Those of our citizens who were “to the manor born,” and never left
their native land, cannot form any idea of the comfort they enjoy as
compared with the misery endured from birth to death by thousands
of kindred humanity in the other parts of the world. Even in highly
cultivated and brilliant England and her dependencies, we find enough
to shock the feelings and make us ask ourselves “can such things be?”
In a pamphlet recently given to the world, DR. MORGAN, a Master of
Arts, and a prominent member of the British Medical Association,
repeats in print a paper which he read before that learned body at
Oxford, in August last; and but for which publication we would have
been in ignorance of the actual depth of misery to which so many good
and faithful subjects of that proud and wealthy monarchy are condemned
uncared for and unthought of.
“The author remarks that the housing of the poor, while beset with
great difficulties, is most intimately connected with the future
prosperity of the great mass of the people. In all our great cities,
there are unhealthy quarters, where the death rate is exceptionally
high, and the reason of this, after careful inspection of many such
places, Dr. Morgan believes is to be found in this statement. Bad air,
or too little of it, kills the people.
“Men will grow robust and vigorous, the author remarks, on very poor
food, in very dirty cabins, and in very sorry attire, provided they
enjoy a pure and bracing atmosphere, and the great physical development
of the nations of the Hebrides and the western highlands of Scotland is
cited as an example. In striking contrast to this, we find that in the
Isle of St. Kilda, a small island, numbering about eighty inhabitants,
three out of every five infants born alive are carried off a few days
after birth by a convulsive affection allied to tetanus, the difference
being apparently due to the huts having no smoke-hole in the thatch,
and being rendered impervious to air by double walls filled in with
peat and sods, the object of which is to prevent the escape of smoke,
and in due time the soot is collected and used as manure.”
* * * * *
DRINKING FOUNTAINS—This philanthropic movement which offers the
grateful cup of Nature’s refreshing beverage to the parched lip of
the passenger, is one that takes a high place indeed in the church
universal, at whose shrine all bend in unison, and know no discordant
thought, but love one another for the love of God.