Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-10-23
PUBLIC HEALTH
AND CONSERVATION

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE ON THE
&. HEALTH OF THE COUNTRY IS
VERY INTERESTING.
Washington, ID. c., Oct. 20-Profes-
sor Irving Fisher, the eminent politi-
cal economist of Yale University, who
in one of his papers before the recent
International tuberculosis Congress in
Washington declared that consumption
costs the people of the United States
more than billion dollars year, is
preparing an exhaustive report for the
National Conservation Commission,
which will contain not only these fig
ures but similar data on the economic
loss to the country from all other pre-
ventable diseases.
Prof. Fisher is a member of the Ma
tional Conservation Commission and
for many years has been carrying on
studies along these lines. The Com
mission received letters from physicians
all over the country urging it to con-
slider the bearing of public health on
the economic efficiency of the nation
in its efforts to ascertain the resources
of the country.
The Commission from the beginning
has contemplated reports on the ecOno-
mic aspects of several phases of the
Conservation movement which affect
the duration and effectiveness of hui
man life, but Prof. Fisher has under
taken to prepare comprehensive state
ment of the whole subject of the rela-
tions of public health to the general
field of Conservation, and especially as
to the waste from preventable diseases
and unnecessary deaths
DIR. Fisher is professor of political
economy at Yale University and chair
man OF the COMMITTEE of One Hun
dred" of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, which
has for long time been carrying on
propaganda for the increase of national
health through the elimination of pre-
ventable diseases. This Committee of
One Hundred is composed of physi-
clans and men engaged in active soci-
illogical work in every part of the coun-
try, and the results of their investiga-
tions and experience are all available
to Dr. Fisher, so that his report ought
to be the most thorough-going and
complete summary of the situation ever
made.
AT the Tuberculosis Congress, Prof.
Fisher declared that 1884, persons die
of consumption every year. The cost
OF medical attendance and the loss of
earnings before death average at least
S2, 400, he said, while if to this is added
the money that might have been earn
ed with health, the total loss in each
case is about $4,000. He pointed out,
also, that the disease usually attacks
young men and women just at the time
when they are beginning to earn money
and cuts off their earning power for
about three years on an average, before
they die
This subject of the economic value to
the country of general raising of the
average health came up in the Cover
nors' Conference at the White House
in May. DR.. George M. Kober in his
speech on the ''Conservation OF Life
and Health by Improved Water Sup
ply' at the conference presented figures
which showed that the decrease in the
"vital assets of the country through
typhoid fever in single year is more
than $350,0O0,000. Typhoid is spread
by polluted water largely SO that the
death rate from this disease can be di-
rectly reduced by the publication of
city drinking water. DR.. Kober quoted
statistics to show that the increased
value of the water to the city of Alb
any, where the typhoid fever rate was
reduced from 104 in 100,00 to 26 by an
efficient filtration plant, amounts to
y
be considered a real increase to the vital
assets of the city. Census Bureau fig
ures show that the average annual
death rate from typhoid in cities with
contaminated water supplies was re-
duced from 69.4 per 100000 to 1853 by
the substitution of pure supplies.
| DR.. Kober cited estimates showing
that the average length of human life
in the sixteenth century was between
Is and 20 years, and that at the close of
the eighteenth century it was a little
more than 30, while to-day it is be-
life since 1880 has been heightened about
six years.