Maxims of Public Health (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Maxims of Public HealthThe plague, Asiatic cholera. Typhus fever, typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlatina, yellow fever, small-pox, and some other infectious diseases belong to the same class. The plague, that has frequently decimated mankind, still lingers in an endemic form among the haunts of misery, want, ignorance, and degeneracy of race. It leaps from its lair when unobstructed, and invades the homes of the intelligent and well-tozdo classes by infection. It has been declared, by the perversity, the ignorance, the assumption, or some thing worse, of a small but noisy and persistent part of the medical profession, to be non-infectious, and has been left to spread and destroy mankind. It was regarded in former times as a mysterious visitation of Divine Providence, and consequently no measures were taken to arrest its course. Other diseases, now more prevalent, are regarded by many in the same light, and therefore the sanitarian of to-day has to deal with the stubborn apathy of superstition.Typhus fever is nearest of kin to the plague. While it persists in the midst of poverty, filth, and overcrowding in the Old World, it has fortunately never prevailed to any great extent in our American centers of population. Typhoid fever is a member of the same family, and is too well known in all lands. Malignant cholera is a tramp from the same epidemic family, but has fortunately been great ly restricted in its wanderings by a more intelligent quarantine and by increased cleanliness. Yellow fever is first cousin to the plague, and will continue to deso late certain portions of this country till our Southern cities practice sanitation better, and the Federal Gov ernment undertakes the duty of preventing its periodic importation. Diphtheria, like the plague, feeds on filth and is propagated by infection. Scarlatina is the-more fervid, but not less malignant, sister of diph theria. Both knock at our doors with murderous hands, and will not leave till sanitary administration is allowed to enforce with more vigor the isolation and cleanliness taught by advancing sanitary science. Small-pox is the Wandering Jew of the epidemic family but human ingenuity has tamed its destruo tive spirit with the cunning of vaccination. Here, again, cleanliness and isolation can do the rest.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.