The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-04-12
DR.. CHAILLE'S ADDRESS
THE ECOND PART OF THAT ORATORS
SPEECH TO THE MEDICAL
SOCIETY.

We give below the latter part OF DIR.
Chaille's eloquent speech:
| PREVENTIVE MEDICINE OR PUBLIC HYGIENE.
| Nc. one OF the four branches OF State medi-
| cine involves the public welfare to SO enor-
| nous an extent as preventive medicine; q
| birtn OF TINS century, generated by the con-
viction,. forced on us by centuries OF expe-
rlence, that the bounds Of curative medicine
| fathers In the discovery OF an eligiy vitne. or
OF a panacea, was the baseIess fabric OF their
imaginations. So important is public hygiene
that there ls 10 our profession strong ten
| dency, against which this address Is an ear
nest protest, to consider Ii SYNONYMOUS with
State medicine OF which 1t is only most es-
sential branch. So paramount In importanee
is public hygiene 70 the public good that DR.:
BOwditch estimates this country's annual
deaths by preventable diseases to be not less
than one-fifth OF our million total deaths;
while many authorities will concur with rne,
that an estimate OF from one-fourth to one
half would more nearly approximate the
| frightful truth. Accepting the lowest esti-
mate, experience seems to prove that there
are many whose imaginations are too slug
gish to respond by action to the dry statfs-
tical fact that 100000 people die annually i'm
the United States by avofdable diseases. 1t
may aid some to realize all that this dry fact
implies Il the minds eye .coniures up a
vast array, the more horrible because avoid
able Of unnecessary doctors, nurses drug
gists, undertakers, auguished parents, home
less widows and destitute orphans. It implies
{. great reduction in the, normal duration Of
life, and thereby the loss Of inestimable
benefits; such benefits as a community would
now be deprived Of II large proportion of
the men, at present from forty-tive to sixty
years OF age, had been swept into their graves
prior to this period Of their greatest useful
ness. 1t implies far greater public injury
than would result from the diminution OF inn
migration to the extent OF 100000 annual
foreign immigrants: And. II the aver
$780, or the value Of slaves, and Ii the
time OF those sick aud attending on the
sick has an average value TO the community
OF fifty cents day, then my dry statistical
fact no longer implies but proves an annual
national loss by preventabls disease and
death exceeding $40, 100000. This communi-
ty painfully realizes Its loss by one years
Iepidefnic, but, like other communities, 1t suf-
fers every year as great loss, which from
Ignorance and habit it cannot realize. We're
our cotton crop destroyed, Exchange forum,
press and even the pulpit would Tesound
! with lamentations and with active expedi-
ents to prevent the recurrence OF such dis
aster, and yet preyentable disease and death
annually infiict q damage, which, though un-
realized, is very real greatly exeeedfng In
money value the profits On the whole shs Of our
there neither public lamentation nor action2
Because public teachers have, for many gen.
erations, been in the habit Of insulting our
Creator BY attlibuting to His maievolence
our own filth Charity cries: Lord forgive
them; they know not what they dor
What should the public be necessarily
taught? First, the fnalienable right Of every
human being to be supplied with uncontam-
mated air, water, food, soil and personal sur
roundiDgs; and the duty Of the State to allow
no trespass on this right from negligence, igno-
rance or greed OF gain. Secondly, that the
causes OF many diseases and Of many deaths
can be as successfully fenced out from their
human crop, as domestic animals can be
fenced out from grain crop; and that as
stored away and guarded, so, as one instance
only, a smallpox hospital, potent with
greater mischief than magazine Of dyna-
s sh9pa ans sapsss be fp gssaMs M 5 sssa &
that "pubic health is public wealth." and
therefore, the public which organizes vigor-
ously and spends money layishly TO yanquish
Indian and other marauders, should make aa
efficient war against cOnquerable m0rbifc foes
which, though invisible, are more disastrous
to both life and property.
After many years OF special study each ad-
ditional year has increased my conviction
that wherever social order has been firmly
secured by law, there the supreme subject OF
Importance Is. The avoidable causes OF disease
and death, their extent, cost and influence on
morality and human progress. This subject
is SO exhaustless, 90 varied In detail, so fruit
full to study and discovery and 30 little under
stood by the public that confess my impa-
tience whenever a physician discourses to q
public audience on any other subject; for It
has been wisely taught that 'sthe art Of
politics ian art essential to the progress OF
State medicine) Is TO try to get ideas stamped
as deeply as possible into, and spread as
widely as possible among, the masses.
Germain to these views are the glad tidiDgs
: that on March 81, 1870 the Citizens Auxiliary
Sanitary Association OF New Orleans was or
ganized- auxiliary IN matters Of public health
to our public officials This evidence OF nom
professional interest in publichygiene Is very
encouraging, but experience warns as not 70
be too sanguine, and that it will require at
least one year without an epidemic Of yellow
fever, to test the earnestness and the en-
lightenment Of this association. For, ten
years ago, ventured to warn the puDiie lnas
? "every year without yellow fever epldeInIc
was year nearer to it, and added thas OUT
press seems now to wait with inactive silence
like its patron, the public, for another over
whelming pestilence, such as the great epl-
| demic Of 1853 which galvanized them INTO g,
8 few spasmodic efforts resulting 10 some III
dipested and worse executed laws, quaran-
tine satisfactory to neither eontagionists nor
antl-contagionists, and an impotent board OF
health utterly powerless 70 enforce hnaa,1 tnose s
things needful for the puoilc, ,a1a nss ha oo,ne ne
= : and gone: it has galvanized the public into
: efforts which, it is to be hoped, even the COM
ing year may serve to. prove are not merely
snasrnodic, for four OF our greatest epidemic
Years n839, f847, 1858, 1860, during the past
J forty Years have not been followed by an inn
= mediate successor. Persistence In sanitary
reform, In spite Of the absence OF epidemics, Is
!, the only test OF the enlightenment OF the re-
. former In addition to the organization In
7 New Orleans Of a Citizens Sanitary Associa-
j. ton, another cause for great exultation Is
: presented In fact which inspires the hope
that the disastrous epidemic OF 1878 may yet
prove to be an infinite blessing In Disguise
This fact is the recent appropriation ton
,, March 4, 1879, OF $4,000 by Congress to es-
tabltsh at last national board OF health.
I But / have wandered somewhat from my
theme, which strictly is, what are the various
subjects which belong to public hygiene and
require better laws. Ghe needs OF this State
and OF others will now be indicated.
An efficient State board, strengthened by
auxiliary local boards OF health. and the regis
tration OF vital statistics, which includes the
: registration not only of marriages, births and
q deaths, but also OF prevailing diseases, are
single State Is as yet adequately provided |;
. and yet some States* have laws on these and