Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/94

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80 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

ground. It was indicated as long ago as 1840, when Edwin Chadwick in his report on the sanitary condition of the laboring classes of Great Britain came to the following conclusions :

That the younger population, bred up under noxious physical agencies, is inferior in physical organization and general health to population preserved from the presence of such agencies.

That the population so exposed is less susceptible to moral influences and that the effects of education are more transient than in a healthy population.

That these adverse circumstances tend to produce an adult population short-lived, improvident, reckless and intemperate and with habitual avidity for sensual gratifications.

That these habits lead to the abandonment of all the con- veniences and decencies of life, and especially lead to the over- crowding of their homes, which is destructive to the morality as well as the health of large classes of both sexes.

That the removal of noxious physical circumstances and the promotion of civic, household and personal cleanliness is neces- sary to the improvement of the moral condition of the popula- tion, since sound morality and refinement in manners and health are not long found coexistent with filthy habits amongst any class of the community.

This relationship between physical and social conditions is shown in another form by the following statements in Giddings' The Theory of Sociology : "Social aggregates are formed at first by external conditions, such as food supply, temperature, etc." " That the resources and other circumstances of the physical environment must be regarded as the true cause of social aggre- gation is plainly shown." "Society like the individual must adjust itself to a physical environment." "What is the fact of progress? In what does it consist? The answer of sociology will be that progress includes an increase of material well-being, etc."

This, then, is the relationship between sanitation and sociol- ogy : The individual is the essential element of society, his social value depends largely upon his health, while in turn his