The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1911-05-26
MUST APPLY HYGIENIC,
SANITARY MEASURES
In the Stamping Of Out tuberculosis.
Or. n. |. SutherIand'S Views on
the Prevention Of this
Dreaded Disease.

This article is published at the re-
quest of DR.. J. w. Young, county
health officer. FIRST installment ap-
peared in the Sentinel May IL.
Cost of tuberculosis IN 1908 in Indi-
ana WAS:
Population 100000
Deaths from consumption 4,527
Males 2,O85
Females 2,442
Mothers, 16 to 40, prime of life. S75
Fathers, 18 to 40, prime of life 1888
Orphans made under IL years age 2,4O7
Homes invaded by the plague 2,407
Estimated cost annually to the
State $4,000, 900
If this ratio should hold good for
Mississippi, and know of no reason
why it should not, our report for that
year on the cost of consumption would
have been:
Population l,55l, 900
Deaths from consumption 2,794
Orphans made under IL yr. age l,4S7
Annual cost to the State $4,000, 900
And to think that our great State
expects its board of heath to check
the spread of all diseases, not of tu-
berculosis alone, while our total annual
loss of life from all causes may be
safely estimated at $4,000 human be-
ings, with the miserable pittance of
$4,000 year! What a commentary on
the value of human life in Mississippi.
Mississippi has 1856. 600 educable chill
dren and the usual mortality of chill
dren of school age is little under four
thousand. 1t is a well known fact that
children die almost exclusively of pre-
ventable diseases, while we fret our
selves to death on the subject of immi-
grafton, which means recruiting our
ranks, decimated by death, by impor-
> tation Of aliens.
South Mississippi is now known to be
heavily infected with hookworm, anc
the trend of immigration is that way
Many thousands of fertile acres of lane
are offered at prices within the reaci
of any Industrious laborer, but the feal
of the hookworm will be as great ;
handicap TO that section as malaria ha
been to the great Yazoo- Mississippi
delta. And these preventable disease
are sapping the vitality of our state
robbing it of the potential usefulness
i of thousands of it's people, and deter
ring white immigration, especial.
needed in those sections which hav
been depleted of its labor, by the invas
- ion of the boil weevil.
The correction of these condition
Il must come from our state through II
board of health, and no economy is 5
i'll, advised as that which will leave tn
care of the public health to the ind
i, vidnal or community or county.
The parsimony of our last legislator
in providing for the investigation an
suppression of the hookworm evil
Mississippi excited the compassion
- Mr.. Rockefeller, and but for his mi
= nifcence the people would not, fo
= years yet, have realized their deplo
=, able condition. When Mr.. Carneg
" proposed to give our State Universit
library. great howl of protest wei
up from some quarters, but heard 7
:, word of condemnation of the oth'
~ great benefactor who would rid US {
the hookworm. Will Our state col
- tinue to neglect it's plain duty to II
public health and rely largely on pr
vate benefactions to conserve the liv'
and health and energy of its citizens?
q. The dread of malaria has done mo-
1b to retard white immigration to Missi
tn sippi than all other causes combine
a yet it is both durable and preventab
X disease. The education of the peop
he in sanitation during the past decat
s- has accomplished wonderful decrea
an in the mortality from this disease, al
is it is possible to Danish it entirely fro
.it our country, but this can only be dor
v. by organized and systematic etfor
through our state board of health, pr
vided with the means by our state. 4
health propaganda depend on the ed
cation of the masses in sanitation, al
,el instead of half dozen physicians a
he signed to this special work for a fe
Ily months of each year, there should
MT dozens of them constantly at work a
H. should reach every hamlet and eve
b. neighborhood in the state.
lr- DR.. George Sternberg, surgeon ge
he eral asks: 'Why not leave question
ed of public health to the doctors a
philanthropists?" In reply, why Il
leave all educational matters to teac
ers and philanthropists? What is t
necessity for a public school systel