Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-12-01
SANITARIANS In COUNCIL.
THE EAMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH
ASSOCIATION.
second Day of the Ninth Annual Ses-
siOn-InteresTInG Papers on VarI-
Gus Subjects.
MORNING SESSION.

can Public Health Association opened yes
terday morning, at 10 O'Clock, at Masonic
Temple, there being a large attendance o.
members and our citizens generally.
The proceedings were commenced with
an earnest prayer by Rev. j. D. Branch
pastor of Trinity Methodist Church.
BUSINESS.
The election of members was then entered
into, and the roll of the association was
largely increased. Among them are the
following named Savannahians: DR.. Thos
J.. Charlton, DIR. VIM. NJ. Charters, Rev. r.
P. Kerr, A. A. Winn.
The following committees were announced
by the President:
Committee on Necrology-Dr. Ames, See.
retary; Prof. J. l.. Cabell, Of Virginia; DIR.
E. NJ. Hunt, Of New. Jersey; DR.. j. B.
Lindsey, OF Tennessee; DIR. j. G. Thomas,
OF Georgia.
Committee on resolution of Mr.. Fenner,
who are instructed to examine on papers
read at the first days session In regard to
diseases among food animals, and to submit
Fenner, Esq, DR.. John II. Rauch, of Illi-
nois, DR.. E. M. Hunt. of New Jersey, DIR.
Henry p Walcott, of Massachusetts, DR.. j.
NJ. Partridge, of Maryland.
Committee on National Museum of Hy-
giene-Dr. Albert l., Gihon, of United
States Navy, DIR. c. W. Chancellor, Balti-
more, Md, DR.. VIM. Fl. Ford, Philadelphia.
At half past ten O'Clock the g, neral bust
ness of the association was commenced by
DR.. ]. j. Speed, of Kentucky, reading the
following interesting paper on
''INsIDE SOURCES OF DISEASE"
To make the old familiar and the familiar
new is said to be triumph in writing or in
public speech. Old and very familiar ideas
may be placed in new relationship, and truth
may be evolved from them which enter into
and become a part of our philosophy Of life.
AS sanitarians we dwell with especial en-
phasis upon all the conditions outside of the
man-what we call his surroundings. Earth
and air, light and drainage and cleanliness,
are words which we find everywhere, in books,
in pamphlets, in public address, and in prl-
vate speech, and they are not 1Cords merely
They are the words which are things. No re-
spectacle sanitation without them-infnite
disaster without proper attention to them
not single disease only, but peStilence
comes in the wake Of persistent
disregard of them. But are there no other
factors that enter into the conditions of mans
best being Is there nothing on the inside of
the man the outcrop Of which tells upon his
physical veal or woe? Are there no central
fires quite as destructive, aye, infinitely more
destructive than the miasms which spring
from august suns upon putrescent swamps?
What say you to the appetites and passions?
How shall we exclude them from our consde-
ration of the sanitary influences which build
up or D Ill do Wn-enrich or pauperise human
N finn-Qnd fhnG ChnFfnn or TlrOlnnQ
human life? While we assignlall proper import
ance, then, to facts of mans surroundings, let
US not forget that on the inside of
him there are forces which tend largely to
shape his destiny as a physical being, lifting
him from better up to best, or poisoning and
bllghting the very sources or his vitality and
blotching him with curse asdeadly and more
far reaching than the Egyptian leprosy-and
these diseases are preventable.
Let us look for little at the eater-the hu-
man anaconda who eats to repletion and stupe-
fes through digestion. Has he done hygienic
thing? Has he not done very unhygienlc
thing?--a thing which, repeated, lays the foun-
dation for more troubles than Pandora loosed
from her fatal box.
What consideration has such an eater ever
given to the fact that hunger and appe-
tite are very different states; that hun
ger is natural and appetite is artificial;
that hunger is natures demand for
fresh building material; that appetite is cfav-
ing for the fripperies and gewgaws of society
life; that hunger is physiological and appetite is
pathological one easily appeased, the 9th
er well nigh insatiate; that the one sustains
and buoys and carries you through the years
that the otter depreSses and overwhelms you
with burden which you cannot bear; the one
faction, the other gives you a morbid stimula-
tion which, like the daughters of the horse
leech, constantly cries, GIVE, give"
1t is not necessary in presence like this to
doomed, the Respondent the pitiable spec
tacle of him whose stomach is for
ever crying, "Remorse, remorse;" nor
Of the gouty man whose feet tell of his table
debauch nor of the heart-troubled man who
dies daily and is afraid of every thing except
his dining room. All doctors are familiar with
these miserable existences. Where are the
Pontine marshes more disastrous than these
feeding halls which pander to stimulated appe-
tites.
By drainage you prevent the deadly emana-
tions of the one; what prophylaxes do your
sanitary tracts suggest for the other ou
drain your marshes to prevent fever, you vac
cinate your child to prevent smallpox, you
quarantine the ship to prevent yellow fever
what do you do for the man whose stimulated
appetite demands all the products of all
the continents? You save to the family
and to the State the vigorous young man and
the beautiful girl by your speck of vaccine, and
all men give you thanks. What do you offer to
the insane eater who rushes headlorg toward
the precipice, over which he drops into dys-
pepsia or gout and then totters through life
driveler and show, a whining burden to him
the remorse of the stomach. Why should the
stomach feel remorseY Remorse implies con-
sciOusness Of wrong-doing. 1t has done no
wrong. Indeed. it has labored very faithfully
to do exactly right. 1t has poured out its gas
trio juice and held steadily to its true motions
month after month and year after year, grinding
every grist brought to it as long as the power
lasted. 1t has prepared all conceivable things
for enriching the blood which went to brain and
heart and lungs, but now the power to turn all
this confused mass into nutriment ceases, and
you charge remorse upon the overworked old
mill. 1t is the artificially stimulated palate not
the natural demand Of the stomach it is the
love of high seasoned dishes, the morbid appe-
tite not the heaIthful hunger of the man. Let
the worm bite there, and it does bite there The
impoverished blood, the palpitating heart
prove it; and the disordered mental Visions
the morbid conceptions, the vague apprehen-
sions, the inability to think, the cowardlY
dread of unseen dangers, all show where
remorse is. The vulgar habit Of much
eating, driven by stimulated appetite stands
as the criminal before the bar of hygiene,
and under law receives its punishment. Sani-
tation can't abrogate the law, but with abso-
lutte certainty can prevent the crime. In
finitelY simple is the advice; rather hard per-
haps the acceptance and the practice of it,
Satisfy your hunger, but don't sit an hour at
home to crafty your appetite.
Doctor Beaumont has very clearly hown in
his experiments upon the soldier, Alexis St.
Martin, the distinction make between hunger
and appetite.
After sn abstenince of longer than ordi-
nary duration, when the demands of the or
ganizaton had set up that peculiar sensation
called hunger, Beaumont introduced through
the other external opening in his stomach
the simplest form of food, and the
sensation was allayed. No particle of food
touched the palate. The appetite was not con-
suited, and yet hunger was appeased and the
organism was satisfied. Leaving out altogeth-
er the multiplied experiences of medical men
all over the world, this soldier experiment
alone is enough to establish the physiological
hunger satisfied. Let Haui-
tarians stick pin there. The artificial appe-
tite goes on in it's cravings-dish after dish each
more highly seasoned than the last-peppers
and mustards and Worcestershire sauces, horse
raddish and cayenne pepper, each hotter than
the other, till the whole organization is alb aze,
which the victim attempts to put
out by wine and spirits, which only
add to the fame. Tell me this is RATIONALE
Is there sanitary law for thisY Physoloeical
law for thisy Three hundred and sixty five
times in a year repeat this, and liver
Is it not monstrous perversion Of all rea-
son-a square infraction OF all law, and lead
ing rapidly, and with absolute certainty, to
disaster and overthrow The reckless floater
above Niagara is no more certainly nearing
the fatal plunge than the lawless feeder whose
whetted appetite drives him to his destiny. Is
there no room here for sanitary lawi No room
here for preventive measuresi OF all other
sources of disease this fronts us most directly,
and most constantly. Those Of us who attempt
to teach health laws to the people have ground
here for very emphatic speech.
The panied faces OF personal friends crowd
upon every medical man who hears these words
friends who laughed an incredulous laugh
years ago when cautioned against much eating.
They we're younger then. and thought that
their stomachs would last forever. just as the
young spendthrift who has inherited a few
thousands imagines that no possible lifetime
can exhaust.his fortune. and yet who by few
years of riotous living has become a bankrupt.
So this splendid digestive apparatus at twenty
five feels all sound, and capable Of standing any