In fact, the
extreme backwardness of the people with regard to knowledge of, and
obedience to, the simplest sanitary laws is a great aggravation of
both their necessary and unnecessary ills. During the recent cholera
epidemic the physicians complained that all rational means of abating
the plague were continually thwarted by the ignorance and obstinacy of
the lower classes. Very few families kept remedies in their houses,
and yet in many cases medical aid was not applied for, lest the
regulations concerning the disinfection of furniture and the burning
of bedding, and other clothing should be enforced. There was the
greatest dissatisfaction with the prohibition against the holding of
public balls and other amusements wherein health would be particularly
exposed; and the foolish citizens crowded all the more into the
unventilated, tobacco-poisoned beer-cellars and concert-halls, and
persisted in supping on heavy food and cold beer in the open air, as
though on purpose to spite the over-anxious magistrates and doctors.
Nor was the stupidity confined entirely to the lower classes. People
who ought to have known better defied the cholera in excess of
rioting, while those of another turn of mind gave way to superstitious
fears, and as soon as they felt the first symptoms of the disease fled
to the cold, damp churches and wasted in prayer upon their knees the
few precious hours which, spent in a warm bed and under the influence
of proper remedies, might have ensured them the salvation of at least
their temporal life.
Pages:
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113