Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-12-12
The Value q Sanitation.
,ditors Kennebec Journal:

I lLlcS. EVIL IHuSL exist no.
fore intelligent methods are applied to
| prevent. Is it easier to catch the thief
who has plundered and escaped or to
put safe lock on the door? Nine
/ teenth century sense calls for proven
/ ton Of preventable diseases, before II
calls for cures. The medical profession
will look after the cure. It will do
more, it will point out the straight and
narrow path of prevention. 1t. is for
the municipalities to furnish possibili.
| ties of the path, and to demand and
see to it that it is followed.
Quarantine and fumigation are ex-
| temporaneous and makeshift methods
| of protection. They are methods
which are expensive, inconvenient and
| more or less ineffective. 1t is expen-
sive, looking at the question from a
lowdown mercenary standpoint. to
handle an epidemic of diphtherla,
smallpox, scarlet fever or any con-
tagious disease. During the quaran-
tine period the householder's income Is
shut off or he must board away from
home. No home, however well ap-
pointed, can at once be converted into
safe and convenient place in which
tagious disease. Communication with
the outside world cannot be cut Off
from the best regulated home without
serious inconvenience and much ex-
pense, in part due to subsequent dis
Infection and more or less destruction
OF personal property. We have reason
to believe that we have advanced our
civilization since Confucius stated that
the success and greatness of nation
depended upon three things; sufficiency
of food, military equipment, and
patriotism. Now let us add: Educa-
ton of the people in sanitary science.
The people" do not necessarily need
to know the relative dose of stan
dard," potent" or extra potent"
grades of antitoxine, or the bacteriology
of preventive incubation for smallpox
but they do need to know the value
Of sewers, of sanitary plumbing. OF
ventilation of sleeping rooms, dry cell
lars, pure water. sanitary schoolrooms.
churches and theatres. Great noise is
made because proper sanitary meas
ures were not adopted by our army
when South. They did as well as we
are doing. The people should not al
low their children to drink from a tin
dipper which for three months has
not seen hot water and all this time
has been the common drinking cup
of 200 children. but this is done every
day in our city. The people should
know the value to the extent of having
a sanitary drinking fountain. 1t is en-
tirely impracticable that each child At
school should have separate drinking
iS lint So.lntinn n th..
drinking cup problem, and that is
abolish it entirely and construct on
each floor a fountain with a slowly
elected perpendicular jet of water over
which the child may place his mouth
and thus quench his thirst without
touching his lips to anything but the
water They do this in the fields and
| pastures at play. Dishes are not
needed. water is what they need. This
method is in practical operation in
several public and private schools in
| New York. The fountain should be SO
constructed that it would be impossible
| to apply the lips to any portion which
| supplies water. The people should I'M
| derstand the value of sewers to the eX-
| tent of having them, instead of open
cesspools. Instead of cats. hens, dogs
and rabbits wading in slush and sew
age of cesspools. let them be closed and
discharge into the river or proper out
| let Sewage will not hurt the fish.
| We take great pride in the Stars and
Stripes. They stand for protection
and liberty, great protection, great
| liberty Should not the flag stand
also for minor projections and minor
liberties? A little more in detail:
| should not our municipalities as IN
tegrant parts Of our greatness give to
their wards absolute security from
pestilence in the way of diseases ana
epidemcs likely to occur in our lati-
tudes.
| There should be. we believe, in every
town and city of any considerable size,
an isolation ward or hospital under
municipal supervision, where cases or
contagious disease should be at once,
| on occurrence. taken in proper am
bulance, there to be treated and after
recovery returned to his home, with no
expense to himself. The communities
need protection and may pay for it.
Preventive medicine practically had
its birth with Sir Edward Jenner, over
a century ago. and all who lay any
claim to intelligence know that he was
| the man who took from the decimatins
scourge, smallpox, most of its terrors,
| There are reported on official author
ity 1877 cases of smallpox in town of
$500 in Pennsylvania, December s..
How did it occur that so many were
susceptible? Smallpox does not occur
after vaccination. What is the lesson?
Should they have been vaccinated?
Under the date of November 3, 1898,
Dr. Day of the Hawaiian board or
Meath writes: There has been no
general epidemic of smallpox in Homo
| lulu since 1881. when there were 7Sf
cases with about 4S per cent. of deaths.
Yet scarcely year has passed since
then, that one or more cases of the dis
| ease have not been brought to our
doors from abroad, but owing to the
enforcement of compulsory vaccination
and more or less efficient quarantine,
the disease has not gained foothold.
There exists a prejudice against vac
| cination, born of the old arm to arm
method of incubation which was prac-
ticed before bacteriology was a science.
The modern method of vaccination is
entirely successful in preventing and
never causing disease. The instru-
| ment most often used is an ivory
i point, which is used on one person ami