152 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 
often pass the ground-level gratings can testify. To put the matter 
shortly and plainly. A sewer is like a scent-bottle, the longer you 
ventilate it, the longer it will smell—while any fluid remains. 
Don’t you want it to smell ? No ! Then don’t ventilate it. Do 
away with the ground-level gratings altogether, except where men 
work in the gross galleries below; never attempt to ventilate 
all these tubes of turbidity; only where pressure is liable to accu¬ 
mulate place vent-pipes whose external orifice shall be above the 
heads of the inhabitants of the town, and far from the windows 
of houses. If you mud extract the vapour-laden air, burn it. 
But what is required, as a rule, is vent, not ventilation. 
CONCLUSION. 
In this Address an attempt has been made to direct attention to 
the laws of nature—those grand “records of all experience”—as 
they are related to health: as related in the personal matters of 
the food we eat, the fluids we drink, the air we breathe, and the 
clothes we wear ; in the important matters of water-supply, venti¬ 
lation, and due warmth in our dwellings; and in the matters of 
refuse-disposal and pure air-supply of our towns. 
To the extent to which the individual acts in harmony with 
natural law, to that extent will he have health. To the extent to 
which a household acts in harmony with natural law, to that 
extent will a household have health. To the extent to which a 
local community acts in harmony with natural law, both by its 
units and by the members and officers of its Board of Health— 
some of whom must possess adequate chemical, physical, and 
biological, as well as general medical knowledge—to that extent 
will the town or city have health. To the extent to which a 
nation realises and places itself in harmony with the laws of 
nature that govern the health of its individuals, the health of its 
households, and the health of its communities, to that extent will 
the nation have national health, prosperity, and happiness, and to 
that extent will it contribute to the health, happiness, and prosperity 
of all nations and races which recognise the sway of natural law. 
Finally, to the extent to which a generation lives, moves, and has 
its being, less and less in accordance with the empiricism of past 
generations and more and more in accordance with the laws of 
nature, to that extent will the children of that generation, the 
parents of generations yet to be, become more and more healthy, 
and the sooner develop into all that man is destined to become. 
‘ ‘ Yet I doubt not thro’ the ages one increasing purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widen’d with the process of the suns.” 
