[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southwark, The Vestry of the Parish of St. George the Martyr].

  • St. George the Martyr (Southwark, London, England). Parish Council.
Date:
1873
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southwark, The Vestry of the Parish of St. George the Martyr]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    12 Parish of Saint George the Martyr, Southwark. did only a few years back. But sanitary measures as regards drainage, ventilation, house accommodation, and the like, do not by any means cover the whole ground of sanitary requirements. Sanitary reform, does not consist only in caring for that which is without the man, but also of caring for that which is within the man. Reformation is truly needed, but it is not easy to say where it is best to begin that reformation. Man is already hardened in his ways and habits, and is already suffering for the disobedience to the laws of health, which has marked his course onwards from childhood; and that which is crooked cannot be made straight. If we commence with the young our hopes of success seem brighter, and better established ; but, then, we find they are born, trailing after them the vices and the virtues, the diseases and the peculiarities of their ancestors. For more assured success in our endeavours, we seem compelled to go farther back still. It is matter of surprise in looking over the actions of our forefathers, to see what little attention has been paid to the physical welfare of man. Whether he should rise or fall in moral and intellectual power; whether his days should be few or many; whether those days should be spent in the joy and vigour of health, or dragged through in suffering and sadness, seemed to have claimed no special care or forethought. Present gain, and present gratification closed in the horizon of life. The situation of our towns; the land upon which the agriculturist has built his homestead ; the ground upon which has been roared the stately factory; the choice of dwelling by those who lived by the sweat of their brain, all have been selected with reference to commerce, to production of soil, and to where the works of art and literature were patronised. In not one of these selections was health ever considered. That health was wealth, and that sickness was poverty, remained an unheeded fact. Millions have suffered and perished, to bring this fact before our notice, and millions more must suffer and perish, before the lesson it teaches will be put into practice. Man is born into the world and passes through it, with multiform inherent tendencies, and according to the circumstances which surround his birth and life, will it happen, that these tendencies shall lie dormant, or be developed into full activity. The great and primitive design iu nature is towards health; through all her ways and works a beneficial tendency runs, which, thwarted and opposed, leads to the deterioration and degradation, of the race, until unfit for earth, it is swept away from the face thereof. On the other hand, when this tendency shall have full and froe scope for its natural and thorough deve lopement, who may measure its limits, or fix its boundary line. The power by which are transmitted from father to child the same form, the same features, the same temperament, also transmits the same features and peculiarities to the hidden structures, namely, to the brain and nervous system, the heart, the lungs and other organs, from whence follow the diseases connected with these organs. This points out the care that should be exercised in our marriage regulations, for that truly is the foundation from whence commences physical, mental, and moral improvement. To this important matter no consideration whatever is given. Few, nay no marriages are promoted or for bidden upon such grounds. The mere gravely introducing such a consideration to those about to marry, would be received with a burst of laughter, or a shout of derision. Now, we have only to procure a marriage license, and we may without any kind of cen-
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