Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1911-01-26
Progress I'm Medicine.

DIR. Woods Hutchinson discusses IN
the Worlds Work for January the prog.
ress of medical science during the las
decade. In that period the national deatl
rate was reduced 10 per cent, while faitf
in the magic power OF drugs never before
waned more rapidly. The great medica
investigations of the decade have beer
for the discovery CT causes, while the
great advances have been methods OF pre-
vention. Again, great new national or,
ganizations have been formed against tll'
berculosis, against infantmortality, agains
congestion and overproduction, and foI
school hygiene, for health in factories anc
workshops and for wholesome conditions
m cities. Better and more significant
these movements, inspired by physicians
have been by thu people for their owr
protection, and the community is awak-
ening TO the fact that its fate is in its
own hands, "and that the best medicines
are neither phySic nor prayer, but food
fresh air, sunshine, pure water and per-
sonal cleanliness. The death rate from
tuberculosis has declined 10 per cent dur
ing the decade, equivalent to saving fif-
teen thousand or twenty thousand deaths
annually in the United States. The in
FAINT mortality rate has fallen off equally,
while the death rate in all the great cities
has been beaten down to lower and
lower level And SO it is:
THE fight against tuberculosis is stead
lily becoming more and more a fight tor
better housing, more Fairgrounds, better
food and more of it, shorter hours OF
work, decent and civilized shops, work
rooms and factories, higher wages, bet
ter education in the laws OF health. We
hay e laid the bugbear OF its transmission
by meat and milk, and are concentrating
our fire now upon the place where the
bacillus breeds-the infected house or the
tenement room. Whenever the
community becomes intelligent enough
to vote the money for taking every case
of known tuberculosis out into the coun-
try and keeping it there until cured, and
at the same time preventing the injection
of others, then the days Of consumption
will be numbered and its years may be
counted upon the fingers OF two hands"
This makes it possible to break up ev-
cry nest of the disease, every focus OF in
lection, as fast as discovered, and so the
present practice, as illustrated in New
York city, of burying ten thousand cases
every year and breeding twenty thous-
and new ones to take the place OF the ia
tai ones. will be no more.
During the decade the fight against ty-
phoid fever, the second great captain OF
mortality, has disclosed the powerful aid
and comfort given by that advance agent
of pestilence, the house fly, which should
be known as the typhoid fly" or the
"filth fly" Next to infected water this
fly is probably the leading cause for the
spread of typhoid fever, with Its 25,OOO
deaths annually in the United States
Not only has the world gone forth TO de-
stroy the house fly, but also the stegomyla
MOSQUITO, which carries yellow fever ;
the anopheles, its cousin, that transmits
malaria; the tsetse fly, that carries sleep
ing sickness the rat that carries plague
and the mouse that probably carries meas
les and typhus fever. America is now
safe from yellow fever, which in the last
century totaled half million cases, with
100000 deaths in the Southern States.
The tropics are now open to white COL
onization for the first time since the dawn
OF history.
Even pellagra bids fair to fall into this
insect-borne class, ,alIinvestigations show
ing the baselessness of the belief in its
causation by spoiled corn. There is now
a strong probability that pellagera is due
to the bite of a gnat or midge, the ac-
tivities of which in the early spring pro-
cuce the known sensational outbreaks or
relapses of the disease. Another famous
discovery is that of the hookworm, and
it is appalling to realize that probably
from Is to 20 per cent OF the rural popu-
lation of the Southern States are con-
stantly inhabited by this parasite. Twen-
ty-five cents worth of thymol and day
in bed will cure it, and shoe leather and
properly built closet will prevent it.
Two powerful weapons forged within
the decade are the serum or antitoxin for
the cure of cerebro spinal meningitis, and
the discovery of the germ OF that great
and widespread blood disease, which the
prudery of social etiquette scarcely per-
mits one to name. Both OF these dis
coyeries were due 10 the utilization otthe
nearest blood relative to man (the mon
key) for experimental purposes. lhe
first discovery is an American triumph,
made in the Rockefeller Institute OF New
York, disclosing the first real remedy OF
any efficacy against the deadly spotted
fever. Its use in 700 cases changed the
death rate from more than 10 per cent to
less than Is per cent, and then the REM
edy can be produced on a commercial
scale, TO be readily accessible and OF use
in the early stages OF the disease, the
arsenical compound known as "6O6," is
the work of a brilliant investigator who
died in the first triumph OF discovery. 1t
h S already yelled results OF far-reach-
ing significance.