Man violates the laws of nature in his own person, and he suffers
accordingly. He is idle and overfeeds himself: he is punished by gout,
indigestion, or apoplexy. He drinks too much: he becomes bloated,
trembling, and weak; his appetite falls off, his strength declines, his
constitution decays; and he falls a victim to the numerous diseases
which haunt the steps of the drunkard.
Society suffers in the same way. It leaves districts undrained, and
streets uncleaned. Masses of the population are allowed to live crowded
together in unwholesome dens, half poisoned by the mephitic air of the
neighbourhood. Then a fever breaks out,--or a cholera, or a plague.
Disease spreads from the miserable abodes of the poor into the
comfortable homes of the rich, carrying death and devastation before it.
The misery and suffering incurred in such cases, are nothing less than
wilful, inasmuch as the knowledge necessary to avert them is within the
reach of all.
Wherever any number of persons live together, the atmosphere becomes
poisoned, unless means be provided for its constant change and
renovation. If there be not sufficient ventilation, the air becomes
charged with carbonic acid, principally the product of respiration.
Whatever the body discharges, becomes poison to the body if introduced
again through the lungs.
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