Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1911-10-27

physician can only put the patient In cona
ton to weather the storm as we'll as posslp.s
But while little can be done after the olss"se
has developed. careful parents can 40 nucn -
prevent their children from taking the malaus
The chiIdren's noses can be kept clean OF' rieA
ner regards this as most important Also. Certain
disinfectants Ii used as mouth and nose WASH
during the summer danger period, are enesIVe.
one per cent. solution of hydrogen pero1lae ".s
kill the germ of nfantile paralysis 80 VIII
plain menthol Each Of these statements Is maos
upon the authority Of DR.. Flexner.
Yet the germ that causes 1nfatnile paralysis III
more virulent than the germ OF ran'es. DE. rieA-
ner discovered that the paralysis germ coulo not
even be weekend by drying it for weeks over
caustfc potash nor by keeping 1t frozen for weeks
But hydrogen peroxide and menthol XIII It.
DR. Flexner Is now and has been for some time
conducting experiments to learn Wnetner HES
carry the germs and spread the disease he mas
already definitely learned that flies do carry the
germs but he has not demonstrated that the
germs when carried. get into the system ano
produce the disease
Tnfantile paralysis came to this country from
Scandinavia Prior to 1907 1t had seldom occurred
here Since then it has been epidemic from the
Atlantic to the Pacific New York and Boston.
where so many immigrants gather, nave suHereo
most Minnesota, to which so many ScandinaVlans
remove comes next The disease nourlsnes our
ing hot dry summers. It Is sort OF a sister
disease of cerebrospinal meningitis and, years
ago was probably often mistaken for that disease
conspicuous point of difference is that the Tor
mer malady comes in late winter or early spring.
while infantile paralysis comes In summer In
fantile paralysis is likely to attack children
less than four years old. though adults are not
immune But one attack most likely makes the
subject immune for life. DR.. Flexner's expert
ments upon monkeys indicate as much
But barking back to the causes of preventable
deaths OF children. this much more may be said:
Mothers are too prone to buy medicine from doc
tors and not enough given to buying Information
from them Mothers who do not know how to
care for their children should not walt until
child Is sick and then call the doctor to dose the
child They should call the doctor when the
child Is well, and pay him his regulation fee for
sitting down half hour and tnstructing them
with regard to the care of the child Most mothers
need Information more than their children need
medicine Doctors. when called. often give harm
less medicine, when none Is needed, simply be-
cause the public feels that 1t must have something
for its money The public Is not wise enough
to know that 1t spend its money in no better
way than to buy certain Information that tends
toward the maintenance OF health, Dlarrhea, for
instance, which kills more babies, perhaps. than
any other single cause, Is solely a disturbance
of the digestive tract due to wrong feeding Milk
containing thirty-seven million bacteria to the
cubic centimeter-or even miliion-wil cause It.
Cows milk not properly modified Is certain to
upset the stomachs of infants. A half-hour with
q good physician will enable mother to get in
formation that may prevent her child from sicken
Ing and dying
In the meantime the responsibility for the
avoidable deaths of children must largely rest
with the few who. knowing how to take care OF
their own do not, for one reason or another, take
effective measures to pass this knowledge &c
others few men control every government
national. state and municipal These men. II they
wanted to- could compel government to dissent
nate the vast amount of Information concerning
the prevention of infant mortality France moved
when her birth-rate became low that she had
to move When children become scarce govern
ments are sometimes as careful OF their health az
they are at other times of the health OF hogs