The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1914-04-02
KEEPING wELL-pREss SERVICE
State Board Of Health Of Florida,
Jacksonville, Florida

the most precious thing in the world.
Once 1t is lost all your wealth can not
buy it back. Only the physicians skill,
backed by the willingness of kind provi-
dence can restore 1t. and sometimes Pro-
Evidence is on the other side.
The prevention of sickness makes the
cure unnecessary. The best efforts of
the best doctors in recent years have
been directed TOWARD the preservation of
health. and the work has been in large
measure gratuitous because people usu-
ally don't send for the doctor or even
ask his advice until they themselves
think they need it, They don't ask
him how to keep well Usually man
believing himself to be in perfect health
has no idea that he has any need for
the doctors professional advice.
| There are some individuals who sum-
mons the minister when they hear.
Cor imagine) the fiuttering wings of the
death angel, and for the family physci-
an to postpone as long as possible the
visit of that dire messenger. In the
confidence OF health they have no init
mate acquaintance with either profess
sion. nor do they realize that both might
peaceful if not entirely painless.
j, And so. it comes that the important
work of educating the people of Florida
to preserve or to live UP to the highest
sanitary standards is a labor Of love,
of sacrafice. of philanthropy.
| It's just human nature to get into ruts,
but the only difference between the rut
and the grave is in the depth.
| We go on living in the same old way.
Certain habits may have failed to the pre-
sent time to bring us disease or suffering,
individually, and so we think. II we think
about it at all, that they never will. The
newspapers and magazines, are handing
these matters of health and sanitation
| exhaustiyely. The ablest writers are
discussing them. The technical phrase
ology of the medical profession is trans
lated for the understanding of ordinarily
Intelligent men and women. We read
these discussions and we understand
them, and we feel sorry for the other
fellow who needs such counsel Per-
haps we clip them or send them marked
copy. 1t brings to mind the parable
which ends with words something IKE
these. Thou fool. this night THY
soul shall be required of THEE
| DIR. Wood Hutchinson is authority Tor
the statement--and he is backed by re-
corded statistics that one person OF
every seven at one time or another IN
| his lsfe has discoverable traces OF pull
lmonary osis--consumption-in mis-
system. If there is an error In these
figures. 1t is that tubercular people are
more plentiful than this.
The world over the great white plague
claims more victims than any other d.
sease
You don't stop to think that you may
be the one of the seven. yet the disease
makes no determinations. Your chanc-
es to escape, so far as you can see or
prove. are no better than those of your
closest friend or OF your dearest enemy
no better unless you personqlly take
| the care to make them better. For II Is
possible to lessen your individual cha"ces-
| How?
BY observing the conditions ana the
surroundings in which the disease thriv-
| es and increases most rapidly ana most
| fatally, and by avoiding such conditions
But II requires the trained specialists 10
observe these conditions inelligentiy. TO
analyze the causes and from a know
| ledge of the methods by which the disc
ase ia transmitted, to give intelligent
| reasons for avoiding certain dangers, IN
which the layman, however intelligent.
might be unable to see the possibility OF
harm.
| AS an engineer your carefully express
sed opinion Is accepted as authoritative.
even If YOU do not reinforce 1t with your
reasons for it. Give the doctor credit
for knowing his business as thoroughly
as YOU know yours. His profession IL
at least as important to the welfare OF
the community and he is quite as hkeiy
to have good reasons when he warns
you.
What may be said about tuberculosis
and the possibility of lessening its preva-
Ilence. applies with equal force with other
diseases, all Of them more or less seri-
GUS. =
The records show that large percent
age of the deaths annually occurring III
Florida are from preventable diseases
MANY useful lives are cut short unneces-
sarily.
If a man Is a fatalst, who cherishes
the idea that death is inevitable aho
that it might as well come to him one
time as another, he is past the reach o.
argument, and If he will make no enor'
to avoid disease on his own account ne
might at least have the decency to do SC
for the sake Of others who are compelled
by the force Of circumstances to associ-
ate with him.
To most of US life is a precious tnlng
Vigorous health is the normal conditlor
that belongs by right to all Of US, bu'
we take some big risks with both whicf
we wouldn't take If we knew better. the
medical profession is becoming more aho
more an agency for preserving puon'
heath and already sanitation has become
a science. The average Floridian rams
to realize these facts If he Is abe te
read he cannot fail to have some luea
of them, but he fails to give tneni Jus
weight or to take to himself persona
Of their gignif1Cance. bu