Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-09-09
Causes of Disease and their Rela-
ton to Sanitary Science.

t1Oh W odIl1ldTy oCl6lCS.
Sone old writer whose name I do
not now call to mind. qraintly asked {:
"Who is he that values health at the
rate it i. worth 2" Not he that has it;
he rekcons it among the common ordi-
nary enjoyments, and takes as little
notice of it or less regards it than his
long worn clothes; perhaps more care
full of his garments. remembering their
price. But thinks his health costs him
nothing, and coming to him at so easy
a rate, values it accordingly, and hath
little regard to keep it. He is never
truly sensible Of what he enjoyed until
he finds the want of it by sickness.
Although it is the poor mans stock
in trade, how often is it thoughtlessly
and reck!essly squandered in the
practice of useless and pernicious hab-
its. How often too, is it sacrificed in
the race to become rich, and yet the
rich man would gladly part with all his
wealth to regain it; for health is one
of the main springs of human happl-
ness, because it not only implies free
dom from bodily pain or discomfort.
but without it there can be no real en-
joyment of life or of the varied pleas
ures which surround US. 1t moro than
compensates for any inequality in So
cial position, and may even make a
King envious of 6eggar.
And yet although all this has been
accetped as trite and true ever since
the moralists began to sermonize on
mankind and their follies, there is too
much reason to fear that the scattered
seed still falls on somewhat stony
ground. III health and disease often
set in so insiduously, that warnings,
which in themselves are significant and
distinct enough, are allowed to pass by
unheeded, until at last even the man
who was originally blessed with a
strong constitution begins to find that
he can no longer take liberties with
himself, and is fortunate if he can still
retain fair stock of health by being
more careful as to what he eats, drinks
and wears. Very frequently it hap
pens that he finds out his mistake when
| it is too late; and he may thus be
doomed to wander through life hope
lessly incurable invalid, and perhaps to
sink into an early grave.
If health then, is rightly regarded
as the greatest of mortal blessings, it
surely becomes matter of permanent
concern to be in position to know how
disease, which has been designated the
greatest of mortal evils may be averted.
Now so long as disease was believed
to be separate entity "a something
inflicted on the living body as vista
ton, its causes were looked upon as
inscrutable, and consequently no intel
ligent efforts were made to remove or
mitigate them.
1t was not till physicians began to
discover that the phenomena OF disease
were in reality but arrangements of the
organization Of the body or Of one or
more of its functions, that any actual
progress became possible in the direc-
ton Of prevention or control. For in
order to be able to control disease it is
essential that the physician should not
only comprehend it's nature, but should
also be able to discriminate its various
phenomena and such accurate dis
elimination is only Of recent worth.
Then to it has to be pointed out that
underlying the whole art of prevention
is this other great truth, established
in these latter days by the researches
of the Psychologist, that the animal or
ganism is intended by nature TO pass
through prescribed period of existence
from natural birth to natural death,
and that it is incapable in isself of
originating any of the manifestations
of disease. We have therefore to look
outside of the body for influences or
agents which operate as causes of dis
ease in all its multiform phases, and
with even an ordinary knowledge, we
find that though many Of these causes
are uncomfortable, many more are con-
trolable, and to an extent which We
have reason to believe renders them
preventable. Foremost among the un-
comfortable causes of disease are those
atmospheric changes, depending upon
seasonable variations, ranging from the
extreme cold of winter to the scorch
ing heat of summer. Even in the
healthy body and apart from any man.
ifestations of disease, these sudden
changes produce influences of a well
marked kind. For example, it has
been proved from long series of OBJ
servations, made during several years,