The Press., 1894-02-01
(From Halls Journal of Healthy AVOIDABLE DISEASES.

the reading and thinking class now recog
 nize. One of the best illustrations of thi,
 we have had this past season.
 An exhaustive scientific study of chol-
 era has been made, enabling our govern
 ment to arrest the disease. We have learned it's characteristics as we would those of common enemy
 Our consuls at foreign ports have been
 very vigilant as we'll as sanitary officers at our ports of entry. The condition of the coast cities were looked to and or ganic decaying matter removed that it
 might not become culture medium
 Close, crowded and ill-ventilated tene- ment houses remain, but are no cause for
 alarm if the germ of cholera is not plant
 ed there, neither is the water supply of 8
 city liable to be contaminated as the
 source is remote. The person, the room
 and the personal effects are the chief tsources of contagion. The fact that
 smallpox has been stamped out in all lcivilized communities is another remark
 able instance of what preventive means | icontagion is by isolation and disinfection,
 but the greatest of all is quarantine when
 cholera is suspected. If it be not allowed
 to spread from house to house the city is
 safe. If the fire be not allowed to spread
 beyond the burning building the city is saved.
 The physician should be sanitarian,
 because he knows the ways and means by which many diseases can be averted.
 He need not fear criticism. Families to whom he is called will gladly listen to such information. The physician will instruct the family to isolate the sick | child who has contagious disease from other children, to have the sick room as remote as possible, to have no communi- cation between the infected child and the | we'll children, to have all clothing fumi- gated or destroyed which has been used | tn the room; the room thoroughly disin- | fected. We well know that diseases be- come epidemic from lack of perfect isola- tion, from neglect of this in the first stage, neglect in allowing we'll children to come in contact with the sick too early in their convalescence. While yet there is a dis charge from the nose or throat in scarla- tina or diphtheria, or before the desqua- native process is completed. The physi- clan should give the time, when for it's own safety, it can go upon the street or in public places. He should impress upon the minds of parents and nurses that too early meeting with other children is a criminal offense against the health of the commit nifty, Preventive measures can never avail to accomplish the great purpose of lessening disease until sanitary rules are placed upon the statutes backed by intel ligent public opinion. The people have been educated to the idea of cure in- stead of the avoidance of disease. The doctors should popularize sanitation. This easily becomes a part of his life work as professional life saver. The intelligent mothers will be his best CO., workers, They will adopt quickly all rules prescribed with reference to dress. ventilation, hours for study and play, every thing conducive to the health of the children. The press will be willing to devote little space to the sanitary profession for the spread of such knowl- edge. People are more apt to believe what they read in sanitary publications and papers than what they hear spoken.
 In this way they will have hygienic in formation served to them from a source which will be often before them. Teach CTS will thus become more mindful of the ventilation of their school rooms and act in concert with the local boards of health.
 They will not allow child to enter the school enclosure sent from an infected house.
 Public opinion will count it reprehensi- ble for mothers to send such a child upon the street to play with other children un- til the danger is over.
 Public opinion will not allow chili 'ailing with contagious disease to enter crowded car or audience room, obliging a mother to flee from there with her we'll child. The time is coming when the con- tagious diseases of childhood will not bc looked upon as inevitable, There was q time, and now Is among the less informed people, when the children were thought to be destined to have all the diseases from itch to scarlatina.
 A mother has been known to send her well child to neighbours house to catch measles or whooping- cough. Another ignorant mother of fatalistic delusion once said to me, ''If my child is to have diph- theria it will have it no matter how grea. is my caution. If my child is not to have the disease it will not contract it even iI it play face to face with child having the disease in it's worst form"
 I once visited child who had diphthe- ria. A neighbor woman came with hes little child to see the sick one. The children were together almost mouth to mouth. 1 asked the brutal mother if shc loved her child. She said ''yes." "Then take your child out of this room," sai6. telling her of the danger. She said her child was as safe there as anywhere elst In few days the little innocent visitor died of the disease. The remote cause I it's death was criminal exposure by it1 natural protector.
 A parent having this barbarian error oS belief is source of danger to the family and the neighborhood.
 The physician who hears such opinions expressed has the opportunity of coing the public a service as missionary. l have been witness of the neglect of isola. ting children, notwithstanding our advice to limit the disease. It would by contact be carried from tenement to tenement passed around from child to child, as if it. were something that every family with children ought to have.
 Diseases are avoided by understanding how they are induced.
 Pneumonia is avoided during the cold months by having rooms of as low tenn