The Bible speaks of “the pestilence that walketh in darkness”; and pestilence is always a thing of darkness, in a double sense. For not only are the germs which cause disease invisible, but they breed and multiply only in darkness hidden in decaying vegetation, putrefying animal matter, human and animal excrement, and dark pools of foul and stagnant water.
Dirt and darkness are the parents of disease; and if people live in filth, they are liable to such epidemics as cholera, enteric and plague.
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Kashmir, for example, is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, with a fine climate, a fertile soil, and a beautiful river; yet the population of that earthly paradise is decimated every few years by epidemics of cholera.
Why? Because of the dirty habits of its people, who turn their splendid river into an open sewer by throwing into it all the filth of their villages and then drink its poisoned waters.
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Hence the need in towns and villages of a regular system of sanitation. The word sanitation comes from the Latin word sanities, which means health; and the object of sanitation is to preserve the health of a community by keeping the place where it dwells clean, and open to sunlight, fresh air and pure water.
This is now recognised as so important, that every town has its public health department and skilled sanitary officials to see that the streets and houses are kept in a hygienic condition.
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The sanitary department has to see, first, that a town is properly drained. It must have a well thought out system of drainage pipes and channels to carry away the surface water and all liquid filth. Next, it has to see to the systematic removal of all excremental matter.
Which must be buried deep in the earth at a distance, or, better still, burnt in incinerators. Then streets have to be kept regularly swept, and people compelled to remove all rubbish and dirt from their premises.
It is most important that the water-supply of a town should be kept pure; and that all food and milk supplies in markets and shops should be inspected, and tainted goods condemned and confiscated.
As fresh air is as important as pure water, new towns are laid out with broad streets and open spaces, and the houses so constructed as to have plenty of air and light.
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But it is very difficult to alter old towns, with their narrow and dark streets, badly built and stuffy houses. But as opportunities allow, insanitary dwellings must be pulled down and streets widened.
Lastly, sanitation includes the isolation of infectious diseases cases, and the disinfecting of houses.