HYGIENE (HE:Aunt, ante), tire science of health, also called sanitary science. The word is originally derived from Hygeia, the goddess of health, a daughter. of .iEsculapiii.. I lygiene attention to diet, to exercise, to mental and physical habits, as well as to clothing, climate, state of the weather, condition of dwellings and of the streets and severs of the town, or of the surface of the country. It is a subject which has received various degrees of attention in all ages, but as a science it is of modern date. However much attention may have been given to the rules and practice of exercise, and to bath ing and habits of cleanliness by ancient nations, and however much knowledge they may have had of the advantages to health which were derived from their games, their laths and other observances, their want of knowledge of many of the causes of disease was a barrier to scientific knowledge. An individual may be ever so particular in the care of iris person, but if lie habitually breathe an atmosphere loaded with malaria, he will almost certainly at some time be prostrated with sonic form of fever. If science has never analyzed for him the ,effluvia of the cesspool or the pile of putrescent matter lying near his dwelling Ire cannot have any other knowledge which will lead him to avoid the deleterious influences of their presence. Neither can he form rules of eating and drinking, or even of exercise or bathing, which will not in some degree violate the laws of health, unless he has an extensive •knowledge of the principles of physiology. 2:ow, physiology is a modern scierice,Mid although it enables us to avoid many dangers, ft is still so far in its infancy as to allow us at times to adopt erroneous habits, and out knowledge of malaria and of its propagation does not always tell us how to employ the most efficient measures against it. How then could the ancients protect themselves against the ravages of the plagues and pestilenees which periodically carried them off by hundreds of thousands? And it must be confessed that modern nations, until within a very recent period, even within the lives of persons now living, have known but little more than the ancients of any practical preventives against the ravages of diseases; and moreover, it must with shame be confessed that at the present time, and in some of the most enlightened and luxurious cities, whose municipal authorities have only to ask to receive the most scientific advice from the medical profession and the aid of the most accomplished engineers, methods for riddance of pestilential matter are employed but little better than those which would be adopted by barbarians.
Omitting the considerations of the sanitary measures pursued by the Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, some of which are recorded in architectural monuments preserved to this day, we find that in England in the time of Edward II., among other ordinances of a sanitary nature, there was one forbidding the sale of muzzled swine's flesh; and in the reign of Richard H. one to prevent the pollution of rivers, and subse quently, including the reign of Elizabeth, ordinances for the inspection and cleansing of sewers, and the prevention of overcrowding in tenements. But notwithstanding the attention thus early given to the subject of the pollution of rivers, some of the water that is supplied to the city of London to-day receives pollution from the sewage of towns. 31uch, however, has been done by men of science to point out the manlier of effecting sanitary reforms, and it may reasonably be hoped that the day is not distant when as a rule municipal authorities will be compelled by process of law, or by public sentiment, if not impelled front patriotic or public spirited motives, to employ the best methods of introducing pure and non-malarialized water into our cities, and also to clean the streets and dispose of the offal and refuse in such manner as not to sacrifice human life, or even to shock public decency or discourage private enterprise.