The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-04
WHY WE DIE.
One-third of Deaths Could Be Pre-.
 vented, Says Learned Doctor.

From the Baltimore Sun.
 Taking as it's motto the homely adage, "An ounce of prevention is better than pound of eure' the Medical nd Chlrur- gical Faculty of Maryland launched a new movement for the education of the public in questions of health at a mass meeting held last night at Mccoy Hall.
 pr. J. N. Mccormick, who has been q member of the health board of Ken lucky for twenty-five years was the leading speaker. His theme was Things About Doctors Which Doctors and Other People Ought to Know"
 Many of his utterances, while not en- tirely 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 practi- cally preventable. 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 trying to waken up the people and to impress upon legs-
 ators 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 number of deaths in the army on account of in- efficient measures for prevention of dis ease, he turned his attention to Mary land, and said:
 Now this is a bad record for us as nation, but that for Maryland is even worse. One-thrd of the people sick in this state in 1905, and every year, and one-third of those you took to your ceme- sick and died of diseases which your medical profession could and would have prevented if they could have had the intelligent cooperation of your people
 You had in that year 23SS deaths from consumption, which means that you have about 5000 cases of this disease in your state constantly. The common impress sion is that this is an inherited maiady, but this Is an error. No matter what your mother and fIher died of yon can no more have cons jmption except by get ting into your bCtly the germs from n previous case than you can raise corn or wheat on one end of your rich Maryland farms without seed. If all of the eX- pectorated matter and the other lntec- tious discharges from every case Of this disease now in your state could be col lected and destroyed until they recover or die. there need never be another case within your borders unless it be an ini- ported one.
 You had i i22 deaths from the diseases of children caused by using dirty. adulter- ated or spoiled milk. We often speak or the slaughter of the innocents by Herod but he was a novice in the business as compared with our modern cities. s'You shuddered with horror over the loss of life on the Larchmont and in the New York Central wreck the other day land porperly so, but more babies die needlessly every week in your state dur- ing the hot season than there were people killed in both of these disasters anu It goes on almost without comment. IL would be cheaper for you to inspect tle dairies or sterilize the milk and save tbeea habies than 1t would be to bury them.
 you had 256 deaths from diphtherla and scarlet fever, all distinctly prevent able. You had 476 deaths from typhoid fever during that year. This means ac- cording to the best estimate, that you have about 5000 cases of this disease dur- Ing each year. a,,, ,,.
 case No one can have it except by get
 fin into their mouth and stomach some of the discharges from the bowels or kidnevs of someone who has II. rms IS not a nice thing to think about. hut nice people ought to think about It and stop
 doing it. In cities 1t often comes rom the use of infected water. as in the cpl
 demc now on in Scranton; less re ouently in the milk, sometimes on the hands cooking utensils, or food. In small towns and country districts typhoid fever is usually carried by the ordinary house. fiy as it was at Chickamauga and other other military camps turing the Spanish American war.
 "In short during this one year you
 had 5S4S deaths from preventaoie dis- ease. Now, state has no more valua- hle asset than that represented in it's healthy population. According to the po-
 lltical economists, to say nothing of the
 cost of caring for the sick who recovered
 from these diseases this represents dis
 tines loss to your people each year of $5, ,S4S,0O0''