is regarded in a very
different light. Public opinion has made its voice heard. Medical
science has exerted itself, and not in vain. The laws of sanitation are
better known, and are enforced upon the entire community by severe legal
enactments. And above all, Christianity has taught the rich to say of
the poor "He is my brother," and to provide for him the medical care and
attention that would otherwise not be within his reach.

What is possible in Europe is no doubt possible in India. Much has
already been done, and our Government is fully awake to the importance
of the subject, and will be able, year by year, to institute further
improvements in this respect.

With this, however, we are not directly concerned. My object in
referring to the subject is to point out--

1. That it is almost invariably from among the submerged tenth, with
whom we propose to deal that these fearful plagues usually have their
origin. Pestilence may indeed be said to take up its abode among them.
Destitution is as it were the egg from which pestilence is hatched.
There are brooding seasons when it may for a time disappear from sight.
But it is there all the same and we know it. If we are to eradicate the
evil, we must deal effectually with its cause. And this is the special
object of General Booth's scheme.

True, it may be possible to keep this deadly enemy at bay by multiplying
our hospital fortresses and putting into the field medical legions armed
with the latest discoveries of science. But the requisite paraphernalia
is too expensive for a country like India; and who does not know that
well-fed bodies, and healthy homes are better safeguards against disease
than all the most costly medicines that could be provided by the British
pharmacopoeia? If therefore we are able to deal radically with
destitution we shall at the same time strike an effective blow at the
pestilences which are at present such a scourge to India.

2. Again I would like to remind my readers of another fact, and in this
aspect of the question, all classes of the community are bound to be
interested. If pestilence begins its deadly work among the destitute, it
can never be reckoned on to stop there. Indeed pestilence may be
regarded as _Nature's revenge_ on society for the neglect of the poor.
Once the cholera fiend has broken loose, it is impossible to tell whom
he is going to select for his victims. The rich, the fair, the learned,
the young, the strong, are often