Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-11-07
|THEPUBLICHEALTH:
IH-The Hope Of The Future.
BY Frederic J. Haskin.


1 The progress that has been made In
public health work in recent years has
4 led the sanitarian to cherish the BELIEF
that with a proper education of the peo-
| pie along health lines fifteen years may
be added to our journey from babyhood
| to old age. The average citizen of Massa-
| chuSetts, where sanitary progress has
been marked, is living more than twenty
| years longer in the administration or
| President Taft than he lived at the time
George Washington became President
| The women of the country are seeing
their lives heightened more rapidly than
the men. In Europe the average age OF
the woman is approximately five years
/ greater at death than that of the men.
| While national statistics on this subject
are wanting in the United States, it is be-
| lieved that the women make even bet
ter showing in this country.
| When the sanitaran predicts an addi-
tional fifteen years in the life span of the
| individual he takes no account OF the ac-
cumulative effect of a nationwide prac-
| tice of the laws of hygiene. The insur-
ance companies have found that the best
risk is not always the man with the
| finest physique, but usually the one who
| most carefully observes the laws of per-
| sonal hygiene Then, again, this estimate
| does not take into reckoning the question
| of postponing the disability of old age. It
| has usually been the accepted theory that
| 'old age" cannot be postponed. However,
| a number of wor1d-famous authorities as
| sert that there is a possibility of dis
/ cOvery. of the conditions which lead to
| the infirmities of old age and their par
| possibility of adding fifteen years to the
| life span does not assume any knowledge
| beyond that already possessed by the
Sanitarian.
| 1t is believed that the cause of cancer
and a satisfactory method of preventing
| 1t ultimately will be found. Likewise
there are many other diseases against
which satisfactory preventive measures
have not yet been discovered which may
still go the way of typhoid fever and tu-
berculosis under future discoveries and
their application.
Seven of the ninety diseases to which
well understood
Diseases Shorten today. are re-
Lives Eight Years. Shortening Of
the lives of the people to the extent of at
least eight years. These diseases are
enteric disorders, tuberculosis of the
lungs, meUlnS1t1S,
typhoid fever, pneumonia and violence.
1t is, therefore, asserted that when the
public insists on pure water, pure milk
and pure air, and protection of life and
limb in the United States, the average
individual will have eight years more to
live
1t has come to such a state In the
sanitary world that the sanitarian takes
the death rate from typhoid fever as the
best indication of the general condition
of the health Of the people of given
people die from typhoid fever in certain
community he is able to draw fairly
accurate picture of the sanitary condition
of that community.
Many other elements enter into the
hopefulness of the sanitarian for the fu-
ture. While he realizes that the govern
ment never can act as a matchmaker for
the people and that ironclad laws for
bidding the marriage of any but healthy
persons can never be enacted at the
same time he believes that widespread
sentiment against the marriage of UNI
healthy individuals can be brought about,
and that healthy people may at some
| future time have much prejudice
healthy as they now have AGAINST marry
ing people who are closely related.
i
The results which will grow out of a
lengthening of the lives of the people OF
the United States
Will Danish by fifteen years are
Much Sickness. so many ana q. :. 80
defy accurate forecast. To begin with, 1t
will Danish at least one-third of the sick
ness in the United States. 1t is estimated
that more than 100000 persons In this
country are sick on any given day in the
year. Consequently the reduction Of the
death rate I'd the extent of expanding the
term of life fifteen years would save
suffering equivalent to that of 100000
people for 365 days, or four days suffer-
ing for each individual In the entire
United States. Counting all the doctors
bills, drug bills and loss of time. to say
nothing Of the human woe involved, this
| would amount to an annual saving equiv
alent to the capitalization Of the greatest
trust on earth. 1t would increase largely
the efficiency of the arevarge American
citizen. 1t takes just as long and costs
| just as much to grow man VINO IS 10
live sixty years as it does one who Is to
| live thirty years. All of the added years
| that are put to his life are years OF ef-
| ficiency and earning power
That the United States is destined to
come to the front in the promotion OF the
public health is the belief of those who
are entitled to speak with authority. A
school for sanitary officials is now main
| tanned at the hygienic laboratory Of the
| United States in Washington. The labora-
tory first of all takes all young officers
| engaged in the quarantine and other serv-
| ices of the country and puts them through
course of preventive medicine. In ad-
| dition to this, these classes are open to
the public health officials OF all the
American states and municipalities. Some
Of them come to Washington and spend
| from six weeks to four months taking this
course. The higher institutions of learn
| ing are beginning to establish courses in
preventive medicine and economic biology,
| and the indications are that the next
| twenty-five years will see strides Of prog
ress which will completely eclipse the
work of the past quarter of century.
There are wonderful possibilities in new
discoveries which ultimately will add
greatly to the
New discoveries health of the peo-