Evening journal., 1911-11-29
THE PUBLIC HEALTH.
Preventive Medicine Not Responsible
for the PrOlOngation of Life,
Sgys Mr.. Rearick.

Says Mr.. Rearick.
Editor of THE EVENING JOURNAL
In a series Of articles on The Pub
lie Health" which have appeared in
one Of our city papers. a writer calls
attention to the fact that n "only a
little more than third VI century
the death rate Of the United StateE
was cut down from twenty TO fifteen
per thousand, and that Il has been pre-
dicted that the average American of
half century hence may live to be
60 years old Then he adds: How
well grounded is this conclusion may
be shown by the fact that with the
1 possibilities of preventive medicine
only beginning to be realized, the life
of the average American of today IS
some six years longer than II was
only 20 years ago"
It is entirely proper to say that the
increase Of longevity Is contemporary
with the desperate effort which Is be-
| ing made to interest the public in
preventive medicine but 1t does not
! follow that so-called preventive med
icine" is responsible for the prolonga-
ton Of life at this period. Statistics
show decline in the. mortality rate
in all civilized countries and especial
ly in England and Wales as regards
diphtheria cases, but this decline is
not traceable TO antitoxin. nor def
nitely TO any particular material rem
edies, for the records show that while
! there has been a decline in fatalities
attending diphtheria cases under
antitoxin there has been astill larger
decline under the old fashioned rem
edies The decline is evidently due to
causes entirely independent of drugs.
It seems to be due directly to the ad-
vances OF civilization, TO the fact that
the world at large is slowly escaping
from the liability to disease and its
/ fatalities. and yet antitoxin has been
talked OF by SOME as though it were
the only remedy for diphtheria.
DR.. Herbert Snow, late Senior Sur
geon, Cancer Hospital Brompton, etc.
declared: "The statistics most com.
monty cited in this country tGreai
Britain are those of the metropolitan
Asylums Board and show a large anC
progressive percentage of annual re
,coveries under the antitoXin treat
ment Unfortunately, however. they
also show a much larger percentagl
Of cures by other methods, and It Is
highly important TO remember thai
the class Of cases treated without
antitOxin includes such as were con
sidered too severe TO undergo
inoculations. Thus from the date
(1S94-5) of the commencement
Of the antitoxin inoculations down tC
1907 we find progressive decline
in The mortality from 2S per cent. t'
! 10 per cent. IN those subjected 10 tbs
fashionable serum treatment. But il
, the patients otherwise dealt, with, th'
mortality in the same period progress
! sively declines from 13 per cent. Il
2S4 per cent. The virulence of diph
iberia, as of all epidemic disorders
, fiuctuates very considerably. In on
! epidemic everybody dies, or, at least
escapes but narrowly. In the mex
I hardly anyone succumbs, no matte
what the treatment.
Z The total number of deaths fror
tiiphtheria has, however, greatly IN
!. creased since the antitoxin was In
, troduced CS9N. In the ten year
preceding, the mortality throughou
England and Wales was POS per mil
s lion living I'm the ten following,
rose TO 235 per million.
, "rhen what about the harm done b
this antitoxtin? It's own foremost nd
, vocates have confessed them TO IN
Royal Commission. Their
have been many instances of sudde
DEATH
DR.. Snow concludes his remarks re
garding the abundant discussion in "a
, vOr of antitoxin by declaring "Ho'
can anyone take such blatant nor
sense seriously? Yet il suffices {
. hoodwink our Legislature and all th
powers that bel" Thus We note ths
one of the worlds best medical au
thorities puts TO rout Mr.. Haskin
theory.
An article entitled Mistaken lDiag
nOsis, which appeared IN "Healt
Record, declares that There wer
, in London in 1907 taccording TO tn
/ | Vaccination lnquirerl only two gen
J uine cases of smallpox. Fifteen pa
tents were certified before removal I
be suffering from smallpox, but thiI
teen were found TO be not so suffer
ing" I'VE find that the mistake
diagnosis numbered six out Of eigh
or as per cent. Surely this affords fur
ther remarkable proof OF the ute
failure of orthodox methods of dias
nosis No wonder that the public
II losing confidence in drug doctor
ID The two cases proved to b
a vaccinated cases"
n In the state Of Michigan alone sex
eral persons have died from vaccine
L tion during the past year. and man
= reputable physicians declare that vac
!. cination is responsible in large moa
! sure for many poisonous diseases. TIL
= lives OF many we'll children have bee
n destroyed by antitoxin used as a pre-
ventive. Within the past few weeks
ia lady who believed in preventive metl
,f DDS decided TO have her appendix r'
d moved while she was strong and we
e and abundantly able TO stand the OF
r Grafton. Her theory was that she migl
n some day have appendicitis. She die
from the operation. The ScriptuI
s teaches that one should not do ev
Il that good may come" of it, and We b,
T- lieve that the use of poisonous an
n dangerous preventives is a violation {
y an eternal law Of right and soon {
II late viii prove utter failure.
) We are all ready to admit that mo
J. tality has decreased, but there is Z
e reason whatever 10 attribute this d.
l