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CHAPTER XVI.

HYGEIA.

"Our human refuse shall be utilized, like our material refuse, when man as man, down to the weakest and most ignorant, shall be found to be (as he really is), so variable that it will be worth while to preserve his health to the level of his capabilities, to save him alive, body, intellect, and character, at any cost: because men will see that a man is, after all, the most precious and useful thing on the earth, and that no cost spent on the development of human beings can possibly be thrown away."

C. Kingsley.

The doctor had not forgotten his promise to Willie, that Nurse Maggie and some of the convalescents should accompany him to the country. So beneficial was the change in their case, that Dr. Courtenay resolved upon putting into effect a project he had long contemplated of settling, not only the poor and distressed, but the sick and afflicted on the generous soil.

The conditions of commerce and industry may possibly necessitate the congregation of the busy and strong in the crowded metropolis. He failed, however, to see the wisdom of confining the suffering and afflicted in huge, antiquated edifices reeking with disease; condemning them to breathe, to the last, the polluted air of the city they rendered still more deadly; depriving them of the solace Nature might have afforded, and of occupation with which to relieve their dark days and last years.

The cost of maintaining the unfortunates in town he