Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-19
Awakening the Public.

at Is not so hard to awaken the public,
said DR.. Osler in his address yesterday be-
fore the National Association for the Study
and Prevention of tuberculosis. DR.. Osier
is fully awake himself to that fact. perhaps
more keenly than most others, for he has
lately had an experience of his own with
the alertness of the public to discuss new
proposition. His remarks about old age
and the compare tive usefulness of men at
various stages of life were couched In terms
to attract the peoples attention instantly.
He did not mean, perhaps did not say. just
what the public thought. He referred, 1t
seems to PROFESSIONAL occupations and he
drew line at forty and another at sixty
years bounding the relative worth of
men thus engaged in teaching When he
added his now famous suggestion about
chloroforming all men who had passed sixty
he spoke facetiously, figuratively, and was
understood by his Immediate hearers.
II may be doubted If chance remark was
ever taken up seriously or so quickly as
was that of DIR. Osler's about old age. The
public leaped upon it. as 1t were. to tear
1t to pieces. And out of the agitation grew
certain measure of education. enlghten-
ment as to the records of the past and in
formation as to the physiological and
psychological changes incident to age.
Probably in the course of less than month
the American people from one end of the
land to the other were intelligently inform
ed as to the periods of mans greatest ac-
tivity and usefulness. and the wide varia-
tons due to personality and temperament.
This episode had it's instructive aspect.
1t proved that the average man today Is
quick to take up new topic for cOnsd-
GRAFTON, and especially quick to be inter-
ested in anything touching the human well
fare. The newspapers were of course re-
sponsible for the spread of the remark
about chloroforming A hundred years ago,
or perhaps even fifty DIR. Osler might have
uttered his now famous dictum without be-
ing heard by the great majority of the peo-
pie. The world is smaller today than ever,
so far as hearing and seeing things
concerned. and it grows smaller yearly.
Thus the educational process. the pro-
cess of getting the public awake, is COM
paratively simple nowadays. In this mat
ter of tuberculosis there is a widespread
understanding a present of the true ma
ture of the disease and 1t is fair to say
that the average man in the United States
is aware that the disease is communicable
that II Is preventabe and that to a certain
degree 1t is durable. There is a general &C
ceptance of the belief that with concerted
action by state boards of health. on a
practical basis of concentration and sani-
tation and education. tuberculosis may in
the course of a few decades cease to be the
chief menace TO the public health.
The same power of diffusing information
that spreads a statement to the end of dis
committing a public man as the result of a
misccnception of his exact meaning is
available for the far more wholesome pur-
pose of educating the people to their own
necessities and dangers. Dr. Oser may
have fair ground for complaint against the
people and the newspapers for few weeks
OF unpleasant notoriety. but he must thank
the press of the country for the great work
that 1t Is daily doing in the cause of health.