Sanitary reform : a lecture delivered at the Institution Room, St. Ives, on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 1860 / by Lord Robert Montagu.

  • Montagu, Robert, 1825-1902.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sanitary reform : a lecture delivered at the Institution Room, St. Ives, on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 1860 / by Lord Robert Montagu. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    see bow foolish and false is the notion that sewage is horrid or worthless : For nothing walks with aimless feet, And nought can ever be destroyed, Or cast as rubbish to the void, When God shall make the pile complete. Nothing is over annihilated. What you call destruction is merely a separation into simpler compounds of elements. And again, how continual is the reconstruction! For plants live by taking up simple compounds from the earth, and combining them into more complex forms ; and animals live by taking the complex atoms of vegetables, and combining them still more, and forming a higher rank of atoms. And so it goes on in an ever-enduring cycle, while sun and moon travel in their great orbits, till God shall make the pile complete. I have now said enough to show you the importance of the sub- ject ; and already too much to tax your patience with. I thank you most heartily for the kind consideration with which you have heard me. You will surely agree Avith me, that if murder by violence is to be investigated, and if the strong arm of the law is then to be called in, the same should be the case too, with respect to murder by slow poison in the air and water, where no one recks or interferes. There is great opposition shown in many places to sanitary refom. But so there was to the removal of the smoke nuisance. Yet now they find a gain in so doing; for a 100 horse- power engine In Cornwall, by consuming its own smoke, saves 36s. a-day, even when coals are only 5s. a ton. The Gas com- p»nies showed opposition when they were prosecuted for allowing ammoniacal matters to flow into streams; but when they were obliged to retain them, a trade arose in those very matters, and they became a gain to the companies. In fact, all nuisances are merely defective processes, just as Illness or disease Is merely a defective process In the human body. The smell of the nuisance is a hint that the process Is defective, just as discomforts are the symptoms of defect in the processes of the human organism. I know that I should now appeal to you on higher grounds, and remind you that right and justice are worth more than money; and merely show you that sanitary laws were commanded on Mount Sinai. But I may tell yon too, that godliness is great galuj because It has the promise for this life as well as the life to come. Yon cleanse your fields; then cleanse your house property also. You drain your fields; then drain your houses also. You import guano a distance of 15,000 miles, while you neglect a better than guano at home. Tiie smell reminds you of tiie escape of your wealth ; and the engendered sickness sends more good money after