SANITARY REFORM.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 5, Issue 279, 6 May 1862, Page 6

SANITARY REFORM.

[From the "Otago Daily Times," March 27.1 The increasing prevalence of diarrhoea, typhoid and other fevers, mainly attributable to the malaria induced by bad and insufficient drainage, ought :■' ,to draw the prompt attention oi: the authorities to (•, ;. ; the ; necessity of immediately taking steps to im* X';/'':^'.^w?'"' i^% VBaIIl i* iar y condition of the city. The ■. - rjecftitdgath: of JPrince, Albert, of typhoid fever, has . p^y^)&^^.atmbuted- either to the, bad drainage of v 9r : td.-Ms' presence at the. Exhibition

when some old drains were being opened. The "Lancet" says : — The melancholy occurrence must induce the profession to revert to the former epidemic of typhoid fever which raged in Windsor two years since. That attack was traced by Dr. Murchison very clearly and distinctly to bad drainage as its cause. . . It must be remembered that this (typhoid fever) is one of those zymotic ailments essentially connected in their origin with local defects of sanitary arrangements. So close is the connection between bad drainage and typhoid fever, that Dr. jVlurcnison has, with the assent of Dr. W. JParr, denominated it pythogenic fever, or fever generated by dirt. The writer goes on to state a singular instance of the effect of bad drainage. The Royal Mews at Windsor consist of two ranges of buildings ; one of which is efficiently drained, the other not. Inthe latter there occurred thirty cases of fever, and three deaths. In another column appears a letter, directing attention to the miserable condition in which Dunedin is placed through want of a proper supply of water and through defective drainage. We may state that we are constantly in receipt of letters bearing on the same subject ; in fact, the evil is patent to all, but " what is everyone's business is no one's business," and though the dangerous condition of Dunedin is universally recognisedj each person is content to rest on the slumbering volcano, because he thinks that his neighbours subject themselves to a like danger. Take a single person, trained to habits of cleanliness, and place him in a house, surrounded on all sides with filth, with no means of drainage, and drawing its supply^ of water from a Hqu'd which filters through soil impregnated with the foulest impurities, and that same individual would revolt at the idea of continuing his residence on the spot assigned to him. But when ho finds that, instead of his being an isolated case, there are hundreds, nay thousands •of others occupying similar tenements, he ceases to hold, or at any" rate to evince any objection, and this although with the combined means that could be employed, tbe remedy could be applied at a far less ratable expense than if there were only one or two cases to provide for. Health is the greatest of God's gifts ; wealth, station, abilities, accomplishments, all that men most seek after and set most store by — "pale their ineifectual fires," when health is wanting to sustain them. The nation has lately had to deplore the loss of an amiable, much-loved Prince — the husband of the Queen who rules over the hearts of the people. The papers have told of the j bitter grief the severance of the family tie has oc- j casioned to the highest personage in the land. They tell, that the inmates of a palace are as liable to the same griefs, and feel them as acutely as tbe humblest subjects. jSo one can read of the sorrow of the Queen and her children, and of i;he many touching ways in which she has since displayed her anxiety to consult the wishes he had in life expressed, without feeling that beneath the robe of the Queen the heart of the woman beats. In the presence of the dread destroyer, everything of " earth eavthy" — is forgotten. The widowed Queen says she has but one desire in life — to carry out tbe wishes of her husband- till the time comes when she can rejoin him. She sends violets and a camehas to put upon his coffin, as over the stone vaulted grave in which Royalty reposes no wild flowers can bloom. She searches anxiously for objects which he had interested himself in, and intimates her intention to continue the assistance which he had bestowed upon them. Amongst the Daughters of England what wife and mother, loving her husband, but would have evinced her grief in a similar manner. We recognise in the l ove — in the grief — in the devotion, — the common ties that bind all human kind together. " We see beneath the manlike crown The woman's heart wild beating." — The allusion we have made has not been without an object. Dunedin is allowed to remain a city which invites pestilence ; every sanitary precaution is neglected ; its streets and the surroundings of its dwelling houses reek with impurity and filth — its inhabitants imbibe poison in the water they drink — the grim phantom of the inexorable destroyer stalks through its streets ready to commence his work of destruction, and everywhere around are those who, by the exercise of little trouble and less sacrifice, might arrest his deadly march. Sanitary precautions would be adopted if the inhabitants possessing wealth and influence in the town would exert themselves to procare them. To these we speak ; for their benefit we have dragged in the allusion to the misfortune that has occurred in the Royal Family. Death is no respector of persons, and despite their wealth, their influence, their prosperity, they may find cause to bitterly regret the supineness which has permitted the town they inhabit to develop itself into a huge charnel house. If a few cases of typhoid fever or other disease of a malarious character break out, human power may be insufficient to arrest its devastating progress through old and young, through rich and poor. The husband who will learn what it is to lose a dearly beloved wife, or parents their children, will deplore with anguish deeper than pen can paint the opportunity neglected of preventing the introduction of the disease that she or they whom they mourn have fallen victims to. In that hour will come to them the nothingness of all the gifts on the possession of which they prided themselves, and the bitter consciousness alone will remain of human life recklessly, guiltily, sacrificed — in the forgetfulness of duties that wealth and station impose, rather than relieve from. We write strongly because the case is one of need. The Black Horses are harnessed, and every moment may be at the door. The man who would fill a wooden tenement with shavings and throw amongst them a half extinguished light, would not be more madly reckless than they, who will allow the city they inhabit to be filled with every accessory to disease, and use no precaution to check the cause or limit the effect. In more than one part of the world malignant fever and Asiatic cholera are raging. Ships from these parts come occasionally to Dunedin, and no pretence of precaution is exercised to prevent them from coming at once right amongst the shipping. The Health Officer lives twenty miles from the entrance to the port. A kind of substitute, who performs his duties, visits atteb they have come amongst the othee shipping, and inquires after the health of those on board. If the . answer leads to the belief that the. ship is infected, the substitute, instead of remaining on board, comes on shore again,

to spread the infection if any exist. The Health Officer then performs the same feat, and, after visiting the ship, contributes his mite towards j spreading the infection on shore. In the name of humanity, we protest against this trifling with the health, nay lives, of thousands of human beings. An epidemic once introduced at Dunedin, . and no foresight can comprehend the limit of its , ravages. Quite possibly a. health officer stationed at the Heads might find nothing to do, but he should be there if required, and the amount of his salary would be nothing compared with using every precaution to stop the possible approach of a destroyer that might decimate the community. With other sanitary precautions our limits will not now permit us to deal. Suffice it that sanitary science is as yet a total blank in Dunedin, and that its. absence, with the consequences that may accrue is terrible to think of. If we were to be asked for an outline of the course we would recommend, we should suggest the establishment of a Health Board, endowed with authority to make bye laws for sanitary purposes. We would have a health officer stationed at the Heada, and one within the boundaries of the town. We would have the drainage and water supply of the city at once [ attended to, and would rigorously prohibit the collection of any more filth. The warning we i have conveyed may be unheeded, but the day will i come, and that shortly, when many who read these ! remarks will bitterly lament, in family ties rudely | snapped asunder, their neglect of that which afi fects every individual person in the community.