OUR GRANDFATHERS DIED TOO YOUNG. 173 



man of the expediency of removing graveyards from the abodes 

 of the living ; and here and there among the annals of sanitation 

 are instances of sickness and death that can be traced directly to 

 their baneful proximity. 



We next come to what may be called the medical and physio- 

 logical ameliorations of the woes of humanity. Thousands and 

 thousands of lives are now saved annually in the hospitals, ref- 

 uges, homes, etc., provided by Christian charity, which have most- 

 ly come into being within the last century. Multitudes of lives 

 have been saved by antiseptic surgery alone. The hospitals have 

 afforded such facilities for the study of disease that a partial 

 mastery has been gained over many, especially those known to 

 be contagious, so that when an outbreak of one of these occurs 

 it is soon confined to the smallest possible area ; isolation and dis- 

 infection do much, and the private burial of persons so dying 

 helps to limit the mischief. Of what may be called the medical 

 control of disease, vaccination surpasses all others in its benefits. 

 The deaths in London alone from small-pox during the last 

 century fell but a trifle short of two hundred thousand, and so 

 common was it that Macaulay says a person without a pitted face 

 was the exception ; while the numbers rendered blind, deaf, and 

 hideous as well as wretched by it are pitiful to think of. In 

 New York, in 1878, in a population of eleven hundred thousand, 

 there were but fourteen cases, thanks to vaccination ; and in the 

 German army, where vaccination is compulsory and also revacci- 

 nation at stated periods, the disease has been effectually eradi- 

 cated. Anti- vaccination cranks are specially invited to read the 

 above. 



Sanitation, which works so beneficently among civilians, soon 

 gets itself applied in the army and navy. The navies of the world 

 furnish striking examples of the prolonging of life, and, as careful 

 records are kept in them, it doesn't remain an ambiguous quan- 

 tity. Discipline can enforce cleanliness both of the man and the 

 ship, and a good example set in the ships of one country is soon 

 followed in those of another. The production of pure distilled 

 water on shipboard has done much to abolish alimentary diseases 

 among sailors, and the power of vegetables and lime-juice to de- 

 fend them from scurvy appeals to the selfishness of the ship-own- 

 ers, though redounding to the long life of Jack. Dampness is one 

 of man's mortal foes, and when it is aggravated by heat it becomes 

 ten times worse. Damp heat between decks aggravates yellow 

 fever and is the great cause of disease in the tropics. Formerly ev- 

 ery day saw the decks washed down, but this operation is now left 

 to the discretion of the commanding officer. The wisdom of this 

 arrangement is apparent from the following record of Captain Mur- 

 ray, commander of H. B. M.'s ship Valorous : " In 1823, after two 



