Health at home tracts. 1-12 / by Alfred Schofield.

  • Schofield, A. T. (Alfred Taylor), 1846-1929
Date:
[1890]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health at home tracts. 1-12 / by Alfred Schofield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and you will not be surprised at the ravages of lung disease amongst them. Look at the women and chil- dren in the ill-ventilated sweaters’ dens in the East End of London. Can we be surprised at their languor and pallor, or ask in wonder, what is the cause ? The lot of many of the poor is indeed a cruel one, and it is only adding to their sufferings, not relieving them, to blame them for causes of disease over wliich they liave no control. But the evil is in part preventible even amid a population of this sort. Thank God, all are not so treated. We have an increasing number of well ven- tilated workshops. The Government is not asleep on the subject, and we may hope that the happy time will soon come when these dens of disease will be abolished, and the sufferings of the poor from tliis cause lessened. Meanwhile let all who can secure their due share of pure air, by opening their windows at all suitable times, by getting thorough ventilation wherever possible, and by breathing the air in any open space at every convenient season. Dirt. Wliat is dirt ? Matter in the wrong place. It is a question whether we eat or breathe in most dirt. In either case it is distinctly unwholesome. It is a preventible cause of disease, for even the poorest can, as a rule, wash themselves, if not Avith soap, which is an expensive luxury to some, at any rate with ^yater; and they need not swallow half so much dirt as they do. They have less control over the dirt or dust they breathe in, for this is in the air of their workshops and factories; and no one can help swallowing the germs and decomposing animal matter of close rooms as long as he is forced to remain in them.