SELF HELP.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 249, 26 July 1872, Page 3

SELF HELP.

Loud Derby, in a speech delivered on the occasion of the opening of a new hospital, :ave expression to the following excellent remarks:—

Men are very slow to learn the extent to which destinies are in their own power. They are apt to be astonished if you point to them that nine-tenths of the calatnties which have afflicted the human raoe are directly, and obviously the work of men’s own hands. They are inclined to confound the feeling which we all respect that of cheerful acceptance of the inevitable with that other kind of resignation to evils which are not inevitable, which is mostly laziness and apathy, and the prevalence of which is one of the most characteristic distinctions between the savage and civilised man. And why do I say this? Because I am deeply convinced that

no sanitary improvement worth the name will be effected jjtvhatover Acts you pass or whatever power you confer on your public officers, unless you can create a real, and intelligent interest in tho matter among the people at large. In the first place, you can’t get laws effectually put in force where they interfere with the profits or convenience of individuals, unless they are supported by opinion. In tho next place, whatever administrative measures can do for the public health—and they can do a great deal—they can never supersede the neessity for personal and private care. It is no good providing pure water for drinking, iE those who are meant to consume it prefer less innocent lluids, and a good deal of them. It is no good settingup public baths or wash-houses if people dont care to use them; though, let me say in passing, I think the want of such institu-

tions on an adequate scale is one of the chief defects of our great towns. It is no good purifying the atmosphere from smoke and foul vapours—though that is one of the objects which iu these parts wo ought to keep most steadily in view—if,when people have got clean air,they won’t let it into their houses. The state may issuo directions, municipal authorities may execute them to the best of their power, inspectors may travel about, medicai authorities may draw up reports but you can’t

make a population cleanly or healthy against their will or without their intelligent co-operation. The opportunity may be furnished by others, but work must be done by themselves. That is why, of the

two, sanitary instruction is even more esgontial than sanitary legislation; for if in this matter the public knows what it wants, sooner or later the legislation will follow; but the best laws, iu a country like this are waste paper if they are not appreciated aud understood. I will not waste words in dwelling on the importance of this question of national health. Everything depends upon it. It is i»y • o itinuous and persev. ring labour umn ■ and aud headwork .hat E ig.aud nods .t< position against other countries more lavured by nature ; but without a Ingn standard of vitality —and that, as yon kuow, implies more than a m -re i ngtii.miug out ot life—laoor su :li as w ■ r-q lire cannot be kept up. Again, wir-re you have to deal with m u in masses, tiie connection between vice and disease is very close. With a low average of popular health you will have a low average ot national morality, and, probably, also of national intellect. Drunkenness and vice of all oilier kinds will flourish in such a soil, aud you cannot get healthy brains to grow ou unhealthy bodies. Cleanliness and self-respect go together, and it is no paradox to affirm that you tend to purify men’s thoughts and feelings, when yo±i purify the air they breathe.