Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-02-08
ANNUAL Meeting
Continued from page 81

Tall dill dCCOulIt VI oul iSSSluS' anu VI
our disbursements. Health problems
are receiving more attention today than
at any time in Our history. Never be-
fore have we had such conception of
the immense possibilities in preventing
sickness and prolonging life, and never
before have we so keenly realized how
closely the problems of health are tied
up with all the great sociological prob
lens of the day. The day is not far
past when it was generally considered
that disease and epidemics we're sent
as punishment to avenge the wrath of
offended deities. If there is any one
thing that stands out III this generation
more prominently than another it is that
ignorance and superstition have to
give way to knowledge and truth. In
no department of human thought and
of human activity has there been a
greater upl,eaval Of preconceived ideas
or of obsolete methods than in the do
main of medicine. The development Of
bacteriology has opened up new fields
hitherto inaccessible and made possible
the establishment of rational, scientific
and effective methods in the prevention
# disease and in the alienation of suf-
fering.
The statement that Health is our
greatest economic. asset'-and this
holds true when applied either to the
individual, community, state or nation
has become automatic. There arc two
phases of public health work. The neg
alive, wherein we endeavor to prevent
or remove conditions directly injurious
to health, and the positive, wherein we
endeavor to promot and encourage
those conditions that have to do with
the development of good health. If we
mean to cover the whole field, both of
these must receive proper attention. A
short time ago the doctor of the old
school, like the old thcologian, was
considered the court of last resort on
all matters of private or public health.
Modern medicine, however, is now lay
ing bare the mysteries which have been
considered too sacred to be profaned by
the laity and is simplifying and popu-
larizing its message, so that HE who
runneth might read" The press distri-
butes the views of scientists and the
latest discoveries, and the layman now
knows better the principles of sanitation
than scientists and the physicians knew
a generation ago. This is especially en-
couraging in Our fight against the great
white plague, for as has been so we'll
said by Knopf: ITO combat tuberculo-
sis successfully as a disease of the
masses requires the combined action of
a wise overnment, we'll trained physi-
clans and All intelligent people," 1t
would be interesting to note some of
the things that preventive medicine has
done during this generation. A re-
sumo of the work done along this line
reads more like fairy tale than a re-
cital of facts. Rabies is all but eradicat-
ed: malaria and yellow fever no longer
dreaded: Malta fever. once the terror
of the Mediterranean, conquered; the
plague so nearly mastered that case
of it in Our country is a curiosity:
diphtheria. once the most dreaded and
most fatal of our infantile diseases,
slrorn of its terrors; smallpox, that
formerly decimated nations. has now
scarcely death to its record This is
surely chapter in human achievement
for human interests for human advance
ment and for human conservation that
calls for our highest Communications.
But what about tuberculosis? This is
indee the isease of the people in larg-
er and truer sense than can be affirmed
of any other malady. 1t is essentially
disease Of the home and as such re-
quires the solution of number of So
Geological problems. 1t is many-sided
and requires diversity of methods for
its eradication. Hence. although we
have made considerable Roadway, there
is still much to be accomplished. Since
the discovery by Koch of the bacillus of
tuberculosis in 1882, the death rate has
been reduced 40 per cent, while in
dividual countries and states that have
used special procedures have made even
greater gains than this As instances of
what has been accomplished, | may cite
the following: Germany has reduced the
death rate from consumption ID per
cent iii FIVE years, and the next five
is expected to show still greater de-
crease At the present rate of decrease
it is computed that in thirty years there
will be few if any deaths from tuber-
culcsis i'll the land Of Herr Kaiser.
Denmark has reduced the death rate
IS per cent in thirty-two years. Sweden
has decrease of 39 per cent in thirty
two years. Great Britain has not been
behind. Johnnie Bull can always BE-
relied upon to put up good fight In
this struggle the death rate from con-
sumption has been reduced over 50 per
cent i'll forty-six years, and in England
the death rate has been reduced to
III per 100 .ooO population, the lowest
death rate from consumption of any
country in Europe. Statistics show that
at the present rate of decrease there
will be no tuberculosis in England after
fcrty years. COMING to our own coun-
try we 6rd an equally encouraging con-
dition. The United States has reduced
her tuberculosis death rate 40 per cent
in twenty-eight years in the registration
area. while Massachusetts, has reduced
her tuberculosis death rate So per cent
in the past twenty-eight years. In FIVE
New England states reduction of 18
per cent was effected in thirteen years.
New York has reduction of 1865 per
cent in nine years-and so on all along
the line wherever modern methods have
been used. 1t might be interesting to
glance briefly at the means that have
been employed to produce such results
and to inquire whether they would be
applicable to our own state and condi-