Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/423

 had nothing to do, biit to fling down his arms in abject terror and despair, and pray piteously to an avenging Grod to pardon him his sins, and avert the dread punishment he had so richly merited ! Bold science — not impious, — far from it, bold only in its determined search for truth, and modest ever — has pushed home some searching questions concerning water contamination, and infection of different sorts, which begin to throw much light on its diffusion, and will, before long, I think, make cholera visitations in India as few and far between as they are now in Europe.

These are the fair realms of study and usefulness medicine opens up to you. ^She has to do with every thing that concerns man's material comfort and safety, not only to cure but to pre- vent disease, and thus the very elements form subjects of its investigation. Your ancestors here again seem to me to have forestalled modern civilization. Pure water enough and ample enough for all man's wants, is the great cry now of our large cities in Europe, thanks to the teachings of Modern Hygiene. If I am not mistaken, your ancestors, especially the Brahmins, had grasped this fact ages ago. The careful preservation of their own wells and tanks from contact by inferior and unclean castes, the scrupulous cleanliness of the vessels used in carrying and preserving water, and the habit of frequent bathing enjoined as a religious observ- ance, all demonstrate the great value your forefathers attached to supplies of pure water. And now science, with its chemical tests and tbe microscope, demonstrates as clearly as any problem in Euclid can be demonstrated, — that in impure water lie the con- taminating germs of fevers, cholera, dysentery and other diseases. Unfortunately, you have, at least many of you, long lost the value of this wisdom, and not only are your wells in many places less scrupulously clean, but your habits in all large religious gatherings of contaminating the streams and water-supplies, tends in this hot climate to originate and spread the dreadful epidemics for which India is so famous. Air as well as water falls under the immediate attention of the physician. It is more essential even that man should have pure air to breathe than pure water to drink. Floating in the atmosphere are myriads of contaminatijig germs against which knowledge may defend us ; and simple contrivances of admission or exclusion of certain winds may make all the difference in this country of health or sickness in a household. Food, of all sorts ; the abuse or rightful use of alcoholic drinks ; _, impurities in food, their detection and methods of removal — all fall in the present day under the