No. 216.] 463 



and efficient health police might do much towards correcting the 

 existing evils, but lo carry the desired reform to the utmost limit, 

 and with a greater permanency, measures which no police can carry 

 out, are necessary. And as these evils are not confined to the labo- 

 ring and destitute part of our population, but afflict also the weal- 

 thier portion, a more healthy state of public opinion is absolutely 

 necessary to effect the desired results. 



This can best, if not ortly, he done, by making physiology, as ap- 

 plied to the laws of life, and the prevention of diseases, a subject 

 of study in all our private, public and common schools. The chil- 

 dren who attend these, especially the latter, are the individuals by 

 and with whom, the important change of opinion and habit, is to be 

 wrought, if at all. It is needless to say to an ignorant adult, ap- 

 parently free from sickness, that he lives, works and sleeps, in too 

 confined an atmosphere; he will answer that he is well enough, a 

 change would be irksome and cost money, and he will not believe 

 what you say, for he cannot be easily made to understand the im- 

 portance, or even the fight use of air. But bring up his child in 

 a knowledge of the value and necessity of pure fresh air, by teach- 

 ing him the relations which it bears to the blood, the digestion and 

 other functions — teach him never to fear it, that it is his immediate 

 and incessant source of life and health — give him a knowledge of 

 the diseases and dangers to which its absence will subject him, and 

 think you he would not avoid its impurities, as he would poison or 

 the pestilence? In his school-room, his sitting-room, his chamber or 

 his w^ork-shop, he would seek for a pure clear atmosphere, as when 

 thirsty he would seek the cool water, as the weary " heart panteth 

 after the water brook." " Ventilate, ventilate," would be his natu- 

 ral demand, in tones of earnestness - proportioned to the necessity 

 which his expansive lungs, and ever freshened feelings, would readi- 

 ly discover. The humble tenement of the laborer, would then, 

 though but a single room, be no longer shut night and day, unvisited 

 by the refreshing air of heaven; the workshop would then no longer 

 be a close receptacle of foul effluvia of human and other origin, 

 and our churches, public rooms, and lecture halls, be no more unven- 

 tilated. {En passant, what a strange inconsistency is it, in the re- 

 fined and polished, to object to sip a mouthful of water from the 

 same glass as another, in which there could be no possible contami- 

 nation, and yet swallow over and over again, the breath of others 

 shut up in the same apartment, and which has passed through 

 hundreds of lungs, perhaps diseased, and over teeth in every stage of 

 decay.) 



