Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-11-13
CAUSES or DISEASE.
How Life is Shortened and How A. MY =
j & = 4 EsA PROLONGED. II -

How Life is Shortened and How It May -
p Prolonged. q Il lss
i IRE causes that shorten Life aresSko-
fold, namely, first, those that are pre-
natal. or influences that form and de-
velop in the infant before its birth; and
second, spost-natal, or those that act
directly upon the child after it has been
born. The first-class Of influences pro
duce. tendencies to disease from the ill
conduct or misfortune Of some ances-
tor. A poor constitution. q scrof610us
diathesia g strong tendency. to certaf
maladies, may be transmitted through
several generations. Character and
ability in child may begin to germin-
ate and develop at the prenatal outset
OF its existence. Ne&r1y all able and
noble menhsd able and noble mothers.
These remarks may show that t4nden-
cles 20 good orsbad in morals, to good
or bad in health, may have prenatal
causes, and that the gfeat mortality Of
| infancy may have pre-n natal tendenSies.
Many infautss die from hayinr vitiated
blood transmitted to them fhrdiagh sew
eral generations These several gem
erations of ancestors may have
disregarded natural laws. They NAV
have been poorly nourished, exposed to
hard toll and adverse circumstances.
A peculiar group of ma1adies exists
among those who work in mines.
away from the influences of the suns
or others are spent in unhealthy and
filthy places, in poorly ventilated shops,
where they are constantly inhalmg
vitiated air, and are not well sup
piled with digestible and nutritious
food Such conditions gradually inn
pair health and produce an, early
death, or, if the subjects live, they
transmit their feebleness to posterity.
Bad habits of various sorts deterior-
ate the blood. Scrofulous diseases are
in this group, and the wasting diseases
of infancy, They all and some others
indicate vitiated blood. If this vitiated
blood does not destroy life in infancy
or childhood, its influence is not de-
stroyed in after life, but, introduces
diseases in various forms. This group,
too, includes those infants who are
really starved to death. They eat
enough, but their food does not
nourish them, so that they really do not
eat at all. Those articles of diet only
sare nutritious that are digested and
assimilated, and find their way into
the veins and heart, forces it into every
section of the limb and body.
Diseases of the digestive organs
form another group that cut short the
thread Of life in infancy. DiarThna,
dysentery and cholera are all marked
by looseness of the bowels. They all
have the same general causes--the
!, examinations from excremental filth pol
luting the air, soil and water. The pc
culiar character of cholera infantum,
. cholera morbus and maglignant chol-
era may be induced by excessive heat.
Infants are considered susceptible only
to cholera infantum. The mucous
membrane of the waste canal is the SEE
!creting surface to which nature directsa
portion of the impurities which enter the
stomach, but are eliminated for lack of
use. The kidneys and skin remove
other parts. The lungs inhale putri-
Tying germs that induce diarrhnl mall
aides. To these germs we may add the
effect of heat that really develop them.
Infants, not yet hardened to the infu-
ences of excessive heat, nor able. to re-
pei the germs of maladies, readily
/ yield to them, and they sicken and die
and pass away like dew before the dis
persing influences of the Summer morn
ing sun. s9F HI
Some diseases ere peculiar TO giegen.
Grated families and races, and. TO pre-
natal causes. These causes are not
necessarily vices, but may be excuses
and imprudences. IF the childreafof
degenerated parentage escape. the perils
of birth and early infancy, they feel in
after life the effects of degenerated or
vitiated blood. Lack of proper food,
or food that can not be converted into
nutritious blood, either prenatal or
kpost-natal, is leading cause of degen-
keration. It is the great source of
krickets and its associates. One sad re-
suit of adulterated food is, that the
food adulterated loses its nutritious
value. Infants need all the creamsor
fat that milk naturally contains. De-
priying infants of this element, deprives
them of the means of living, starves
them, and ultimately kills them. Physi-
CLANS are often called not as much to
medicate infants, but to nourish them.
Food is not the only thing that pro-
the infant breathes, the water it drinks,
and the soil on which it lives, con-
tribute largely to its life and .yigor.
The houses in which the infant spends
its days and nights are often full Of
polluted air. Evil spirits hide them
selves by day, but stalk abroad by
night. We have been called to visit
the palaces. of the richss and the novels
of the poor, and found them full, more
or less, of vitiated air from the water
closets, the gas burning, and body ema-
nations and wash bowls of the one
and the cesspools and body emanations
of the other. Very few houses have
efficient means for the outlet of stale
air and the inlet of fresh. They are SO
badly drained and are so poorly fur
nished with the means Of removing
filth, that the fresh air once in IS
quickly laden with the poisonous gases
of purifying organic, matter. Such
homes are sure to have illness and
deaths, that might have been pre-
vented. = Fsi'%3tstes ssH
After some years have passed away,
the soil adjacent to the appendages Of
a rural home SO arranged is saturated
with filth. The rains come now and
then and remove the putrid or putri-
flying matter intoe the adjacent wells,
and the gases formed within the soil
rise and mingle with the air and ulti-
mately come into dwellings and bring
disease and death. 50 e6nmerous in
deed ARE such causes s0f disease, that
we cease to wonderfhatpOma many Infants
die, and only wonder t6at - many in
fants live. e. s4lzen. ~. D., IN
Western Rural.
= i+sf