El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-02-10
THE NATIONAL HEALTH
TERRIBLE PENALTY FOR ovERwoRK.

cation of public sentiment in favor Of
! proper health measures.
Tuberculosis Campaign.
One scarcely realizes how much is
done and how much is expended in the
| interest of public health The Ma
tionaI Association for the Study and
i Prevention of tuberculosis has gath
F., cred the financial and educational sta
tistics OF the nationwide crusade
! against the white plague, and finds
that during the year Of 1903 the vari-
| Gus agencies fighting the disease spent
/ $S,1SO,6 21-50 in the campaign. Over
/ 10000, 900 pieces of literature were cir
| culated. and 117,312 patients were
! treated for tuberculosis. Sixty-One
/ thousand Of the patients were treated
| at dispensaries.
] New York takes first rank in the eff
| fort to wipe out this disease, Pennsyl-
vania second. Massachusetts third. and
Illinois, Maryland. New Jersey. Califor-
| their order.
Penalty for OverwOrk.
Recent studies of the death rate
from various ailments reveal startling
| conditions. They show that Americans
| are paying a terrible penalty for over
work.
While the death rate from contagious
1
| 1880, that from diseases Of the kid
i neys, heart and brain has increased SO
I percent in the same period These
! figures tell Of the tax OF hard work
and high living. Kidney diseases,
springing from Incorporate eating and
I drinking and from hard work, now
death rate that has increased 131
| percent since 1880.
| There are 81 percent more fatalities
f-0r TOD
! 80 years ago. and 81 percent more
deaths from heart disease Meanwhile
all contagious diseases are showing a
rapidly diminishing death rate.
1t cannot be argued that this in
creasing mortality in the diseases of
overwork and over-indulgence is due to
unpreventable causes 1t is estimated
that in the United States more than
$1,000 lives are annually sacrificed on
the altar of indifference to known laws
of health More than 100000 people
are constantly seriously i'll, half of
them suffering from diseases of a pre-
ventable nature.
Laws of Health.
Once 1T was supposed that the laws
of health were inexorable, that the
death rate could not be increased nor
diminished. But statistics show that
there are no iron laws for mortality.
The span of human life In Europe has
doubled in less than four centuries.
During the 18th and 18th centuries the
average life was heightened at the
rate of four years per century, and
during the first threc-qua-ters of the
10Th century the average life length
ened at the rate OF nine years. Since
then civilized countries have made
mankind Ionger-lived at the rate of
II years a century.
In Prussia, which is the home of
preventive medicine. the span of life
IS lengthening at the rate Of 27 years
century. Whether this increasing
span will ultimately bring men back
to the ripe old ages Of Methuselah and
Adam and Noah, no one can safely pre-
dict DR.. Talmage once expressed the
conviction that if men returned to the
Simple life as gradually as they had
travelled away from 1t, they would
eventually live TO be as old as those
who lived in the day Of Noah
Death Among Poor.
It is shown by mortality tables
that death comes far more frequently
among the poor than among the rich
Insurance figures of Industrial COM
panies demonstrate that the death rate
among the poor is from so 10 80 per
cent greater than among the well TO
do.
In the unsanitary districts Of Glas-
gov and Paris the death rate is
double that of the better sections. The
effect of campaign of education on a
city's mortality is shown by the fact
that since New York undertook the
improvement of conditions in health
matters, it has reduced its death rate
to the lowest point on record.
The committee of one hundred on
national health is seeking TO have all
life insurance companies join in
campaign in favor Of disease preven-
ton. DR.. Irving Fisher of Yale. presf-
dent Of this committee declares that
the investment of a fraction of 1 per-
cent on the policies carried in an edu-
cational propaganda, Will so Iengthen
the average life as TO make IT COM
mercially profitable TO the insurance
companies themselves, to say nothing
Of the vast good that will accrue TO
the nation at large He thinks that BY |
a proper coordination of all the health !
interests of the nation. headed with I
a magnificent, consolidated national |
health bureau, such an onslaught can (
be made upon the strOngholds of dis /
ease as TO give the average American a /
new lease on life equivalent to one /
third Of his present allotted years.
Tomorrow-Nodel License League.