Report by the Central Board of Health of Jamaica / presented to the legislature under the provisions of the 14th Vic. chap. 60, and printed by order of the Assembly.

Jamaica. Central Board of Health

Date:: 1852

Credit: Report by the Central Board of Health of Jamaica / presented to the legislature under the provisions of the 14th Vic. chap. 60, and printed by order of the Assembly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

19/594 (page 5)

$public xvelfare A self-evident truth is conveyed l)y llio provision as a sanitary measure, that the pe- riodical or daily removal, if possible, of all dn t, sta- ])le manure, foul vegetation, and stagnant water from premises and vards, is essentially necessary to the promotion of health. Yet while the promulgation of this simnle, but salutary, rule has created a smile, the sarcastic remark has not been wanting. Is this all that sanitary measures are to teach us? why we knew this before. In replying to so feeble an en- <]uirer it would only be necessary fully to admit the pre-existence of this knowledge, and at the same time to ask the question w hether, being fully aware of its efficacy, is it in general practised ? or is it not, on the contrary, grossly and criminally overlooked, not only in every part of tlds island, but in every country ? or has its indispensable necessity, as a pre- ventive of disease, been suihciently and forcibly im- pressed upon the minds of those poor and ignorant persons who do not know it, but are daily and hourly exposed to the pernicious, and too often fatal, conse- quences of this very ignorance ? Tiien if by reite- rating this simple but salutary precaution, public at- tention is driven to its rigid observance, will not much good have been eliected, and the desired end obtain- ed, namely, the enforcing not alone of the cleanii- Tiess of the person, but even of tlie premises inliabited by the masses ; and thus, by removing the impurities of their vicinity, at once fortify the whole community, and place it in a state of |)reparation to resist and conquer the very aj)proach of epidemic diseases ? it has also been urged, as an obifction to the present progress of sanitary measures, that before it can he expected that the labouring (lasses w\\\ practise cleanliness, and reform their injurious hal)its in re- gard to their health, it would be necessary to enlarge the number of schools and increase the means for their obtainin;;- moral and religious instruction, or in other words—that they must first be educated and trained to paths of virtue and morality. Is it quite$