Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1911-08-31

Safeguarding of Honolulu's health
was most earnestly urged last night
by Or. J. n. Mccormack, Of Kentucky,
chairman of the Organization Com
nittee of the American Medical Assoc
citation and a leading advocate OF
broad policies in medicine.
DR.. Mccormack addressed an audi
ence that practically filled the Ha-
wailan Opera House, although more
could have been crowded in. Some
what remarkable for an occasion of
the kind, probably fifty-five per cent
Of his hearers were women. II was
an emphatic proof that the women of !
Honolulu are interested in the health
and physical welfare of its citizens.
An extension of the present sewer
system so that 1t will serve the entire
city, the guarding of the purity Of the
water supply and general precautions
to make and keep this one of the
cities in the world were
among the things urged by the distin
guished physician. His talk, how
ever, dealt only slightly with local
conditions. Its main theme was the
necessity for broader work among the
medical profession and for more
sympathetic attitude on the part of
the public.
On the stage were the speaker. Gov
ernor Frear, Secretary Mott-Smith
and Dr. J. s. b. Pratt, President Of the
Board of Health. Governor Frear, In
introducing DIR. Mccormack. spoke of
the progress of local sanitation work
and the position that Hawaii is to &C.
cupy in that respect.
DR.. Mccormack added to this his
own advocacy of better health condi-
tons. "The development of your sew
err system until the city is adequately
served is an important thing" he
said. He spoke Of the great natural
water resources here that should be
conserved, and favored the proposed
plan of building sea-wall on the
waterfront at Kewalo and filling in
lands until a great park and boule-
ward Is created there.
Getting into the main theme Of the
evening, he said in part:
"As part of a nationwide reform,
one of the most important, far-reach-
ing and unseliish ever undertaken,
and as the official mouthpiece Of
eighty thousand doctors who live by
the cure of disease, am here TO pro-
claim the gospel OF health, and to try
to persuade you men and women that
with proper knowledge and practice
of the laws of plain, clean, healthy
living. personal, domestic and as COM
munities, good health can and ought
to be made more contagious than sick
ness.
AS an argument for peace It is
often shown that 100000 men were
killed in both armies during the Ave
years of the Civil War. In the move
ment for better living 1t may be
shown that during the last five years
100000 people have died from tuber-
culosis and 250,Oe0 from typhoid
fever, with an enormous sick and
death rate from these and other dis
eases preventable with present knowl-
edge, and with proper laboratory and
research work by the government this
life-saving knowledge should be con-
stantly extended. 1t may then be
shown that while in the last ten years
our national government has very
properly expended $40.O0Q.O00, and
now proposes to appropriate very
much more. to prevent tick fever in
cattle, cholera In hogs and chickens,
pests to crops and trees, and to pro-
tect other interests having CONNER
cial value, In all of its history 1t has
never spent dollar or lifted hand
to protect human beings from these
far more important domestic pesti-
lences which bring constant sickness,
sorrow and death into the homes OF
the people There are abundant ex-
perts and funds at Washington to con-
duct Investigations anywhere. or to
furnish literature In regard to any
animal or plant disease. agricultural
resource, water power or other in
terest affecting business. but the citi-
zen will inquire in vain for informa-
ton as to how to protect his family
from preventable sickness. unless II
be yellow fever, cholera or other ex-
otto diseases of little practical i'm
portance except as they affect com
merce and trade.
Most OF these things have been
long known to physicians, and for
years they have systematically urged
the reforms which would press this
preventive work In the nation, the
States and in the home, but have en-
countered a singular Indifference OF
antagonism from most Legislative
bodies and" from otherwise intelligent
people. This was in part because to
the laity medicine has always been q
mystic science. and still more because
until recent years ours has been d
discordant profession. This discord
was to some extent between the diff.
ferent systems of practice. but fal
more between physicians competing
for patronage in the same community
often fostered by their lay friends