The Washington herald., 1912-06-02

| fingers and like conditions. As stone
was substituted for wood lin houses and
the rats excluded. the plaques dimin-
ished in number and severity.
Bubonic plague is primarily a disease
Of rodents, II is secondarily and acci-
dentally a disease Of man.
. Why do We not have these terrible
plaques and epidemIcs in this country? ?
Because We have forks; soap has come
into more general use and promiscuity
has been correspondingly diminished. In
fact, We do not have very many differ-
ent diseases resulting from promiscuity
now, tuberculosis. typhoid and, in the
South, hookworm, being the principal
ones
We have been able to reduce disease
through the projections We have thrown
around people, and the reason We have
been able to throw these safeguards
around the people is that scientific men
have learned how to erect them, and
have taught the people. From this we
can reason that the greatest progress
toward good health in the future will
come from education.
Educate Health Omeers.
Now. who are We going to educate?
In the first place, We must educate your
teacher. Who, then. is your teacher?
The one who gets down to the bedrock
is the local or county health oficer, and
he is the one who must be educated
Who Is to educate him? The State
health officer. The State health officers
ind means OF education through many
colleges which now have a degree of
doctor OF public health. Then. too, the
Federal government is able to exchange
knowledge with State health officers
through conferences which the Surgeon
General OF the public Health and Marine
Hospital Service calls.
The health system Of the United
States is modelled after the general gov
ernment Its strength now and in the !
future depends upon its adherence to |
this similarity. This presupposes on the |
part Of the States a desire to exercise |
an autonomy in the administration Of |
its public health system In other words, |
the State will look after its internal san |
itary matters, but just the minute a |
question comes up which affects the san
itary relations Of one State with another,
or OF all Of the States with another
power. then il becomes a matter for the /
general government. Thus the general /
government indirectly maintains a watch
over the environmental condition OF its
people.
Mental Environment n Factor.
Mental environment is another big
factor. Let US go back to the one-acre
field Man is essentially an initiative
animal. II We have in this acre field
persons with deformed moral standards,
and the association Is close, We are 60
ng to have imitation and consequent
,pidenlics OF mental disturbances. From
Iuch a condition arise the waves Of
lysteria which sweep over entire COM
nunities at times, and waves Of i'm
4
"A big factor in the matter of mental
is the question Of amuse-
nent. Suppose a community is widely
Then We are liable to find
great deal Of melancholy insanity. The
highest insanity rate for any given class II
'ccurs among Danish farm wives: where
'ou have isolation and hard work.
IF. on the other hand. you have con-
'estion and no amusement, the people
urn to artificial amusements, such as
lcoholism, and IL an attempt is made
o block this form of amusement, the
eOple turn to some other. Take as a {
ase in point Russia Since the govern 1
lent tooks steps to prevent excessive !
sc OF alcohol. ether, which Is very !
heap, has been used. Or take the case :
British soldiers in India. They learned Z
hat by extracting cordite, an explosive. s
rom their cartridges, they could chew '
and become very drunk. This has {
reduced great deal Of insanity in the 8
.nglish army.
Sanitation Is Improvement. 7
In other words. 1t is all a matter Of :
1virOnment. Sanitation is improve I
tent OF environment. The one-acre lot
environment. and the safeguards of q
anitation are Its improvements. Sewer e
&c. street Fighting. clean. warm houses. {
nusements> all make for better environ 4
ent. Z
ITO 80 aheAa Of your question then T