El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-11-05

I w many L4AAAE5 AOL the DuD4EI neldAlLlr
/ but only half the battle is won when
these things are done.
Must Danish Flies.
The people Of the community must
help 20 Danish the fly and to drive out
! the mosquito. They must aid in put
ting down the danger Of Infection from
/ typhoid fever, tuberculosis, diphtheria,
scarlet fever and other diseases by as
/ slstlng the sanitary officials in their
l work If the full extent Of popular CO.
| operation in these matters is TO be real
! lied, there must be a general campaign
/ Of education.
How much such campaign is need
/ ed is shown by the experience Of the
! quarantine officers who weEe engaged
/ In putting down the yellow fever cpl
/ demic In the south q few years ago.
/ Although the mosquito theory Of yellow
/ FEVER had been thoroughly demOnStraL-
| ed years before, and its application had
/ been successful in Cuba, the Canal zone
] and elsewhere, thousands Of persons in
/ the south refused to believe that the
/ mosquito was guilty when the sanitary
] oIuc1als came around. 1t was found
/ that the greatest aid to the wiping out
] Of yellow fever in the south al that
I time was campaign Of education. Spe-
/ claI literature written for popular con-
/ sumption and showing cOnclusively the
y truth OF the mosquito theory OF yellow
Fever prOpa cation, was distributed. In
I the face Of imm ediate peril the public
came to accept the statements or the
| sanitarians and after that the Oblitera-
/ ton Of yellow fever became compare
| lively easy task.
May Prove Blessing.
| It is probable that the existence OF
] the hoOkworm disease in the south may
| prove a blessing In disguise In the
| elimination of that disease the work
/ Of the sanitarian is so quickly visible
/ In Its results, and gives such prompt
relief to the suffering, that 1t cannot
I fail to impress the .unlettered masses
Z with a sense Of the value OF modern
methods Of prevention and cure The
Z sanitary officer can take his micro
! scope and go into an infected home,
into a school, or into a drug store, and
there let the people see with their own
! eyes the parasite which causes so much
suffering in the hOOlzworm infested
sections Of the country After this he
can administer doses Of thymOl TO the
afflicted in a family, and in weeks
time such change takes place that the
whole community cannot but be i'm
pressed with the result
Education the Real Hope.
It is generally acknowledged that
the real hope OF the pubic nealJn cru
SADIE in the United States lies in the
education Of the 10000, 600 school chill
dTen in the schools Of the country.
There are a half million school teach
ers each of whom might be made
center OF instruction in hygiene With
their cooperation, the impressionabIe
mind Of the child in the schools could
he aroused to an appreciation OF the
Importance 20 themselves and to their
country Of their espOusal OF the health
crusade. The majority Of the city
schools Of the country already are Civ
ing attention 10. this work. Inquiries
made in nearly 500 city schools reveal
the fact that nineteen-t wentieths Of
them instruct the children in the evil
effects Of alcohol and tobacco; 81 per
cent Of them have special courses In
Us
and more than half Of them teach the
children lessons in first aid TO the IN
jured.
Many city schools maintain systems
OF medical inspection for the children
1t is the aim Of those who advocate
medical inspection to combine instruc-
ton with inspection. One authority de-
clares that the watchword OF the ~
ture must be Instruction and Inspec-
ton" that is, that the medical offlcers
responsible for inspection shall take II
upon themselves to instruct the chill
dren in matters Of hygiene and the
maintenance OF good health. A large
number Of schools maintain system !
Of inspection for Contagious diseases {
Even more Of them have Inspections !
to test the vision and hearing Of the (
children. Some schools maintain /
nurse for the purpose Of looking AFTER I
health conditions in the schools, while /
others employ school dentists to inspect Z
the mouths Of the children
Inspections In Schools.
There are some 1900 cities and I
towns in the United States which have I
organized systems Of graded schools,
and nearly half of these maintain sys-
with them some work OF instruction
There is no branch Of educational work I
in the common schools which can be
made more interesting than that deal .
ing with the laws of health. One needs /
only to refer to the hundred and one
little text books of hygiene that are
being used over the country today TO
discover most interesting scientific
truths related in such a captivating
way that every child would be interest
ed in them. One Of these little text
books contains a picture Of every sort
of germ which is responsible for human
disease. 1t then tells the story of how
that particular germ grows, how II gets
into the body, and a hundred and one
other details about it in such simple Z
and yet in such an accurate way LndI
grOWnups may read it with interest.
An Example.
As an example of the subject matter
of these little books one may take the
chapter on 'lOck1aW. 1t first gives
picture of the germ Of tetanus or lock
jaw, which is so magnined as TO look
like a dainty little tennis racket The
story relates how this germ forms a
poison In the blood which is 20 times
as strong as the dried venom Of the
most poisonous snake IN existence. 1t
is this poison, or toxin, which is re-
cles Of the body. The story continues,
out the fact that the toxin OF
lockjaw is 500 times more poisonous
than strychnine. 1t states that the
savage tribes of the New Hebrides
islands poison their arrows with the
IOckjaw germ by smearing them with .
earth taken from crab holes. Every
other chapter in the book is as enter
tanning as this one.
Some striking illustrations are used
to convey to the eye Of-the child the
beneficial results which grow out of
public health work. One Of the books,
In illustrating the possibilities Of pub
ic health through a pure water supply,
makes a comparison between Pittsburg,
New York and Vienna This diagram,
IF course, tells the number of deaths
DER 1000 The books are filled with
iuch examples of what public hygiene
las done and of what may be done I'M
Ter proper laws of sanitation.
1t has been proposed that one OF
he best methods of reaching the
masses Of the people In a campaign Of
in hygiene matters would be
Her sweetheart rushed down the
.