Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1875 — The Sanitary Needs of Rural Districts. [ARTICLE]

The Sanitary Needs of Rural Districts.

This is the season in which people who are eve* sick at all acknowledge that they feel pretty poorly, and in which the horses of physicians must long earnestly for a compensating hereafter. The' death rate of cities grows unpleasantly large, but is exceeded by that of many country It is the season in which the city resident going into the country finds the natives more brown but less healthy-looking than his own cooped-up fellow-citizens; tte season, too, in which many a temporary sojourner in the rural districts hurries home to his family physician with an ague which takes far more time in going than it did in coming. We believe that trustworthy authorities will uphold us in the statement that where good health prevails in country villages it is more the result of accident than design. A great many towns hare been purposely so located as to secure good surface drainage, but beyond this the ordinary founders of villages seem to have bo general sanitary idea. The sites of many towns have been determined by the existence of water-power, natural routes of transportation, or mineral deposits. Once located, a town is as hard to move as Solomon declares the root of the righteous to be. It therefore becomes a matter of grave concern to know how the natural defects and dangers of a town site are to be overcome.

The answer naturally is: Interest the residents themselves in the matter. But we all know what neighborhood chats amount to; the more perfect the agreement on a given subject the greater likelihood there generally is that the subject will disappear as being' practically settled. But the ways of an irresponsible party of neighbors change greatly when the same men resolve themselves into a society supported by an act of incorporation, looked up to, and expected to do something. By the conditions of their surroundings, by the usual unsatisfactory state of the public health, and by the individual prominence which is conveyed by membership of a public association, each member feels called upon to do something. What there is for local sanitary associations to do will not long be a matter of question. There are thousands of towns in the United States whose soil is literally one great cess-pool, saturated with the impurities and refuse of all who have been its inhabitants. There is not one town in a hundred whose people drink pure water. The garbage and impurities thrown on the ground in many a village full of respectable people would raise a howl of remonstrance if dropped even in our own Five Points. Drainage of waste-water into street gutters, uncovered refuse heaps, stacks of offensive manure whose proprietors seem to think that the human olfactories have no rights which manure owners are bound to respect, wayside pools, neighborhoods in which doctors’ carriages may always be found, land occasionally subject to overflow, rock-bottomed sinks in which drainage is finally arrested, swamps over which winds frequently pass on their way to the town—all these are within the reach of almost any sanitary association that may be formed. A small pro robs assessment will pay for the service of a skilled topographer or drainage engineer who will suggest better and cheaper remedies than any ordinary association will, discover for itself. A similar outlay will secure a lecturer, or the printing of a report of a survey which would fully inform the citizens of the actual sanitary condition of their town. Such an association,., by virtue of that inter-communication which exists between all public bodies in small towns,

would exercise a great deal of influence over town committees, supervisors, road boards, etc. In case of laggard action by legal authorities, local sanitary associations might follow the example of the men who cut one of the great irrigating ditches of California. Mr. Nordhoff reports that this ditch was cut in accordance with the following resolutions: First: That we cut tbe ditch. Second: That everyone interested agrees to work upon it until finished. Third: That work be commenced Monday next. Tlie oft-repeateil truism, that the strength of anything is only the strength of its weakest part, peculiarly applies to this matter of health. Individual efforts in the direction of perfect ventilation, good cooking, healthful heat, proper clothing and' personal cleanliness are praiseworthy, bnt-their perfect result cannot Ik? realized while, tbe neighboring air is polluted, tbe water poisoned and miasmatic emanations are unchecked. It is only by combined action that such widespread influences may be removed or avoided, and the sufferings which reformation may impose upon time and pocket are not so annoying, costly or dangerous as those which result from submission to the existing status. — Christian, Union.