The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1897-10-23
crrIEs HEALTH IMrRovED.
Thirty.fve Thousand Lives saved
Each Year.

l
Each Year.
st. Louis Republic
Washington. October 2o.--Durdng the
! last flve years the health Of the cities OF
America has been improving constantly.
and the death rates have been dwlndling.
This has been marked. Told In figures. this
general lowering OF the death rate means
the saving OF $4,000 lives yearly. To explain
more fully, had the science OF sanitation
and the art of public or preventive med
icine (the guarding against maladies be-
fore they Gomez not been carried to their
present high levels and had the death
rates OF American cities been allowed to
remain where they were Ave years ago.
$4,000 more persons In these cities alone
would have been wiped out Of existence
this year. Quietly. yet surely. in nearly
every municipality from the Atlantic 10
the Pacific, the health boards have been
cleaning up. investigating. examining
foods, buildings and their stiles wastes
and keeping an eye officially on COM
municable diseases. Diphtheria. typhoid
and tuberculosis (co@umption) have been
watched as they never were before, and
| not only are precautions taken against tho
spread, ever so slight, Of these diseases.
but measures are adopted constantly to re-
duce the number OF cases In ordinary times.
| Nineteen Of the mes prominent Amcri-
can cities. taken SO as to include every
section OF tho country. show, in every
case gave one, decrease. In this one
case the death rate has not varied for
twenty years, except sligntly from year TO
year. That city is Providence, Il. l. MIN
neapolis shows the largest decrease. her
/ o!a tlu
! per 1000 In 1886 to e.1S during 1895. A
table made UP from the official health
board reports OF nineteen leading cities,
and approved by medical experts. shows the
actual number OF lives saved this year.
The cities ere as follows: New York,
brooklyn, Chicago, Boston, philadelphia,
New Orleans. Cleveland, Milwaukee, BAL
timore. San Francisco. Buffalo, Denver,
Cincinnati, st, Louis, Hartford. Providence,
Minneapolis, 81 Paul and Atlanta.
Since 1892 these new scientific measures
and methods have been coming into ,se
Chief among them have been antl-toxln
for diphtheria, the public supervision OF
tuberculosis. the meteorological diagnosis
OF tuberculosis and dIphtherla ut the esh-
Vice or private physicians, the famous blood
| tests for typhoid, the inspection OF milk.
| by which cefdon Is formed around a
city and no milk allowed TO come 80 TINT
does not reach standard; the inspection OF
| '"Attih t't tity llIHlthp ITOU which
mix Is procured. the proper cleaning OF
streets and removal OF garbage, sanitary
inspection and the medical inspection of
children in schools ard the wholesale de-
struction OF rear tenements and condemned
buildings.
Properly speaking. this IL the science of
preventive medicine" and 1t is MI of
these Innovations. not one OF which hat
proved a failure. which have made this
revolution in the health of Americas cities
The health OF Southern cities, despite their
epidemics stands high on the scale though
In nearly all OF them the mortality amcmN
tho negroes Is large. owing 10 the filthy
negro quarters. The Southern cities are
now commencing a general Cleaning up"
however.
Anti toxin has come into fairly general
use. Boston. st. Louis Chicago, San Fran
cisco, Washington. New Orleans AMI New
ark have adopted II, and Philadelphia In a
measure. Cincinnati and Minneapolis ore
now considering the Introduction CT plants.
The supervision Of tuberculosis rs being
slowly taken up all over the Union, AZ In
many cities it has been officially declared
communicable disease Disinfection nanis
! built on new lines are being establlshA
rapidly, especially In the South and WefA
| and the smaller cities of the country nrv
beginning to take a keen interest In them.