The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1908-06-25
MANY DEATHS
UNNECESSARY
GIBBS PRIZE WINNER SAYS
THAT LARGEST PER
CENT OF DEATHS
ARE ON AC-
COUNT OF
NEGLECT

UOO,UUO deaths could be prevent
ed by educating persons in the
prevention of disease, DIR. Nor
man Edward Ditman, who re-
Gently won the $4,000 Gibbs
prize OF the New York academy
of Medicine, in an article in the
June Supplement of the Column
bia University Quarterly, says
school of sanitary science and
public health should be establish
ed, the object of which should
be to prevent disease. AS an in
structor in the department of
pathology in the College of Ply,
sicians and Surgeons,he has been
at work on plans for such an in
stitution and now has completed
them.
"One-third of the human be-
ings born," he says, "die before
the age OF five years, largely
from preventable. causes. The
death rate of children in certain
tenement house districts in New
York is as high as 204 In 1000
five times as high as in the we'll
TODD districts. The number or
deaths occurring in the world
from epidemics of plague, small
pox, yellow fever and cholera is
still enormous, in spite of the
fact that methods for prevention
of these diseases are known.
Syphilis still proclaims 100000
persons its victims in this coun-
try, and the losses from typhoid
fever in our recent war and in
the four recent epidemics in this
country have been enormous, in
spite of the fact that these dis
eases can be blotted out.
Each year the world yields up
1 ,O95, O0O-our own country 1OO,-
0O0-of its inhabitants as a sac
rifice to tuberculosis, although
this loss is not necessary. The
avoidable losses from diphtheria.
rabies and malaria also are enor
nous. Pneumonia kills 100000
persons in the United States an
nually, and the number is in
creasing rapidly, yet the cause of
this disease is known, and it
should be in our power to stamp
it out. Twenty-Five thousand
persons in the United States
who are needlessly blind could
have had thsir vision saved had
the causes ofblindness and meth
DDS for its prevention been wide
ly enough appreciated. OF the
$4,000 insane persons in New
York State a large number could
have escaped insanity had a
proper knowledge of the causes
OF the malady been disseminated.
"A great deal of disease and
incompetency of adult life exists
wnicn could be prevented by the
eradication of the underlying
causes during childhood. Five
hundred thousand persons are
killed or crippled every year in
this country as result of pre-
ventable accidents. The dangers
of evil tencment-house conditions
on the health and happiness of
hordes of our inhabitants are
known well.
"One-fourth of the distress
which manifests itself from pow
erty is caused by sickness large
ly prcventablc, and one-half is
the result of alcoholism, also pre-
ventable. In like manner, one
half of the crimes committed in
New York State are due to al
cohol as one of the causes.
New York city's annual loss
from tuberculosis is $4,000, 900
and that of the United States is
S33O,OOO,000, a wholly needless
loss. From an economic point of
view, then, it is seen that rarely
can investment be made more
profitable than through action
by which sickness, poverty, acct
ldent and crime are obviated.
"The last decade has been
marked in this country by two
noteworthy efforts conceived for
the determination of the cause of
physical and social evils-the es-
Enlistment of the Sage Founda-
ton and the Rockefeller Insti-
tute, the former being chiefly
concerned with the social, the
latter with the pathological con-
tributory factors of these condi-
tons.
Although research into the
causes of the conditions under
consideration will effectively in
crease our power to curb these
conditions, gratifying guaran-
tee of effectiveness in Our at.
tempts at such reform arises
from the fact that the knowledge
which we already possess in re.
gard to their causes is sufficient.
II it were applied through proper
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