The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-02-07
EsP0kS|b|L|HEs|MPOSED
BY NEW DISCOVERIES

Our Greatest Responsibility is
the Prevention of Unnecessary
Death. The Public Should
Show its Deep interest
CIV. S. Rankin, NJ. D., Secretary North
Carolina state Boar OF Healthy
AS a race progresses by new discoy-
cries and Inventions. its powers are
augmented, its field of opportunity X
panded, its responsibilities made
~weightier, and. if the civic conscience
OF man keeps pace with his greater
powers, the realization is more keenly
felt that unto whom much is given,
much will be required"
The last century was SO fruitful in
discovery and invention and the rate
Of racial advancement 50 marked, that
1t has gone down in history as the
Electric Age. In that century the
sciences--chen1istry, physics and blOlo-
ga a new impetus to Industry
replaced the OK with the electric mo-
tor. and, through a deeper insight in
TO nature as the handiwork of God,
gave us q new vision of the
iilttilodS IL WiSHC1l Oh me universe.
In the 1ifties of that century pain was
conquered: in the seventies urgery
was practically created through the
discovery Of antisepticS, and the pre-
ventlon OF a large part of disease nude
an easy possibility.
Already the more intelligent nations
and communities have made great
progress in ~subduing our commo foe.
For example, spotted fever is gone
from the face of the earth; scurvy,
once more terrible than pirates to ma
rltl1Ee OmmeTce, and, to naSieS as
dreaded a foe as opposing fleets, &c
merely q part Of history; smallpox IN
countries enforcing ~Vacination, is SO
scarce that medical colleges have diff
Guilty in securing passes for lemon
Strat1On to Students: yellow fever, the
plague OF the tropics, in the more en-
lightened cities and countries Of our
southern neighbors, has been eradica-
ted, and it is a safe prediction to say
that in ten more years yellow fever
will all but have disappeared from the
face OF the earth; typhoid. yielding as
sanitary intelligence advances, has
fallen in it's death rate per hundred
thousand for half decades, since its
prevention was discovered in 1880, re-
~spectiyely rs follows: IS, as, So, IS, p,
81: tuberculosis will lift its blight from
the German empire in 1910, from Eng
land in 1850. and from the States of
New York, Massachusetts and Penn
s~ylyania in 1850 should its present de-
cline. made possible through we'll sup
ported health work. continue. The
saying OF Pasteur in 1886 that st is in
the power of man to cause all germ
diseases to disappear from the world"
now with its meaning no longer re-
stricted to the scientific world, Is d
part of commOn knowledge, based
upon actual accomplishment that has
been going on for the last quarter Of q
century.
Nevertheless, these new discoveries,
with the tremendous responsibility
they bring us, have been SO recent, and
have followed one upon the other with
such rapidity, that the average citizen
has not yet awakened to the serious re-
lation they bear to his civic duties.
Even the clergy, the leaders Of our
people in pointing out the patti Of
duty, even the clergy in a city with
the extensive influence Of Raleigh,
where over one hundred unnecessary
deaths occur .everv year, stress with
greater force the i'll effects Of such
things as card playing, dancing and
theatres than the apathy Of a sleeping
citizenship that seemingly nave not
yet Thoroughly learned the eternal an
swer Of mans first recorded question
Of his Maker-Am / my brothers
Keeper"
II our greatest responsibility in this
world is not to save the health and
lives Of our fellows, pray what is it?
And if this is so, my reader. and you
lay claim TO the high title of citizen
ship, what are you going To do about
it, Mans responsibility for p~reNentd-
bic deaths is now a part OF the ceic-
bratej equipment Of every intelligent