The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-07-13
Social Diseases
(By JOSEPH L. COHEN.)

BY social diseases are meant those
of our AFFECTIONS that are visited up
on us because of the way most of us
work and live. Social diseases, there
fore, prey upon large numbers, ana
required treatment upon a scale
larger than comes from personal care
and dosing with medicine. And. more
so than in the case of individual ills,
it is true hat prevention should con-
Germ us above everything else.
For example, DR.. FleNner says that
there is no cure for %infantile, para1y-
sis except by prevention of it's spread.
Prevention in general, however, pro-
hes more deeply than that.
The greatest OF social diseases Is
poverty. 1t is universal moreover,
as hardly needs explaining. it is the
breeding ground of many, if not all,
social disea SEES. And, in the last
analysis, only when the way we work
and live has been SO improved that
poverty is no longer possible, will we
be spared the diseases that d%iscour-
age us.
To get some idea of the size OF the
problem OF social disease. the follow
ing data mas been gathered from
various eminent medical authorities:
At all times there are 5000, 900
people in the Omitted States seriously
i'll. Fully half of his illness is pre-
ventable. OF this number, 500, 1000
are consumptives. 15O. 900 dying an
nually. Three fourths of consump-
ton can be avoided. On a par with
tuberculosis, in it's number of VIC
TINS. stands pneumonia.
There are 100000 cases of malaria
in this country annually. While this
disease is not seriously necessarily,
yet it predisposes to more malignant
diseases. Practically all this is pre-
ventable.
There are also $4,000 blind in this
land, of whom only 5000 are cared
for by the state.
There are 1000. 900 people in this
country suffering from syphilis. 1t is
stated that fully seventy-five percent
of the male population contract
Sonorrhea and fifteen per cent
syphilis. The most dreadful con-
sequence is the effect upon children
of such contaminated persons. The
determination of vencrca1 diseases
would probably mean the elimination
of at least one-half of our institutions
for detectives. y
i There are 200 900 pro1lounced1y
feeble minded people in the United
- 's'' u Ild
OF while only $4,000 ar.
cared for in special Institutions.
The best judges believes that in
sanity is increasing.
Mental diseases are due largely to
heredity. alcoho syphilis. and en-
vlronment. causes which are preve+S-
table or removable.
ENestrain is a particular evil of
civilization. extending to the whole
nervous system. Neuresthenia has its
grip on thousands of men and wo-
men. breaking down their avera se
vitality. and rendering them more
liable to serious sickness and death.
1t is estimated that the total none
tary loss due to disease is three bill
lion dollars of which amount one-
third falls to tuberculosis. And.
again. that fifteen years at least
could be added at once to the avera pa /
human life by applying the science
of preventing disease. More than half
of this additional life would come |
from the prevention os tuberculosis,
typhoid. and five other diseases, the
prevention of which could be accom-
plished by pure air. water and milk. |
Impure milk is the direct cause of