PREVENTION OF DISEASES AND ACCIDENTS. 



31 



their houses are kept, every part of which af 

 fords proper materials for the production and 

 detention of pestilential effluvia, and their igno 

 rance of the importance of pure atmospherical 

 air to animal life, and the consequent necessity 

 of daily ventilating their apartments. It is also 

 owing in a great measure te the custom of per 

 sons crowding into the chambers of those who 

 are labouring under such infectious diseases, 

 and thereby not only increasing the strength of 

 tho infectious virus, but absorbing a portion of 

 it in their own bodies, to spread its baleful in 

 fluence in a wider circle. Such a conduct fre 

 quently proceeds from a want of conviction of 

 the infectious nature of such disorders, and 

 from ignorance of the rapid manner in which 

 they are sometimes communicated from one to 

 another, as well as from that obstinacy and from 

 those inveterate prejudices which are always 

 the accompaniments of ignorance . Though the 

 cow-pox inoculation has been proved by experi 

 ence to be an effectual preventive of that loath 

 some and often fatal disorder, the small-pox, yet 

 numbers in the lower ranks of life cannot yet be 

 persuaded to use this simple preventive, and 

 will rather run the risk of experiencing all its 

 disagreeable and dangerous effects both on their 

 own persons and on those of their offspring. 

 Their obstinate preiudices, in thi&amp;gt; and similar 

 respects, are increased by their false views and 

 reasonings respecting the doctrine of the divine 

 decrees, and the providence of the Almighty. 

 They imagine, that to induce one species of 

 disease for the prevention of another is attempt 

 ing to take the government of the world out of 

 the hands of the Creator, and that no means of 

 preventing disorders can be of any avail, if the 

 Deity has otherwise decreed ; not considering 

 that the Almighty governs the world he has 

 created by regular and invariable laws, and ac 

 complishes his decrees through the intervention 

 of those secondary causes, both natural and 

 moral, which are continually operating in the 

 physical and intellectual world. Were general 

 knowledge more extensively diffused, and the 

 rainds of the multitude habituated to just prin 

 ciples and modes of reasoning, such fallacious 

 views and opinions would be speedily dissipated, 

 and consequently those physical evils and disor 

 ders which they produce would be in a great 

 measure prevented. 



Again, to ignorance we must likewise attri 

 bute, in a great measure, the pernicious Affects 

 of contaminated air in dwelling-house*. Pure 

 air is essentially requisite to the health and 

 vigour of the animal system as wholesome food 

 and drink. When contaminated by stagnation, 

 by breathing, by fk-es or candles, it operates as 

 a slow poison, and gradually undermines the 

 human constitution ; yet nothing is less attended 

 t o in the economy of health by the great majo- 

 - ity of mankind. Because air is an invisible 

 3 



substance, and makes little impression on the 

 organs of sense, they seem to act as if it had no 

 existence. Hence we find, that no attention is 

 paid by the lower orders of society to the po- 

 per ventilation of their apartments. In somo 

 cases, the windows of their houses are so fixed 

 in the walls as to be incapable of being opened , 

 and in other cases, where the windows are 

 moveable, they are seldom opened, except by 

 accident, for weeks and months together ; and 

 were it not that a door and a chimney are to be 

 found in every habitable apartment, the air 

 would be rendered in many instances absolutely 

 unfit for respiration. Crowds of tailors, wea 

 vers, shoemakers, and other mechanics, em 

 ployed in sedentary occupations, are frequently 

 pent up in close, arid sometimes damp apart 

 ments, from morning till evening, without ever 

 thinking of opening their windows for a single 

 half hour for the admission of fresh air ; and 

 consequently, are continually breathing an at 

 mosphere highly impregnated with the noxious 

 gas emitted from the lungs, and the effluvia per 

 spired from their bodies, which js most sensibly 

 felt by its hot suffocating smell, when a person 

 from the open air enters into such apartments. 

 The sallow complexion of such persons plainly 

 indicates the enervating effects produced by the 

 air they breathe ; and although its pernicious 

 effects may not be sensibly felt, it gradually, 

 preys upon their constitutions, and often pro 

 duces incurable asthmas, fevers, consumptions, 

 and other dangerous disorders, which are fre 

 quently imputed to other causes. Nothing is 

 more easy than to open the windows of an 

 apartment, and other apertures that communi 

 cate with the external air, at meal hours, when 

 the room is empty, in order to expel the conta 

 minated air, and admit the pure vital fluid. No 

 me licine or restorative is cheaper or of more 

 importance to health and vigour than pure atmos 

 pherical air ; yet, because it costs nothing, it is 

 little regarded. Hints and admonitions in re 

 ference to this point are seldom attended to ; 

 for ignorance is always proud and obstinate, 

 and the inconveniences supposed, in certain 

 cases, to flow from the practice of ventilating 

 particular apartments are seldom attempted to 

 be remedied. It is, therefore, presumed, that 

 were a knowledge of the nature of the atmos 

 phere, of the ingredients that enter into its conrv- 

 position, of its indispensable necessity for the 

 support and invigoration of animal life, of the 

 circumstances by which it is deteriorated, and 

 of the baneful effects which are produced by its 

 contamination, more widely diffused, its use and 

 importance would be more du\v appreciated, and 

 the disorders which flow from the circumstances 

 now stated effectually prevented.* 



* The following fact shows, n: an impressive man 

 ner, the danger arising from the want of a free cir 

 culation and frequent change &amp;gt;f air. &quot; In the lyinf 



