APPLIED SANITARY SCIENCE. 667 



several generations, precisely the opposite of that course which makes 

 a bad constitution out of a good one. Any one who has attained to 

 life's meridian will be able to recall examples of good constitutions 

 converted into bad ones. Children, parents, and grandparents, in some 

 families, often stand thus in regard to constitutions : 



Grandparents scarcely know what sickness is, and die of old age ; 



Parents : constitutions much impaired, often sick, and die in mid- 

 dle life ; 



Children : constitutions very defective, and are rarely well a week 

 at a time. 



This is the downward career of life-force, which almost every one 

 has witnessed ; the upward career being the result of a precisely oppo- 

 site course. In place of abusing the constitution there is the most 

 careful husbanding of its resources, and avoidance of all the causes 

 which will impair its vigor. The purity and strength which such a 

 course of conduct begets is transmitted ; the child starts in the world 

 on a higher plane of life-force than the parents did ; and if the offspring 

 continue to carry out the reformation thus inaugurated, the result will 

 be to bring back the pristine vigor, health, and longevity, which an 

 opposite course had destroyed. 



Such are some of the elementary truths forced upon the attention 

 by every-day experience on the great problem of obliterating sickness 

 and death by disease. As has been stated, these elements of sanitary 

 science have long been known. But in spite of this, and of the facts 

 that this science has of late been purged of many errors, and its bear- 

 ings and capabilities greatly extended, disease, deformity, decrepitude, 

 and untimely death, prevail almost as much as ever. Where, then, is 

 the weak point in sanitary science ? Is it in the imperfection of the 

 science itself, or is it in its applications ? Reverting to the history of 

 electrical discovery and its applications, will give us aid in solving the 

 question. We have seen that the discovery of the great truths about 

 the electrical force employed one class of scientific experts, and apply- 

 ing these truths employed another class of scientific experts. Now, 

 we have had in abundance the discoverers of the truths of sanitary 

 law, but we have not, nor can we have, as in electricity, experts who 

 can carry out for the advantage of all, the benefits which hygienic 

 law is capable of conferring. There cannot be, in sanitary matters, 

 ingenious contrivances, by which a certain class of men can manipulate 

 health and long life into their fellow-beings. Its truths, if applied at 

 all, must be mainly applied by those who desire its benefits ; or every 

 one must apply the science for himself or herself, else nearly all the 

 knowledge there may be on the subject will be as if it were not. 

 Here we have plainly before the mind the great and peculiarly weak 

 point, so far as the practical benefits are concerned, which this science 

 may be capable of conferring. To make it profitable and useful, or, 

 in other words, to make it an applied science in a community, that 



