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The Common Nature of Epidemics and their Relation to Climate and Civilization

9781465637130
200 pages
Library of Alexandria
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Overview
Some account of the structure and functions of the human frame, of the action of physical agents on this wonderful machinery, and of the principles which relate to Individual, as well as to Public Health, ought to form a part of elemental education. There is a growing conviction that the necessity for such knowledge is not restricted to the physician; that it is essential also to the educator, the mother, the nurse, and indeed to every one who would enjoy, together with the due development of his physical, intellectual, and moral nature, the full term of the boon of life. The main causes which shorten and embitter human life, as far as that unhappy result depends on the disturbance of health, are within our own control. There is the closest connection between the knowledge we have acquired of the physical conditions on which the life and health of individuals and communities depend, and on our command over those conditions. Every fact we have learnt respecting the great laws of nature, on our conformity to which our very existence depends, has taught us that the circumstances which produce excessive sickness and early death are preventible. The character of Pestilence which gave it its great power and terror—that it walketh in darkness,—is its character no longer. Its veil has fallen, and with it its strength. A clear and steady light now marks its course from its commencement to its end; and that light places in equally broad and strong relief its antagonist and conqueror—Cleanliness.

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