Page:The present and general condition of sanitary science.djvu/7



I presume that I may accept the great kindness bestowed on me on the present occasion, partly as having regard to the unusually advanced age of the body, and partly as to the extent of the occupation of the mind, for the promotion of our science during that unusually long period. On the bodily account, it is due to those here, who are practically engaged in sanitary work, to state that it will be found on examination that the risks of death and wounds, especially in withstanding epidemics, are fully as great as those sustained by officers of the Naval and in the Military service. I have myself participated in those common risks, and although I probably owe the duration of such working ability as may yet remain to me, to exceptional hereditariness—for my father died at the age of 84, my grandfather at 95, and my two great-great-grandfathers as centenarians—these facts do not interfere with the point I have named, that men who have to fight for sanitation have sometimes to fight for life also.

Turning from this topic, let me now briefly state the chief present conditions to which we have advanced in the practical applications of our science, which are as yet very imperfectly known. I beg to premise that I state nothing upon hypothesis—nothing but well-examined experiences.

It has been objected that if it were possible to amend communities by Utopias, Utopias would long since have been introduced. Our proceedings—assumed to be Utopian—which I have to recite, are not, however, based upon Utopian ideals, but on "experiences" carefully and separately examined—separately examined as to their assumed and strict application to common conditions. It is no Utopia