Cottage Sanitation. 
633 
we could prevent the introduction of any case of cholera or 
any cholera-infected material into the country we should be 
perfectly sure of escaping the disease. But this is impossible 
in the present day, when there is so much intercourse and 
commerce between this country and the Continent. 
Therefore the obviously proper method to pursue is, while 
trusting that the central and port sanitary authorities will do 
their best to keep out the disease, to put the whole country, and 
every house in the country, into such a condition that if the 
epidemic should break out it would have no chance of spreading. 
About the fact that cholera is the result of a germ which can 
increase and multiply in collections of filth, in polluted water 
supplies, and the like, there is now no doubt. But it is also 
recognised by all medical authorities that infectious diseases 
have their fatality much increased by anything unwholesome 
in the surroundings of a patient, and that unhealthy surround- 
ings greatly increase the liability of any person to contract the 
disease when the infection is present. It is, therefore, every 
man’s duty, in the first place, to set his own house in order, and, 
in the second, to see that his neighbour does the same. 
In country districts and villages there are still — especially 
in the houses of the working classes — an enormous number of 
evils to be remedied. Landowners, farmers, and others interested 
in the welfare of the agricultural labourer should give him what 
help they can in this direction, both for his sake and for their 
own. For while, on the one hand, he has not the knowledge 
nor the means to make the necessary improvements, on the 
other, any infectious disease which occurs in his family is sure 
to spread to the homes of his neighbours. 
The principal sanitary defects in the house of the agricultural 
labourer, regarded as a dwelling for a family, may be arranged 
under one or other of the four following heads : — 
I. The situation, co7istr action, and condition of the house itself. 
II. The mode of disjgosal of house refuse and nightsoil. 
III. Th,e water supgdg. 
IV. The habits of the occupants. 
Each of these heads will be considered in detail, and for 
the commoner sanitary defects which come under each, their 
appropriate remedies will be described. It is scarcely necessary 
to say that in no case is it claimed that the remedy suggested 
for any evil is the only one, nor even that it is always the best. 
It is hoped, however, that in each case it is a simple, an effectual 
and, above all, a practicable one. 
X X 2 
