in force that knowledge after it is obtained. During the Chinese expedition in 1841, a mortality at the rate of three or four per cent. a day, in a crew of three hundred, arose from drinking muddy water from the paddy fields, though either by boiling it or by filtering it through charcoal much of the mortality might have been prevented.

Another remarkable illustration of persistence in wrongdoing, after the right has been fully demonstrated, is the history of the treatment of scurvy. "It was in the year 1593 that sour juices were first recommended by Albertus, and in the same year Sir R. Hawkins cured his crew of scurvy by lemon juice. In 1600 Commodore Lancaster, who took out the first squadron of the East India Company's ships, kept the crew of his own ship in perfect health by lemon juice, while the crews of the three accompanying ships were so disabled that he had to send his men on board to set their sails. In 1636 this remedy was again recommended in medical works on scurvy. In 1757 Dr. Lind, the physician to the naval hospital at Hasler, collected and published in an elaborate work these and many other proofs of its efficacy. Nevertheless, scurvy continued to carry off thousands of sailors. In 1780, two thousand four hundred in the Channel fleet were affected by it; and in 1795 the safety of the Channel fleet was endangered by it. At length, in that year, the admiralty ordered a regular supply of lemon juice to the navy. That two centuries after the remedy was known, and forty years after a chief medical officer of the government had given concise evidence of its worth, the admiralty, forced thereto by an exacerbation of the evil, first moved in the matter. And what had been the effect of this amazing perversity of officialism? The mortality from scurvy this long period had exceeded the mortality by battles, wrecks, and all casualties of sea life put together."

Verily, these wise officials had the same hard-shell belief as my friend the Senator, yet they had to yield to the stern logic of accumulated facts; and now scurvy is almost an unknown disease. Consumption, which though largely hereditary, has recently been shown by the Massachusetts Board of Health to be greatly dependent for its development upon insufficient drainage and unwise location of dwellings. Typhoid fever has been shown, both in England and in this country, to be very greatly dependent for its development and propagation upon causes which could easily be prevented-such as impure milk, bad drainage, impure water, &c.

Thousands of valuable lives are annually sacrificed by this disease, which might easily have been preserved by a common sense observance and enforcement of well known sanitary precautions. We are surrounded on all sides by causes of disease, which might be easily avoided. The water and milk that we drink frequently carry the seeds of fatal disease into our systems. Contamination of drinking water is probably one of the most frequent causes of typhoid fever and cholera, and probably of many more diseases. No one can say that this cannot be easily remedied, and it will be, as soon as medical men go to work in earnest, to inform themselves first, and then the people, of plain and palpable causes of disease that might be easily removed.

It will no doubt be difficult for doctors to convince the people that they are in earnest in trying to show how disease can be prevented, and human life prolonged.

It is hard for the ignorant (and alas most men are ignorant of the ends and aims of the true physician) to understand our position in regard to this matter. They reason that, as we live upon their infirmities, of course we ought to wish to see those infirmities increase, instead of using means by

which they could be diminished. They cannot understand that high and unselfish feeling of the conscientious physician which makes him cry out when he sees human life every day being sacrificed to causes that might easily be set aside by the slightest attendance to hygienic laws.

As it is the business, the duty and the pleasure of the clergyman to advise in all matters relating to the spiritual welfare and health of his flock, so it is the duty and pleasure of the physician to take charge and direction of the physical health of man. And no matter how we are reviled and misunderstood, we are bound to do our duty, and as a general rule, I believe the medical profession throughout the world is doing its full duty. It is probably to-day doing more for the general good of humanity than all other professions put together, and sooner or later, the world will understand this, and accord to us all that we are entitled to.

Already, the mortality from preventable diseases is on the decrease in many localities, by the adoption of sanitary laws. In some portions of England, and in Geneva, the mortality has been reduced twenty per cent. in the last ten years. Aside from making individual localities healthy, there are several very destructive diseases that ought either to be entirely stamped out of existence or confined to very narrow limits. Cholera, for instance, ought never to prevail as an epidemic in this country. In fact, with our knowledge of how it is propagated, it should never be allowed to leave the jungles of India. I am satisfied that when the general, and State governments thoroughly organize sanitary departments that this fearful disease will never again prevail as an epidemic in the United States.

Recently our sister city of Mobile has had an epidemic of small pox. It ought not to have had it. Compulsory vac

cination would probably soon eradicate this scourge from the face of the earth. Yellow fever, which is now conceded to be an exotic by the leading physicians of this country, should never be permitted to visit our shores. If our governments, general and State, will act in concert and establish and enforce effectual quarantine laws, I firmly believe that this great incubus to the growth and prosperity of our Southern cities will never again take up its deadly march from city to city, enveloping them in its dusky robes of mourning.

The loss in life and property, caused by one of these fearful epidemics, would pay all the expenses for the enforcement of proper quarantine laws for years to come.

The diseases that I have mentioned, I have no doubt, in the course of time, it may be in the far future, so far as this country is concerned, will be unknown, as regards personal experience, and only be read of as matters of history by the profession.

Typhoid and scarlet fevers should also be greatly circumscribed in their ravages. Every case of a self-propagating disease should be at once reported and isolated, and all subjects liable to be infected should be rigidly excluded from contact with the patient so affected. Just think of how many epidemics that might be checked by this method, and as a result how many valuable lives, and how much money might be saved to the State. You need look no farther than Mobile or Montgomery to see what damage has been done to their prosperity by the admission of single cases of yellow fever into their limits.

Leaving this branch of my subject, if I were asked what was probably the greatest drawback to the growth in material prosperity and population of Alabama, I would answer that it was not bad government nor the effects of the war, nor

civil rights, nor demoralized labor. All of these things are, and have been, great evils, but time will soon overcome them. The great, and in my opinion, the paramount obstacle to the rapid improvement and prosperity of the State, is malaria, that subtle poison that has stolen the lives of so many valuable citizens from the fairest portion of the State during the last few years. It still has full sway; absolutely nothing is being done to check the progress of this insidious poison that is every day sapping the energies, and taking the lives of our people. Now, many will contend probably, that malarial diseases do not come under the head of preventable. But history will sustain me in saying that if malaria cannot be entirely suppressed, its effects can, in a great measure, be gotten rid of by proper attention to drainage, cultivation, &c. And I contend that it is cheaper for us to fight and to throttle this great enemy to our lives and prosperity than it is to yield an apathetic submission to its sway.

It may be true that we do not as yet know exactly what malaria is, but that is not important. It may be gaseous, animalculæ or vegetable spores; no matter, we know that certain conditions have to come together before it is generated in sufficient force to be formidable. We do know most of these conditions, though we may not be able to say for certain what factor is most important in its production. Now the question arises, are any or all of thes factors under the control of man? I say unhesitatingly all possibly are, save one-(heat, and that of itself cannot produce malaria.)

I firmly believe that if a thorough system of drainage (and as a matter of course cultivation would follow) was put in force, the greater portion of our State that is afflicted with this scourge would be made perfectly healthy. I am convinced that it would be wise policy, and a real measure of