Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-09-27
HYGIENE And SANITATION.
Controlling Epidemic Diseases.
By Frederic J. Haskin.

The progress that medical science has
made in the past half century in releas-
ing the race from the thralldom OF cpl
demic disease constitutes what is per-
haps the brightest page in human his
tory 1t has been such gradual prog
ress that few people realize its results or
have noted it's onward steps. In TACT,
only those who have studied the status
ties that bear such remarkable test-
mony to it's effectiveness appreciate the
full meaning of it all. Before the begin
ming OF the past half century smallpox
was about the only important epidemic
disease that could be checked effectively
and quickly. 1t is true that before that
time tho gradual acceptance of the doc
trinc that cleanliness is next TO Sodliness
had resulted in rendering the great
plaques of history less frequent in occur
renee and less serious in extent. driving
them back into the nations which es-
poused not the laws of cleanliness. But
there were still unconquerable epidemics
of cholera. of bubonic plague, of yellow
fever and the like, and it was not until
the GERMS of the principal diseases were
discovered that quarantine laws were
made effective and the fight against in
terlldtlONdI epiuelIlCS SUCCESSFUL
If one is to appreciate the meaning of
all this let him consider what our quar-
antine laws
Quarantine Laws alone have
and Their Results. wit,, WIZ i. ti,o 81
a million immigrants coming into our
have had to forestall an epidemic of
cholera when thousands of victims of
the disease were seeking embarkation to
America, and where many. despite the
utmost vigilance, would have escaped
detection but for a microscopic examina-
ton of their intestinal contents? And
with bubonic plague in a dozen or more
ports from which ships sail to the United
states. how should we escape an cpl
demic of that disease if we did not know
how to prevent it? Day in and day out,
year in and year out, the quarantine Off
GERS of the United States never relax
their efforts to protect ninety million
people from the invasion of hostile
armies Of germs. They do their work so
well and Yet so quietly that nine-tenths
of us do not know that they exist unless
we happen to be sailing home from an
alien port. No one can estimate the hun
dreds of thousands of deaths that are
prevented annually by the care with
which the public health service guards
our ports.
1t is interesting to compare what has
been done in the way of suppressing
epidemic diseases with what remains to
be done. In the past half century the
civilized nations have discovered the
germs of the majority of the epidemic
diseases. tuberculosis. yellow fever,
typhoid fever, pneumonia, diphtheria,
bubonic plague typhus fever, spinal
meningitis. hookworm disease, measles
and a long list of other CONTAGIOUS and
INFECTIOUS ailments have. been robbed of
their mystery, and methods of their pre-
vention have been discovered. Through
out the civilized world the effect of the
application of these methods has been
limited only by their lack of thorough
ness.
The progress during the decade between
100 and 1910 in the registration area of
the United States
Progress Made reveals what Amer
-, IA, v., lea has accomplish
the principles of preventive medicine.
There were only two-thirds as many
deaths from typhoid fever in 1910 as
there were in 1900. $50 deaths occurring
from 1t out of each 100000 of population
i 1900 as compared it'll 235 in 1910.
The number of deaths from diphtheria
was cut down nearly a third. Tuberculo-
sis caused SIS deaths in 1900 where 1t
caused 1865 deaths in 1910. Diseases of
the respiratory system were cut down
from 1852 in 1900 to 1873 in 1910. Ard
so one might carry the ratio on through
the list of infectious and contagious dis
eases.
Applying some of these figures to the
United States as a whole, it is found
that this means that we are saving more
than 1000 people a year from tubercu-
losis as a result of the progress made
since 1860 in the fight against it. We
have reduced the number of deaths from
typhoid by 10GOO Year. the number of
deaths from diphtheria and Group have
fallen 20.o00 a year. From diseases of
the respiratory system there are pro-
portionately 6D.0U fewer deaths a year
than there were only ten years ago. TAX
ing all causes together, there were pro-
portionately nearly a quarter of a million
more deaths in the country in 1910 than
there were in 1900. The credit belongs to
the application of preventive medicine
rather than TO the discovery of its
theories, since the doctors knew almost
much about these theories in 1900 as
they did ten years later.
Aside from quarantine regulations the
most important method which the sani-
tarians have in
Inspection of voked in behalf
MIL w. of better health
~ HIS been the pro-
lection of the milk and water supplies of
the country. 1t has been estimated that
the American citizen consumes twenty
three gallons of milk annually. Since
milk is the principal diet of the SICK
aged and the infant members of society
the three classes most susceptible to in
lection from intestinal diseases-its pro-
lection has always been one OF the first
aims of the sanitarian. And no other
sanitary measure that the science of