BE YERTEUIL — PORT-OF-SPAIN. 
131 
should be, but rather what they should not be. If by cor- 
recting the insalubrity of a district we can prolong the life of 
its inhabitants, how much more easily can we obtain the same 
object by preventive measures, with this difference, how- 
ever, that prevention is better and cheaper than correction. 
Let us improve the lodgings of the poor and the workmen ; 
give to all plenty of air, light and water ; provide for the 
prompt removal of dirt and human excreta ; put a check to 
the mephitism resulting from overcrowding, and then you 
may hope to diminish that annual tribute of human lives 
which is levied by those cachectic diseases, the offspring of 
filth and misery. 
I have already remarked that atmospherical influences 
may modify the constitution of whole generations and com- 
munities. If, together with those natural coincidents are 
combined those of insufficient diet and the appurtenances of 
filth, the consequences will soon become apparent. Anoemia, 
scrofulosis, tuberculosis and leprosy must in our Island be 
the deplorable result. Scrofulosis and tuberculosis have a 
common origin : it is said that both have a tendency to in- 
crease. I am justified, I believe, in saying that tubercu- 
losis is on the increase, and I hesitate not to say that con- 
sumption is more frequent in our days than it was thirty 
years ago. I would not dare, however, to affirm that lep- 
rosy is more common, though such is my impression. 
Both affections are hereditary or may be accidental ; all 
causes depressing life may so modify the organism as to 
render it more liable to constitutional diseases. Doubtless 
the climatic conditions of Trinidad have not varied for the 
last thirty years ; but with those conditions are none com- 
bined those of insufficient diet and insalubrious lodgings. 
Now, by insufficient diet I mean, not only a diet deficient 
