The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-04-24


try. and these resulted in close to 500
deaths that occurred as 4 direct result
within twenty-four hours. How many
deaths occurred after that period there
is. no means of showing. Every one of
those cases would have been unneces-
sary If proper precautions had been
observed. Had the persons who pre-
pared or handled these foods known
that decay in foods means microbe in
lection and that microbe infection
spells ptomaines and that these are
the avenue to illness. paralysis and
death they would have been more
careful But unfortunately they did
not know, and therefore it is the mis-
sion of these health associations to
spread broadcast the knowledge OF the
evils of ignorance.
The housewife is largely to blame,
for her methods do not include a
of antisepsis. She takes
the best fruit and condiments and
prepares a preserve, but she does not
know that it Will not keep after 1t Is
opened. She Is unaware that food
may be thoroughly impregnated with
evil and decay and still show no signs
Of it on the surface. She believes that
whom she has opened a can of sar-
dimes she has done her full duty in re-
moving them from the can, not know
ing that il is not the can that causes
poisoning. but the ptomaines that be-
gin to appear after that can is opened.
Fortunately President Taft is fully
alive to the menace of impure foods,
and II Is his expressed intention to in
clude the necessity for the establish
ment of a national health department
in his next message to congress. 1t
would be the policy Of this department
oa~vn VII fixro
and as extensive as the department of
agriculture has dons-the distribution
of reports, the indication of danger
points, the searching out and labelling
of precarious or undesirable food prod
ucts, the furnishing of information as
to the proper mode of preparing foods.
accurate information as to how long
food may be kept with safety. full in
formation as to the precautions to take
to prevent disease gaining a foothold
in home. town or state and the prompt
cooperation with local authorities in
case of epidemic.
1t is the hope and belief that with
the progress now made the dawn of
another year will see this department
in working shape, and then will be
taken the first great step in the ma
tional battle to free us from the yari-
Gus scourges.
Two Thousand Deaths Day.
Perhaps few Of us have realized the
number of fatalities occurring in our
land that are absolutely preventable.
An eminent scientific authority who
recently appeared before a senatorial
committee in Washington stated that
there We're each day in the year no
less than 1000 preventable deaths. In
other words, the nation loses each
year close to three-quarters of a mil
lion persons whose deaths are not only
preventable, but direct loss to the
country in point of production Of an
equivalent of 100000. This vast sum
would represent the interest on gov
eminent bonds to the value of $780,
900, 900, a sum 80 per cent in excess
of what the Spanish American war
cost us and nine times the value we
paid Spain for the Philippine Islands.
Startling figures these, and yet they
represent what we sacrifice every year
so lightly and unnecessarily.
There have been sporadic attempts
at sanitation and the destruction OF
disease, and at the present time San
Francisco is warning nightly against
the rat as a carrier of the bubonic
plague while New York has in the
past year been watching her food sup
ply with such vigilance that she has
condemned and destroyed 100000
worth of unfit edibles. New Orleans
has been during three years making a
war on the yellow fever mosquito.
while Philadelphia's chief concern at
this time is her water supply. Chi
cago is gravely considering a plan for
the determination of the house fly, and
so it goes with the cities. The crying
need, however, is national movement.
not sporadic skirmishes, for the enemy
of disease is firmly intrenched, and.
while the chemist and the physician
may recommend, they cannot force re-
suits. Those can only come through
education.
Too much damage has already been
done by lulling the nation into sense
of false security as to the things they
eat and the places in which they live,
and, while conservatism is a good thing
in the average, little progress would
have been made were it not for the
radicals.
In connection with the movement TO
establish a national health department
there has recently been developed a
plan that will undoubtedly have an ex-
cellent effect upon the food supply OF
the country at large. This is nothing
less than the adoption of a set OF
standards in food preparation. Manu-
facturers themselves have in the
course of their business found certain
methods to be advantageous. and the
government experts attached to the
health department, it is proposed, shal!
take UP these methods. analyze them
and bring them up to a point where
their safety and disturbances are as
sured.
Some Of these days, when the Hall of
Fame has been cleared of some of the
lumber, the lumber that now litters the
various inches, a space will be found
for the humble chemist who, bent over
his test tubes and microscope, wrestec
the mighty secret from the sealed booS
Of the world. II it were not for tie