New-York tribune., 1907-11-03

People of to-day plume themselves upon the
Fact that this is sucn scientific age Especially
wonderful, it is often said. are the modern ad
vanCes in medical science, in hygiene, SANTA
tion etc. In the face of ali this it is humiliat-
ing to be tod, What to Eat tells it's read
"Ts in the October issue. that the average life of
man has not been advanced in the slightest de-
gree. that if anything Il is being shortened and
that OF all sha animals man has the orieteSt
average span Of life I'm proportion to the time
required TO reach maturity. gosling attains
g0osehOod in year, and unless IL falls q victim
to mans appetite it ia likely 10 live and quack
for twenty years thereafter horse reaches
maturity in five years and lives from ten to
thirty years, according to the treatment it re-
ceivcs 1t takes man twenty-five years to
reach maturity, and mans average life to-day
is only thirty five years. And 1t is growing no
longer. The worst of it is that 1t is perfectly
true that the world knows to-day better than
it ever did before how to prevent disease @ ana
cludes that there is something wofully wrong. a
screw loose somewhere, or babies would not be
dying by the thousands and men falling In the
prime and before the prime of lfe
The Department of Agriculture spends 81
100000 on plant health and animal health every
year" says Professor Norton, of Yale UniNer-
sity. whom what to Eat" quotes extensively,
but with the exception of the splendid work
done by Drs Wiley Atwater and Benedict,
Congress docs not directly appropriate one cent
for promoting the physical wellbeng Of babies.
Thousands OF dollars have been expended IN
stamping out cholera among swine, but not
one dollar was voted for eradicating pneu-
monia among human beings. Hundreds of thou
sands of dollars are consumed in saving the
lives Of elm trees from the attacks of beetles.
in warning farmers against the blight affecting
potato plants i'm importing Sicilian bugs TO Ter
tilize fig blossoms in California and in eXter-
minatng parasitic growths that prey on irult
trees. In fact the Department Of Agriculture
has expended i'm the last six years over S4h.-
OOO.0O0. But not wheel OF the official ma
Chnery at Washington was ever set in motion
for the alienation or cure Of diseases of the
heart or kidneys, which will carry OF over SIX
millions OF our entire population. Eight millions
will perish of pneumonia, and the entire event is
accepted by the American people with a restg-
Y-f hat of hn Ind u
midst Of indescribable filth, calmly awaits the
day Of cholera.
During the next census period than
six million infants under two years Of age viii
by and watch I'm utter helplessness. And Yet
this number could probably be decreased by as
much as on@-half.'
PrevcntabIc death prevcntable sickness, pre-
ventahle conditions Of low physical and mental
efficiency ana preventable ignorance-these are
tho four great wastes Of to-day, according 10
Professo. Norton The curious thing is that the
ma Iority of people seem to regard these wastes
as Inevitable n part OF things they Now
and then some person arises and does some
thing which demonstrates how needless are
these wastes. DR.. George Toles. of Rochester
IN ono decade has reduced the infant
death rate Of his town by une-half. and he did
II sImplv nv pastcurizing the milk. Yet with
this object lesson before it's eyes the world
calmly continues to feed the bulk of its babies
unpastcurized milk.
II is the waste of early deaths-deaths which
cut OF the individual whom he has been only
an expense % the world before he has begun
10 repay ly producing that What 70 Eat
laws stress upou. Professor Norton puts Il sue
Ciuctly when he says: "Of the eighty millions NJ
people living in the United States to-day all
must die. after having lived. say. a little more
than three billion two hundred million years of
life. OF these years one billion six hundred
million represent the unproduCtlVc years OF
childhood and training" II the average length
# would mean great gain In the worlds pro-
ductiveness.