El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-09-21
SCHOOLS Help
To COMBAT
DISEASE
Practical Methodists Are Be
ing Employed in Crusade
For Hygiene.
MOVING PICTURES
ARE NEW TEXTBOOKS
CRr Frederic J. Haskin.l


Washington. D. c., Sept. 21--The
work that has been done in the past
has demonstrated that the rallying
ground for the cause of public health IS
in the schools. Among the masses OF
the people it has been difficult TO IN
duce the fathers and mothers to accept
the teachings of modern sanitation
ALWAYS skeptical about new Tangled
notions" they refuse to believe in germs
With the children it has oeen Ioun9
different. While in measure lnnuehceo
by the mental attitude OF their MONIES,
their minds are still open, ana Wnere
hygiene has been taught properly ana
persistently there has been marked re-
suits.
There are more than IT, 900, 600 pupils
enrolled in the schools of the country
To teach them both by precept ana
example there are more than naII
to captain the fight for the spread
of hygienic knowledge, proper cam
paign, it has been estimated, VIII be
the most effective of all the neaItn
is to awaken the teachers themselves
to the Importance of the crusade
Gradually the teachers in the urban
schools are being equipped for this
work, and there has been great progress
in the same direction in the rural
schools. More than half the school
children of the land already are recelY-
ing fairly satisfactory hygienic inStruc-
ton, although the majority of those DO
not get as much training OF this KIND
as they need.
Someone has suggested that in every
city in the country there ought to be
set aside one day in each month when
the children could be taken through
some meteorological laboratory and
there permitted to see the germs OF
some of the principal diseases with
their own eyes. The effect of such
program may be gathered from the re-
suits of the Rockefeller sanitary COM
missions crusade against the nook
worm When that crusade began the
people of the south were as incredu-
lous as any Doubling Thomas could be
But when they saw with their own eyes,
they said seeing is believing" and
positive antagonism was transformed
into warm cooperation
The sanitarians of all Europe are
now pointing out the magnificent re-
suits that may be accomplished by
Weil-rounded campaign of education, as
evidenced by this crusade against the
hookworm-
Tracking in PraeticaI Way.
Many schools, even in the rural
communities, are teaching their pupils
practical hygiene in a very practical
way. One teacher aroused the interest
of her children in an effort to abolish
the common drinking cup. They held
a little entertainment and raised enough
money to get sufficient number of
bered, and each child has a number to
correspond When they got their
drinking cups the next thing was to
inspect their water supply. 1t was
found that the spring from which the
water came received the drainage of a
hog pen in very wet times. The teach
er also had a chart made showing the
various strata of rock in that vicinity,
and thus showed that the water bear
ing vein which supplied the spring
sometimes received water that perco-
lated from the vicinity of a dwelling.
All the children entered into these
and gusto, and thus they had hygienic
measures applied to them the while
they were learning their lessons of
practical hygiene.
In many cities teachers have made
good use of various government pub
locations in impressing upon the chill
dren the great value of preventive
medicine. The public health and
marine hospital service some years since
studied the milk question in its rela-
ton to the spread of typhoid fever,
scarlet fever and the like 1t shows
how cases break out on given milk
routes while others are absolutely free
from the epidemic. 1t also shows how,
when there is case of typhoid fever
follows an epidemic on the milk routes
supplied by it When the children thus
see the case brought right down to their
own cities and their own milk sup
Z
Take Interest In Civic Affairs.
One hope engendered in the work of
educating children in preventive medi-
cine is that it will make them more
intelligent voters when they begin to
take part in municipal affairs. 1t has
been found that one of the principal
difficulties in the way of prosecuting
sanitary measures in many cities and
towns arises from a large percentage
of the population being home owners.
For instance, in mill towns, where the
operatives own their own homes they
are seldom willing to vote for the ex-
penditure of an adequate sum of money
to secure proper sanitary conditions
Where a larger proportion of the
easier to secure the passage and en-
forcement of proper sanitary measures.
It is hoped that the education of the
children as to the Importance and the
economy of adequate expenditures for
sanitation purposes will remove this
difficulty
1t has been suggested that there
ought to be placed in every school a
series of charts showing graphically the
number of deaths from various diseases
in various countries, states and cities.
This would show that we have six
times as much typhoid as Norway, five
times as much as Germany, four times
as much as England. 1t would show
that since the doctors came to know
about the typhoid germ they have cut
down the number of cases to half its
thing has happened with consumption
and diphtheria-
Textbooks Are Invaluable.
number of elementary textbooks
. = -. - 49,. Mt - ,.