MODERN IDEAS OF SANITARY ECONOMY, 



43 



to the health of the community. If, as we may reasonably 

 suppose, there was originally a sanitary intention in embalming 

 their dead, it certainly answered the purpose well, whilst the 

 decayed bodies which now are said to pollute Cairo, were 

 converted into objects of respect and lessons of wisdom to the 

 ancient inhabitants. There is no doubt that their exercises 

 were intended for health as well as amusement, because in 

 a place where daily walks could not be taken as with us, 

 they used all those methods of exercising the muscles by 

 artificial postures, dumb bells, &c., now only becoming 

 common with us. But here, again, the real part of our 

 subject is left unknown ; we do not know well how they 

 dealt with crowded communities, with streets, with houses, 

 and the sites of towns. 



That sanitary arrangements in towns arose more from the 

 love of appearance and luxury, than from sanitary law, I am 

 more disposed to believe, from the method in which many 

 of these towns have grown. Whether we take Edinburgh or 

 ancient Athens, there has been the same close building of 

 streets, so that the opposite sides nearly met, especially at the 

 top ; ceilings being low, and ventilation bad as a consequence. 

 When life in Greece became more languid, these houses 

 became intolerable ; the active men of an early period did 

 not feel the discomfort of the small houses they so little 

 used, whilst to the luxurious man of a quieter period, they 

 became intolerable, and gave way to the mansion ; whereas 

 it is to be hoped, in modern times, we seek improvement not 

 to prepare idle days for ourselves, but to increase our vigour. 

 Yet in that country, probably, among certain persons, it was 

 as well understood as anywhere, what were the advantages of 

 good air, good water, and good exercise. Hippocrates gives 

 directions to physicians to examine carefully the situation 

 of a town as to winds and as to soil, and is apparently the 

 first writer on sanitary economy in an extended sense. His 

 treatise on Air, Water, and Situation is not an uncommon 



