A sermon, preached in the Cathedral, Manchester, on Sunday morning, April 30th, 1854 / by the Rev. Charles Richson ... with notes by John Sutherland of the General Board of Health, London.

  • Richson, Charles.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: A sermon, preached in the Cathedral, Manchester, on Sunday morning, April 30th, 1854 / by the Rev. Charles Richson ... with notes by John Sutherland of the General Board of Health, London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    out without the camp, that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell” (Lev. xiii.; Num. v. 1 to 4). XL Considerable importance was attached in the Divine laws to the possession of separate houses (Lev. xxvii. 14; Num. xxxii. 18; Deut. xx. 5, xxiv. 10); Also to a due attention to their construction {Deut. xxii. 8). Great care, also, in respect to the cleanliness of houses was insisted upon. Wherever the plague of leprosy, or the spreading of fungi was observed upon the walls, the leprous stones and plaster were to be immediately removed and carried to an unclean place, and the walls to be repaired with new material. If the leprosy, after this, re-appeared, the house was condemned to be taken down; and all the materials of which it was composed were to be carried away to an unclean place beyond the precincts of the city* {Lev. xiv. 33 to end). * The treatment prescribed for the leprosy of a house is a re¬ markable illustration of the union of religious rites with sound sanitary practice. The ceremonial uncleanness of everything stained or spotted is rigidly enforced, but, at the same time, the natural causation of the stains or spots is distinctly recognised, and ap¬ propriate means indicated for their removal. Modem scientific inquiry and experience have amply confirmed the wisdom and efficacy of the Mosiac prescription. Appearances analogous to those designated as the leprosy of a house are familiar to all sanitary observers, and they arise in the following manner:—When a house has been built in a locality where the air is constantly moist and loaded with putrescent matter, or where a house has been overcrowded and inhabited an undue length of time without the walls having been cleansed, the plaster becomes saturated with damp, and with organic matter proceeding from the condensation of moisture from the breath, &c., which is loaded with such matter. Whenever this takes place the house