The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1881-05-28

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70 therefor" Hon. J. G. zern, spoke as follows,
in reply to the member for Venango, who
opposed the bill;
Mr.. Speaker, since my oleaginous friend
from Venango has seen fit TO ridicule this
bill, and has asked for some reasons why it
should be passed, will briefly answer him
by saying that institutions of this kind have
been in existence in Europe for a long pc
riod Of time, but not until 1859 did Massa-
chusetts lead The way in this country by
the organization of State Board of Health.
Since then some fifteen or twenty other
States, including Louisiana, California, Vir-
ginia, Minnesota, Wisconsin,, Michigan,
Maryland, Georgia, Alabama, Delaware
and New York have followed her example.
The duties entrusted TO these boards include
a general supervision of the interests of the
health and life of the citizens of the State,
of making sanitary investigations and in
quiries into the cause of disease, and the
gathering proper information for diffusion
among the people. A board of health is as
essential TO the State as it is TO the city.
The city board is 30 exclusively occupied
with remedying nuisances which are daily
brought to its notice or offend its nostrils,
that it has no time to devote TO the discus
sion and investigation of questions which
affect the health Of the entire people in
common with the city or other sections re
mote from the city. A State Board Of
Health alone can grapple successfully with
these general questions Its province would
be to Investigate and remedy the giant evil
of adulterati0u of food to educate the peo-
pie as to healthful modes Of living; in the
selection of sites for their houses, so that
they may secure dryness, light and ventila-
ton; in habits Of personal cleanliness in
the preparation Of wholesome food; in
healthful clothing; in the necessity for pure
water, and the various means by which wa
ter may easily become polluted; in the fact
that many diseases are altogether preventa-
bic by proper attention TO cleanliness of
premises; that the spread of diseases may
be completely cdeckel by proper precau-
tons in the houses in which they have
made their appearance, and by quarantn-
ing the occupants Of such houses for the re-
quisite period OF time.
A few weeks ago little girl who had
Just recoyered from diphthera was taken
by her parents to visit family in neigh
boring town. She slept with the children
of that family, and shortly afterward three
or four of them were taken sick with the
malady, and at least two of them have since
died. This family permitted neighbors
and relatives to visit them, and the result is
several cases of diphtheria in the neighbor-
hood. They had public funerals, even
keeping the remains of one child an unu-
sual time, waiting for another one to die, so
as to bury them together; this also helped
spread the contagion. The physician not
being properly impressed-as some physi-
clans are not-with the contagious charac-
tar &C ha Il not foly Ia
ry precautions for the protection of the
neighborhood or of his own family, and
the consequence was that one of his own
children has died and another is dangerous
ly Ill. A lady who went to one of these
families and assisted in robing the victims
for the grave, has called at houses in the
vicinity where there are children, without
any change of garments, or any attempt at
disinfection, and has fondled the children
of those families, apparently in utter ignor-
ance of the danger to which she was expos
ing them. 1t remains to be seen what ia
tality will attend her embraces.
And this is but one instance of what is
being repeated all over this State. We
want a State Board of Health, to educate
the people and even the physicians as tc
contag gious diseases, the laws of contaglon
the means of restraining its spread, and the
proper use of disinfectants to send leaflets
and pamphlets like these which | hold in
my hand treating on the restriction and
| prevention of diphtheria and scarlet ievel
and small pox, which have been distributed
! broadcast by the State Board of Health o
Michigan into every hamlet and farm
house in the State, SO that the lives of ou
children may no longer be sacrificed to g
norance. incompetency and carclessness.
| - r III
our school houses and remedy the defects o
lighting, and of printing, which are drv
| ing SO many of our youths to the use o
spectaccs and eye glasses the defects o
heating aud ventilation, which are maxim!
them dyspeDte and neualgics; the defect
of desks aud seats, which are contracting
their chests and rounding their shoulders
and curving their spines. 1t must provide
these future fathers and mothers of the lant
with such instruction in all matters per
tanning to the preservation of health q
shall fit them TO undertake the cares of th
family more intellgently than their father
and mothers did before them, and thus pro
vide for the peopleing OF this good old Stat
with a stronger, nobler and grander race q
men. 1t must enter tho noisy factory all,
see that the toiling operative is supplle
with fresh and pure air, and that childre
of tender age are rot forced to work in a
atmosphere so contaminated as to dwarf an
check the growth and development cf bot
their bodies and minds. IL must dive int
the bowels of the earth and see that ever
precaution is taken Tor the protection Of tn
lie and limb of the miner,it must study tn
diseases to which he is liable, and endeavo
to find means to avert them and to amelic
rate his dark and arduous life OF subtel
renean labor.
But were none of these beneficent funC
tious open, to it, it would still findsa rcaso
for its existence in the immense mass
material waiting to be worked up in the wa
OF statistics in regard to health and diseast
the rise and progress of epidemics, the con
paratiye rates OF mortality OF different sec
tions and towns, the registration of birth
marrl ages and deaths-that tripod on whic
all study of disease,as affecting communitie
must rest-and many other facts, which no.
go to waste for want OF any properly const
tuted authority to callate and conserve theI
for the public good. There are boards
health now in existence that, upon th
showing of vital statistics for a day or
week, go for an epidemic of disease
, methodically as, upon the click Of the alarl
telegraph the steam fire engine goes for
fire, and are inst as sure of putting it out,
the authorities will only provide them me
, and means to do the work.
Lord Beaconsfeld, the most accomplishe
statesmen of his day, says; "The first col
sideration OF a minister should be the healt
OF the people,"
More people die in a month in this Sta
Of preventaOle diseases than were put
death in Pars-durng the Reign of ferro
and more die of such diseases in the Unite
States in one year than perished in Il
? Franco Prussian war.
Nothing can be more true than that Il
State has a vital interest in the yigor an
healthtulness of her citizens. A comml
/ nifty lacking health must, OF necessity,
| an Impoverished community. Every ma
. knows, IN his own experience, how his ow
sickness cuts into his business and dimil
e lshes his profits, and what expenses siekue
. in his family creates. The State is only a
!, aggregation of individuals, aud is lust
: certainly injured, financially aud CONNIE
c,ally, as the individual, though we do n
g see it so directly. In this view, the 4
= greater evils of suffering and sorrow-whiC
q are inevitable accompaniments of sickne
and death-are not considered, for upC
=. these no valuation in money can be place
u and for them no pecuniary compensate
: can be considered an atonement.
e To those who might object to this mea
= ure on the score of economy, / will in co
o cluson, remark that in the State of MicL