworks, and this is carried by the clothes of
the men, and with the fumes of the oil into the dwellings of the
workmen and through all the atmosphere of the neighborhood, and
has thereby counteracted some of the most deadly agencies of
organic poisons. Besides this, the paraffin oil itself is a good
disinfectant.
(2229)