The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-23

stroyed, more than would have been possible had it not been for the moral effect of the national pure food lay.
 HEALTH IDEALS
 (9) Tn the formation of health ideals, the moral effect will in the end be tho greatest of all the effects of public lhealth measures. New health ideals are alreody growing fast in the minds of tke public. In the work of health research and the distribution of inf9r- nation on health matters, the federal government could fill an increasing de- Hand. Scientific knowledge on these matters is at present very far in ad- vance of it's practical aplication. The public is eager to know and utilize scientific discoveries. As yet in the United States practical application of these discoveries has been slower than in some other countries, notably
 Japan.
 | A little attention to national health
 would improve it greatly.
 CD Expert investigation has made it extremely probable that man does not
 usually live the span of life which is
 physiologically normal.
 CD Of this brief life @ very large
 fraction is lost through illness. That
 this illness is for the most part pre- lVenteble is now matter of common knowledge among medical men, and constitutes the. raison d'etre for the
 National Association for the Study
 and Prevention of Tuberculosis, the Society for Sanitary and Moral Pro-
 phylaxis, the American Public Health
 association, the American Public
 Health Defense league, etc.
 1 (3) Even when the ordinary man
 calls himself we'll his physical and
 mental working powers are far below
 the point to which they could easily be
 cultivated This has been shown by
 experience and experiment. In one ex-
 pertinent on healthy students, physical
 endurance was doubled in less than six
 months by the application of simple
 hygienic rules. There is enormous room for improvement in physique and
 vitality This can be done as readily
 and effectively as the arid lands of
 the the west have been reclaimed by
 irrigation.
 Not only are the resources of hy-
 giene as vet largely unexploited, but
 many of the most competent observ-
 CTS believe that there is a real racia
 Regeneration going on, race sui.
 eide of the worst kind. A parliament-
 ary investigation was made on this
 subject in England recently, precipit.
 ated by the observation that the can. ldidates for recruits for the army anC
 navy were growing shorter year bS Iyear, An inter-departmental commit.
 tee was appointed by the British par.
 lament CD to determine steps tha
 should be taken to furnish the govern
 ment data for an accurate compara
 tive estimate of the health and phy sique of the people; CD to indicat, generally the causes of such physica deterioration as exists in certain class
 es, and, (3) to point out the means b!
 which it can be most effectively dim : inshed The committee returned report recommending. permanent ad : visory council-in substance a nationa department of health-along witt 9 fifty-tWo other constructive measures The same question exists in America It is true that the average duration o t life in the United States is increasing . but this is due to the prolongation o inished. The committee returned l the mortality for adult years and fo 3 adult chronic diseases except tubercu
 losis is increasing with alarming rapid 9 fly.
 The elevation of health ideals woul not only improve the physique, but would help solve many of our great est public problems. In fact thes questions at bottom are largely ques tions of health, The tenement hous question is one of sanitation, ventila tion and light The problems of clea : streets, sewers, regulation of almos Il pheric vitiation by smoke, gas, etc are health problems; so also is tn regulation of child labor, woman labo ? sweat shop labor; the questions of d ; coholism and the cigarette hab
 among boys, and the sale of cocair
 and other drugs to minors. Thes
 evils are also associated with povert! , crime and divorce Disease, povert I and crime constitute vicious corc1 s and mutually aggravate each other, : The evils of limitation of children ( v well-todo families, tending toward tn t race suicide deplored by Presider : Roosevelt, are due to the lack of pror if CT life-ideals. The tendency is we known ill France, and probably ha e much to do with the decline and ia s of Rome. The evil is due to the dis e placement of the simpler health ide; O of life by the economic or plutocrati f ideal. The only possible cure is a re W verse change in life-ideals, toward t simpler normal lifeS This alone ca f save us from racial degeneration. Sue h ideals can come only by sytematic in t culcation in the growing generatio S during the formative period. Whe f the love of robust race, capable c o strenuous activity, has become as ma r tional as the love of the flag, tn , question of degeneration will solve il l self The best results ever attaine S in physique have been obtalne , through esprit du corps. It is not tn - selfish valetudinarian, but the colleg . athlete, filled with a patriotic devo f tion to his college, who gets the mos n out of physical training That thi : same esprit du corps can apply ma t tionally has been proved by varlou = historical examples, Sparta, Rom,
 Japan. The drunken Russian soldier f could not compete with the Japanes . with their system of physical trainin f and sanitation.