General remarks on sanitation : lecture given at the Board School Room, Bow, north Devon, on January 4th, 1888 / by Richard Davy.

  • Davy, Richard, 1838-1920.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: General remarks on sanitation : lecture given at the Board School Room, Bow, north Devon, on January 4th, 1888 / by Richard Davy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    same. The plan is a sanitary one, and the manure is valuable. Why should the farmer pay for shipload after shipload of guano from the other end of the world, and waste the excrement of the towns of his own land ? The cottager may readily avail himself of this system of true economy for his garden. Some of you may have forgotten the verses in the xxiii. chapter of Deuteronomy :—“ Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad—and thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon, and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee.” So the authority for rendering back to the earth what had been taken from her is no new one. Disinfectants are of service in medical and surgical prac- tice, but are not much to be relied upon when used un- skilfully; fresh air, and the destruction of all decomposing matters by fire, are the best disinfectants for you to use. Cremation is taking foothold in Great Britain by reason of its extreme cleanliness. On frequent occasions the sur- geon has occasion to bless the fire that purifieth. Home—a word full of joy, brimful of associations, preg- nant with goodness, to be worthy of its name, must be clean—provided that the home is proportionate to the purse of the owner, every home can be clean and happy; the pretty cottage, with its cultured garden and cleanly surroundings, is as much a worthy object for contented manliness, and a promoter of healthful life, as the regal castle with its imposing park and finished excellence. Both should be fit examples of taste and circumstance. I would advise all, from the labourer to the artisan, from the artisan to the professional man, to work and be their own landlords; many will fail, but the honest attempt will engender thrift and sobriety, and will frame a way ere long for increased and greatly wanted increased facilities for the purchase of land, on which each one may plant his home and rightly enjoy the fruits of his own labour. I will here acknowledge the many valuable hints that I