The Opelousas courier., 1907-08-24
WHY WE DE-
O%ne-third Of the Deaths Could Be Pre-
ven+ed Saws = Learned Doctor.

SNS-ITiTu OF LHS SSas'S SSS
vented, Says a Learned Doctor.
Taking as it's motto the homely
adage, AN ounce of prevention IS Det
ter than a pound of cure" the Med
ical and Chirurgical Faculty of Mary
land launched a new movement TOT
the education Of the public in ques'
| tons of health at a mass-meeting held
recently at Mccoy Hall.
DR.. J. N. Mccormick, who has been
a member of the health board of Ken
lucky for twenty-five years, was the
leading speaker. His theme was
Things About Doctors Which Doc
tors and Other People Ought to
! Know"
Many of his ~utterances, while not
entirely new, had the ring of surprise
in them. For instance he declared
that one-third of the sickness which
has occurred in the State and in the
country in the past year and every
year was due to diseases which are
distinctly and practically p~reventable.
The people and the men in authority
in the government, he declared, were
slow in waking up to this fact.
For five years DR.. Mccormick has
been going from place to place try.
ing to waken up the people and to
impress upon legislators the wisdom
Of the assertion made by Gladstone,
THE care of the public health is the
first and most important duty of the
statesman"
After speaking of the great mum:
Der of deaths in the army on account
Of inefficient measures for prevention
of disease, he turned his attention to
Maryland and said:
Nov this is a bad record for US
as a nation, but that for Maryland
Is even worse. One-third of the peo-
pie sick in this State in 1905, and
every year and one-third of those you
took to your cemeteries were sick and
died of diseases which your medical
profession could and would have pre-
vented if they could have had the In
telligent cooperation of your people.
:"You had in that year 1888 deaths
from consumption, which means that
you have about 5000 cases of this
disease In your State constantly. The
common impression is that this Is an
inherited malady, but this is an error.
No matter what your mother and
father died of, you can no more have
consumption except by getting into
your body the germs from a previous
case than you can raise corn or wheat
on n of your rich Maryland farms
without seed. If all of the expectorat-
ed matter and the other infection dis
charges from every case of this dis
ease now in your State could be col
lected and destroyed until they re-
cover or die, there need never be AN
other case within your borders un.
less 1t be an imported one.
"You had 1,422 deaths from the
diseases of children caused by using
dirty, adulterated or spoiled milk. We
often speak of the slaughter of the in
nocents by Hero, but he was a no
vice in the business as compared with
our modern cities.
you shuddered with horror owe
the loss of life on the Larchmont and
In the New York Central wreck the
other day, and properly so, but more
babies die needlessly every week in
your State during the hot season than
there were people killed in both OF
these disasters, and it goes on al.
most without comment. It would be
cheaper for you to inspect the dairies
Or sterilize the milk and save these
babies than it would be to bury them.
You had 256 deaths from diph'
iberia and scarlet fever, all distinct.
ly preventable. You had Ats deaths
from typhoid fever during that yea,
This means, according to the best es
Inmates, that you have about 5000
cases of this disease during each year.
Typhoid fever is a typical filth
disease. No one car have it except
by getting into their mouth and stom'
ach some of the dischtPgVs from the
bowels or kidneys Of someone who
has it. This is not a nice thing to
think about, but nice people ought to
think about It and stop doing It. In
cities it often comes from the use OF
infected water, as in the epidemic now
on in Scranton; less frequently in the
milk, sometimes On the hands, cook
ing utensils, OF. food. In small towns
and country districts typhoid fever is
usually carried by the ordinary house
fly, as it was at Chickamauga and the
other military camps during the Span
ish-American war.
"In short, during this n year you
had 5,848 deaths from p~reventable
diseases. Now, a State has no more
valuable asset than that represented
in its healthy population. According
to the political economists, to say
nothing Of the cost of caring for the
sick who recovered from these dis
eases, this represents a distinct loss
to your people each year Of S5,S4S;
O00."-Baltimore Sun. 4
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