Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-12-24
DISEASE AND DEATH.

| Preventing Disease.
DR.. G. N. Hewitt, secretary of the State
| board of health, delivered the second lecture
of the Dayton Averue Church course last
night, on the subject, "What can non-pro-
! fessional folks do to prevent disease and pre-
mature death?" The Doctor began by say
ing the committee OF management were re-
sponsible for bringing him here amid the
F! festivities of the Christmas time. And vel
the consideration of the subject of death
was not inappropriate at the time we COM
memorate the advent of Jesus Christ.
Christ dignifed the body as well as the
mind. The cid theory was that the BODY
was mean, despicable, and unworthy thing,
and the gods punished the soul by diseases
of the body. Christ taught that the body
as well as the soul was the hardiwork of
God, and not to be despised,
In every age, excepting the present, men
have sought for sonns elixir which should re-
Juvenate the prematurely aged and that
should renew the wasted body, and in this
eager search they had frequently followed
false guides and impostors. The truth is
We cannot restore toe wasted body, although
we may preserve what is left. We
have a certain amount of vitality and
strength, which, to use a commercial phrase
| may be called our stock OF
| physical being, and we can no
more overdraW that stock without suffering
the inevitable penalty than we can escape
the day of reckoning when We have over
drawn our bank account.
There are about 200 forms of disease OF
causes Of death, Of which there are about
ninety in this State. OF these, consum ption
produces about 10 per cent of the deaths;
| typhoid fever about s per cent; cholera in
fantum about or per cent. irrup-
tive diseases, such as small pox, ETC., come
next in the fatal catalogue.
| The doctor then showed that the causes of
| disease were general and special, and gave
some apt illustrations, and then proceeded
to the consideration Of preyentible diseases
These diseases are caused either by vegetable
or animal matter. OF the former the aoue
IS good illustration, produced by decayed
vegetable matter. Of the latter the small
pox is good as well as terrible illustration.
| a particle of matter from the diseased BODY
coming IL contact with the healthy body re-
produces the disease. And these particles
that escape are innumerable and load the
an, SO that were an epidemic prevailing in
THIS city every man, woman and child would
probably come III contact with these particles
| by inhalation Or otherwise. The other day.
while at New Orleans, talking with ply
slclan who had had very large experience in
the treatment OF the yellow fever scourge
the speaker asked him, ..What can we do to
help you:' He replied, all you can do is to
pray that hard frost may come upon u.s.
The country is SO saturated and deluged
with the germs Of the disease that if they
| are not i'm sDu1a yuav 5aS+r~,,o1 ~
OF this year will be as nothing at all in com
parison with the tempest of pestiience that
Shall desolate us next year.
But how do these preventible diseases oct
access to the hodyp In four different ways.
by air, water, food and innoculation. The
dreaded d1phtheria moves through the air.
and is now prince Of darkness in every
land, and its reign is as wide as the air of
heaven. Typhoid fever has been known 20
be transmitted by COW, through her milk
| to those who drank it. An instance of ac.
cess by toOd was seen in our own State a
short time ago, when some poorly manufae-
tured cheese produced very strong symptoms
OF CHOLERA wherever used. Many of those
cases had come under his own personal OBJ
sefvatlon. Everybody was familiar with the
process by lnnocuation. This was forcibly
Illustrated by vaccination, where we had
the case of one disease destroying another
the only case of this kind known to the nro.
fession.
All important fact to be noted here ia hat
/ tnese SEEDS OF disease ;ilust find the proper
sou III the proper condition in order to ger
inmate fully and successfully. If thev do
not Hnd favorable conditions, like seed sown
upon barren soil, they wither and die,
Ahese conditions to great extent are under
our control. 1t IS also fact that ec.;1nnics
peglh with great force and y:ru1ef.ca. and
gfaduaily die out; as if eshaustinp thei,
Iofce by using it, and thus the cases in the
early stage OF an epidemic are much worse
than those a. its close.
! !. Az .ndant provisions are found in nature
Tor the prevention of disease. Free, pure
ana abundant air, water and sunlight. Pure
ana SIMPLE fooG, Vlcclne poison, deodorlZers
etc. Ihe doctor here referred to some things
the State board of health had accomplished
ana what field for prevention have WEI
Between SIX and seven thousand people die
annually III this Stete, or per cent. Of the
| population. totty-one per cent. of the
deaths are OF children under 2 years old
and At per cent. of children under 5 wears
OLD. VI these fully one half might be pre-.
vented: and, ii SO, there is terrible respon-
sib1llty resting somewhere. Upon the skirts
OF parents is often found the blood of thei1
children. A child born to-day has only an
expectancy of 10 years. But life
Should be healthy to be worth
| having. The death statistics do not tell the
whole story. For every one dead there are
two sick. For every one killed in the bat
tie held many are disabled. How few die
OF old age, which is the only natural death.
lhe doctor here gave case of snch death
An old lady of so years, who had continued
IN active work until 70 years old. doctor
she said 81 feel tired, and I think shall 90
to sleep,' and. cuddling herself up like a
child, she did indeed go to sleep.
But people are slow to use these natural
preYentlEes; they want medicine, and the
doctor who will dose them the most suits
them the best Ii you prescribe pure air,
pure water, etc. the patient will say, so doc
tor, you do not understand my case at all. I
am really sick enough to take incidence
feople prefer to pay for being cured, rather
than for having disease prevented. The duty
or the doctor should be to advise rather than
to cure, 'and am glad,'' he said, "that
there is change for the better in this re-
spect, and people are begin
nIng to see it is better to pay the doctor
Aof heeplnS them well, than to cure them
after they have become ill., Hygiene
goes TO the source. 1t does not SO much at
tempt to purify the stream as to keep the
fountain interrupted. You ell have a part
IN this work. Sustain your health officer.
DO not let him feel as he often does, like q
lone picket away on the outposts faithfully
dlscharging his duty to preserve the gar
rison, who stand and laugh at him for his
pains.
Happy Boys.
Such a gathering of bright, happy boys as