Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-08-19
THE REASON AND rHEREnEDY.

The slaughter of the iunocentS goes on in
chicago ut a fearful rate. During the last
two weeks AS children under six years of
age have died in that city, the whole popu-
lstion under six years being So 5S5. This Is
fearful mortality, and Is properly attract.
ing the serious attention OF the papers,
which are urging the people and the au-
thorities 10 take such measures before the
next summer comes as will do away with
death-rate that is q grave reproach TO the
city.-S. Louis Republican.
But Chicago is not an exceptional
city.
1.-THE slaughter of the innoeents" in
New York, Philadelphia and other
large cities is-en scale of equal magni-
tude, if reports are reliable.
The same slaughter is repeated every
summer season. 1t is aggravated rath-
err than diminished.
1t is fearful record. 1t is a reprOach
upon modern civilization.
Where is the remedy?
Evidently this mortality is the direct
and natural result of the prevailing ig-
norance among the masses, of the most
sun plt ldNS VI hStAlNl.
The whole study of the age is how to
cure the sick, not how to preserve the
well.
All the agencies Of science are direct
cd to,and exhausted in, delving into the
character and cure of disease.
a thoroughly healthy man is not an
object of interest or Importance. y
blooming, rosy-eheeked baby Il of no
value.
ItisOniy when a human being has been
racked by disease and his constitution
become so nearly a wreck that there is
not enough of him left to be worth saw
ing and to whom life would be bur
den if saved, that the medical and
scientific world become interested in
him, and summon all their resources to
save him.
1t is only when the infant in its
mothers arms has lost the bloom of
health and emaciatiOn and pallOr have
superseded the rounded form and GRIM
son cheeks, that professional aid is
summoned or volunteers to make the
matter of its healthful growth and de-
velOpmcnt into vigorous manhood, u
serious consideration.
The preservation Of the sick Is every
thing, the preservation of the healthy,
nothing.
The sick are worth more to the world
than the healthy.
IL is only the wrecks among human
Kind who are worth the efforts and
thought of the benevolent and profess
siOnal world.
There is too much truth in the saying
that physicians know only the sick
side Off man and not the well side"
The fees do not come from the healthy,
Tut from the sick. Why should they
study the healthy side? We don't
know why they should. Physicians
cannot be expected to mOnopOliSe all
the philanthropy in the world.
The indifference to the value Of health
and to its preservation on thepa Of the
general public, IS one of the most mex
plicable and inexcusable features of our
modern civil polity.
Health laws and health measures are
laughed out of countenance by our pub
lie men. The National Legislature es-
tablishes Board of Health, and then
cuts of the appropriation after the first
year as an effective means of killing it.
There are advocates of common
schools and all other educational insti-
tutions, except education in physiology
and hygiene.
The slaughter of the innocents"
goes on, and also the slaughter Ofthe ig-
nOrant. Mothers who are not intelli-
gent enough to have the care of a dog
pup are raising babies" The "eom-
mon run" of mankind do not live out
half their natural lease of life.
Nevertheless, the sick and not the
well continue to absorb the profession,
and the whole thought of the legislator.
Preventives are at y discount, and re-
storatives rate above par. Hygienic
education is the remedy We want, but it
has few advocates and little or no sup
port from any quarter