The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-11-18
MASS MEETING ON
 DISEASE CONTROL
Continued from First Page.)

| typholQ feVer, ana you nave thouSanuS of eases of thls disease every year. This is not only preventable but the most typical of the filth diseases, for no one can have 1t except by getting into their mouth and stomach some of the discharges from the bowels or kid neys of some one who has typhoid fever, In cities 1t usually gets into the mouth througi, infected water, as in the recent epidemcs at Scranton, Butler and Plymouth, Pennsylvania, and Ithaca, New York. Until the re- suits proved so disastrous as to force better methods, at an aggregate cost of hundreds of millions, cities of the older civilizations discharged their sew age into streams and lakes which were the only source of water supply for their own and other populations, and typhoid fever was an annual scohrge. Instead of proating by these disastrous experiences we are rapidly converting our streams and lakes into open sew CTS and pools, regardless of the com plex sanitary and economic problems thus created for our own generation and the teenling millions to follow us But typhoid fever oah and is carried in other ways than by water, as in milk and other foods. In small towns and country districts 1t is usually carried by the ordinary house fly.
 You had last year heavy sick and death rate from diseases of children, caused by the use of dirty, adulterated or spoiled milk. Rochester and a few other cities have tried the experiment and have found that it is actually cheaper to furnish pure, sterilized milk and save the babies than it is to bury them, and still the slaughter goes on every hot season almost without comment except from the weeping mothers. You had many deaths and
 much sickness from diphtheria and scarlet fever, all distinctly preventa-
 ble, and still more from pneumonia,
 another germ disease which we ought soon to be able to greatly restrict or
 entirely prevent. To say nothing of the cost of caring for the sick who re- cover, and of the suffering and dis tress, according to political economists this represents a definite, calculable
 and avoidable loss to your people each
 year of millions of dollars.
 ] A great central health organization at Washington, endowed in accord I ance with the power and wealth of g our federal government, engaged every day in such laboratory research Q work as would develop the causes of
 many diseases not yet understood,
 with such comprehensive system of collective investigation as would make q it possible to gather the facts in re- t gard to every case of sickness and r death which occurs and utilize them . in preventing other sickness, and dis | charging the other function belonging
 to such department is just as much a
 necessity, if our people are to have :, the benefits of modern scientific a knowledge applied to their daily t needs, as the supreme court of the ! United States
 q Similarly state board of health,
 with proportionate endowment and lab
 oratories and with it's members So sup q ported that their entire time could be e given to their health and life-saving il work, is just as important to the peo-
 pie of your state as your Appellate
 court And boardfof health in eacE l, city and county, with practical labora- Y tories, to which the humblest ctizer
 might bring for analysis without per
 sonal expense specimens of water Is food, or anything else suspected to be ,v of danger to his family, with Hchoo
 inspectors cooperating with the teach | Joi1 iv, rnb otif nh Aa, l. .ects in the pupils, or bad conditions ir V the buildings or grounds, with con n stant supervision of dafries, abattoirs
 groceries, and other food and drug sup
 plies, Is of far more practical import in ance to the people than any court il n the jurisdiction can be- And it is wors ,r than useless to try to do these thing
 anywhere without trained health of
 oer so supported that he can devote hi entire time to the duties of his office ell No man can be an effective health of
 cer and practice medicine. The posi-
 tions are incompatible. All sicknes V cannot be prevented with presen e. knowledge, but the important acut
 diseases, especially those so fatal t
 children and young people, and so dif ,v cult to treat, can, and the list can b
 constantly extended.
 Professor Fishers address was on th' S topic of the Winning fight agains a. disease" He laid especial emphasis O. IS the matter of diet as an aid in increas
 ling the endurance of a man. He saiC
 In part;
 At the outset, let me confess that
 became interested in the subject O 10 health through bitter experience. Min
 years ago, l broke down with tuber culosis and so know personally wha or that word means. l have also had tn I'd satisfaction of knowing what it mean ay to be cured.
 at As I look back to that time and com ,i pare conditions of to-day the chang for the better seems as rapid as on o- could wish.
 to That we shall ultimately succeed n- there can be little doubt, for the his
 tory of past movements for the bet torment of public health are full o -. Iencouragement, Many diseases hav' ll' already been so minimized as practi h. cally to have disappeared. Leprosy wa nd eliminated by the simple expedient 0 ell isolating the patients; small pox b oe vaccination; scurvy among sailors, b. ~ supplying them with lime juice; yelloN
 fever in the southern states by the in
 stitution of quarantine, and the cleans
 ing of Havana; diphtheria by the us mt of yon Behring's anti toxlne; typhoi o fever by the introduction of public wa v - .naL... s.n-a irrtnrnn nf tha in,