Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1881-03-25
Prevention Better than Cnre.

Professor j.. G. Jancway Iectured in
New York about the prevention of dis.
ease advising that great attention should
be paid to it in order to obviate fine
necessity of curing the disease when il
should come. All, he said, were familiar
with the cost of sickness, involving the
expense OF medical attendance and loss
OF time, work and wages but many were
Ignorant Of how to prevent it. A man
should first learn his hereditary tenden.
cles, and If he was likely to inherit dis
ease he should guard against it bv his
mode of life, his choice of an occupation
and of adwelling place, etc. After enlarg-
ing somewhat upon the tendency to con
sumption and gout, he spoke particularly
OF hereditary insanity. If a child were
liable to that the greatest care should
be taken from the earliest infancv-frst
to develop the body. As he grew older
he should be trained to avoid worry and
anxiety. Action was desirable for such
a person rather than undue reelection.
All mental shocks should be avoided.
1t was bad for him to be wrapped up in
one idea, such as the acquisition of money
or power. He should choose a congenial
pursuit and by no means be forced by
his parents into distasteful one. There
were good reasons why he should not
marry, but if he did, he should carefully
choose a congenial wife.
The lecturer then spoke at great
length on the necessity for pure air,
water and milk, giving several instances
of the deletemCus effects of bad air,
among others that of the passengers on
the ship Londonderry in 1913, $50 Of
whom were shut up by the captain dur
ing a storm, in the steerage, an apart
ment 18x11x7 feet Seventy of them
died in an incredibly short time, having
convulsions and bleeding at the eyes and
ears. Speaking of the dangers Of i'm
proper air in dwelling houses, the lee
! turer described a house he had examined
4 in which he found the cold air-box Of
the furnace connecting directly with the
sewer In another house he knew of
three cases of malaria where the tenant,
imagining drain that the owner had
warranted to be all right, found
a cesspool under the house. He
has also known people to put their
garbage barrels under the cold air-box
of the furnace. People should examine
| the plumbing in their houses for them
]
plumber said it was right. Whenever ii
was possible a tenant, builder or pur-
chaser of a house should insist that the
plumbing work be all in sight, and not
buried in walls. If people would all
insist upon it houses would soon be
built 50, But if the plumbing is in the
walls the peppermint test should be
applied. A considerable quantity Of the
essence of peppermint should be poured
into the highest trap in the house, and
if there was break anywhere the pep
permint odor would betray it. BaG
odors in a house We're like the rattles ot
rattlesnake. They meant bad plumb
ing and danger.
He then spoke earnestly in regard t.
vaccination, saying that a hundred year,
ago ten deaths in every hundred wer,
caused by smallpox. Now, by vaccina
ton and isolation, the prevalence of tn,
disease was checked BY being vaccir q
ted in infancy and once fifteen or twent,
years afterward a person was compare
lively safe but by being yaccinated ono
in seven years he was as safe as he coul,
| be. He then concluded with few di
rections in regard to disinfecting am
nursing in cases of infectious diseases.