Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-03-31
LET THERE BE LIGHT
VALUABLE BOOKS TO BE GIVEN TO
READERS.

The darkness of the past, in which
mankind accepted visitations of dis.
ease as a punishment for imaginary
| offences against some deity, has beer
nearly dispelled by the recent wonder.
full advances in sanitary science. Light
has broken in upon this darkness with.
in the last fifty years, since men have
begun to study the cause of diseases
and the methods of preventing them
The results in the way of saving hui
man life from smallpox, typhoid fe.
yer, with diphtheria, and scarlet fe-
yer, which have been already obtained
are but a slight indication of what can
be done when the light of this new
knowledge has full control.
The work of dispelling this darkness
of ignorance in regard to the preventa-
able diseases is too great for private
enterprise. Local sanitary associations
and the American Public Health As.
ISOLATION have done good work, but
they are not enough; and SO, during
the past twenty years, there have
sprung up in this country thirty state
boards of health, that are engaged not
alone in the study of diseases, but in
disseminating sanitary information
among the people.
! AS striking example, however, OF
what private benevolence can do in
this line, we would mention four prize
essays on sanitary subjects. copies Of
which have just reached US. Mr.. Hen.
ry Lomb, of Rochester, n. Y, a gen.
tleman interested in sanitary science
and the public welfare, offered about
SO, 900 as prizes, through the American
Public Health Association, for best
essays on four subjects, as follows:
Healthy Homes and Foods for the
| Working Classes, y" Distinction and
Individual Prophylaxis against Infec.
ton Diseases" "The Sanitary Condi.
tions and Necessities ofSchool- Houses
and School Life," and 1.-THE Proven.
table Causes of Disease, Injury, and
Death IN American Manufacturing
and Workshops, and the Best Means
and Appliances for Preventing and
Avoiding Them"
| The longest essay is of sixty, and
the shortest of nineteen, pages. They
are practical and popular in style, and
having been written by such well
known sanitarians as DIR. Victor c.
Vaughan, of the Michigan State
Board of Health, DR.. Geo. M. Stern.
berg, of the q. S. Army, and others,
they can be relied upon as containing
the latest conclusions of science upon
their respective subjects. The prices
of these essays are as follows:-
No. |, 10 cents; Nos. 2, 3, and 4, 8
cents each. In book form, well bound
in cloth, so cents. To be had at the
bookstores, or by writing to DIR. Irv-
ing A. Watson, Secretary of the
American Public Health Association,
Concord, n. III.
DIR. Sternberg's Essay has been pub.
lished in German, French, and Elem.
ish, and DR.. Vaughan's in German.
THE "APRIL FIsH."-In France,
an April fool is called an poisson
PAUra or April fish, and this term
was applied to Napoleon by the wits
of Paris, when, in 1910, he married
Maria Louisa, archduchess of Austria,
on the first day of April. They prac-
tice much the same tricks as we do,
and many French schoolboy has his
tongue well bitten with pepper, when
attempting to swallow tempting
looking bon bon. Parisians, however,
sometimes carry their jokes long
way, as will be seen by the following
anecdote. On the first of April, 1917,
young lady helped herself to watch
belonging to friend. The same day
she was arrested, and, being charged
with the theft before tn correctional
police, excused herself, with the plea
that it was but an April trick. -
When asked if the watch was in her
possession she answered MOI" but
an officer, on examining her apart
ment, found it on the mantelpiece.
Thus confronted, she again turned it
off by saying she had only made the
messenger an April fool.n The
judge, however, could be as jocular as
she, and had his revenge by sending
her to the House of Correction until
the first of April, 1918, when she was
to be discharged as aaa poisson d. Arra.
Thus it behooves us to he discreet even
in our fun, and after all the good.na-
tured and harmless April tricks and
jokes are always the best.-American
Agricutturist for Apra.