Chapter VIII: A Closing Word

[Sidenote: Cleanliness Next to Godliness]

“Cleanliness is indeed next to Godliness,” is an oft-quoted saying of John Wesley. Bacon stated the maxim thus: “Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God.” The Hebrew Fathers, from whom this sanitary principle was derived, resolved the doctrines of religion into “Carefulness; Carefulness into Vigorousness; Vigorousness into Guiltlessness; Guiltlessness into Abstemiousness; Abstemiousness into Cleanliness; Cleanliness into Godliness.”

This religious creed was doubtless based on the Mosaic sanitary code, and was the preventive measure against pestilences which the great Jewish law-giver approved. How generally and how long the “Chosen People” adopted and practised this method of protection against epidemic diseases does not appear, but it is quite certain that in later days it had been discarded.

[Sidenote: Invisible Agencies in Filth]

The Hebrew Fathers could have had no conception of the invisible agencies in filth that made uncleanness such a powerful factor in the propogation of epidemic pestilences and domestic contagious and infectious diseases. It was reserved for the scientists of the recent past to discover the exact nature of the infective germs of communicable diseases, their origin, their development, their modes of infection; in other words, their life history.

This discovery revealed the fact that filth in every form, whether in the rubbish-heap, the toilet, the garbage, the dust of the floor, or even in the folds of the hands and feet, the secretions of the skin and glands, is a culture bed for germ-producing diseases. The secret of the great power of cleanness as the true remedial measure for the prevention of pestilences is now apparent and every citizen must recognize that the obligation of applying that remedy rests with himself.

The Great Awakening, in the middle of the last century, of the people of England, and subsequently, of this country, to the intimate relations of filth, in all forms in and around their dwellings, to the prevalence and fatality of cholera, typhus fever, and other communicable diseases, has restored cleanliness to its ancient imperial position as chief of the virtues, and the most reliable private and public means of conserving health.

[Sidenote: A Higher Civilization]

This awakening, due both in England and America to trivial incidents, forms one of the most interesting chapters in human history. Already the outcome has been an enormous reduction of the mortality of English-speaking peoples, an immense increase in the length of life, and an advance in the arts of living, which insures a higher civilization by securing to every citizen a sound mind in a sound body.

Transcriber’s Notes

Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.

Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained; occurrences of inconsistent hyphenation have not been changed.

Index not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references.

In the original book, the first page of each chapter began with the same decorative headpiece, and the first letter of the text was decorative. None of those is indicated in the Plain Text version of this eBook.

The Sideotes and the Table of Contents originally were printed in italics. For clarity, the standard italics indicators (underscores) have been removed from the sidenotes and Table of Contents in this version of this eBook.

Text frequently uses both “Citizens Association” and “Citizens’ Association”. Both forms are retained here.

Page 35: “interne” was printed that way.

Page 113: “reaks” was printed that way.

Page 144: “unwieldly” was printed that way.