Page:How People May Live and not Die in India.pdf/24

 indeed that, one would have thought, it might set men to work to remove these causes, and twice as vigorously as in a temperate climate, instead of not at all.

But no: our cities are not those of civilised men.

It cannot now be said, as Burke did: "England has built no bridges, made no high roads, cut no navigations." But in all that regards the social improvement of cities, still it must be said, as he did—how many years ago?—"Were we driven out of India this day, nothing would remain to tell that it had been possessed, during the inglorious period of our dominion, by anything better than the ourangoutang, or the tiger."

For how much is it better now?

Bring your cities and stations within the pale of civilisation. As they are, they are the life destroyers, not the climate.

The hills, those very climates to which you look for succour, are becoming so pestiferous from your neglects, that they bear out this indictment. They cry to you as we do: reform your stations—thence comes the deadly influence.

The question is no less an one than this:—How to create a public health department for India—how to bring a higher civilisation into India. What a work, what a noble task for a Government—no "inglorious period of our dominion" that, but a most glorious one!

That would be creating India anew. For God