THE BIOLOGY OF EPIDEMICS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1032, 4 May 1894, Page 6

THE BIOLOGY OF EPIDEMICS.

■» '■ Epidemic diseases, naturally enough, occur almost always among peoples whose environment are partially civilized, that is, civilized in regard to their fixity of abode, and barbarous as to their ideas of sanitation. The barbarian in nearly every case is a nomad, whose wandering habits are his salvation. Living among the primitive drainage regulations of most savage tribes, a long stay in one place would almost certainly create an epidemic, and this he escapes by constantly shifting his camp elsewhere. The early civilizations, and indeed the civilization of the present, abandoned the nomadic life while retaining the insanitary surroundings, which made wandering an absolute necessity. The plague of London would undoubtedly have been lessened in . mortality and horror by the existence of even the imperfect sanitary attention we give our dwelling places in the present day, and under perfect sanitary conditions would have been prevented altogether. The everlessening strength of later epidemics proves that beyond contradiction. It is a mistake to suppose that- cities alone are fever beds — under existing circumstances every bush hamlet, every stagnant pool, every spot on which man the destroyer sets his foot, is a congenial home for the disease which, in revenge, destroys man the destroyer. Strict health rules are not confined to cleanliness of surroundings nor even to cleanness of the exterior body. Cleanliness of the working parts of the system is an indispensibility of health. How few are there in a thousand who yield the tribute to Hygeia 1 Imprudencies of diet, disregard of natural laws are daily crimes, they are crimes because they are suicidal. The recurrent dyspepsia, the seemingly trivial stomachic disorders, the general functional derangements are disregarded — that is a crime — one that hurts not only the man himself but* his fellows also, for an unhealthy man is a menace to the health of the community he belongs to. The first duty we owe society is to avoid hurting it, and can we hurt society more than by threatening its bodily health ? And how aggravated does the crime become if we have absolute curatives within reach and neglect to use them! Those curatives are Warner's Safe Remedies, medicines which have stood the test cf years, and have been proved to be infallible specifics for the diseases to which they respectively apply. -