The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1914-07-30
Health and Sanitation
"The New Health"

aINDER the title of "The New
- Health" F. Q. Walsh, NJ D., says
in the Forum that too much atten-
tion has been given to diseased human
ity while the healthy have been allowed
to shift for themselves. There is too
much truth in this. Because a person
is apparently well he is neglected, al
lowed to shift for himself, no thought
being given to any of the elements Of
weakness that his system may have
held from his childhood days when he
had tho scarlet fever, the measles,
whooping cough, etc.
Bright's disease, heart trouble, or q
chronic bronchial ailment may be .
manifestation of damage that may
have been suffered from these diseases
of early life. Hence the need for the
healthy to take an interest in being
more healthy, to increase the stored-up
energy that gives them the present
condition of health.
"Medical science" DR.. Walsh says,
"is seeking a special serum to kill or
offset each separate and distinct infec-
tious disease. The hope of the future
is to vaceinate against everything"
This he calls superb idea. Neverthe-
less, he recognizes in chemotherapy an
other hope, and sees in it something bet
ter than serums. "The idea, though
not definitely crystalized until lately"
he says, Gin reality dates from the use
Of quininc in malaria, which is typi-
cal instance Of treatment by chemo-
therapy in parasitic disease. Ehrlich,
the hero Of the last International Medi-
cal Congress convened a short thine ago
in London, has become the leader in
this field through reducing the idea to
a principle of treatment and the wide
application Of his own discovery in deal.
ing with the scarlet plague.
The use of quinine or some similarly
acting compound in the treatment Of
hydrophobia will be the next extension
of this idea, for through the discovery
of Noguchi, the Japanese, the parasite
which causes the disease has at last
been isolated. In the tropics especially
the parasitic and fatal diseases common
to equatorial regions will probably be
stamped out by this latest agency Of
ehemotherapy."
While this is one step in advance Of
the use of serums injected into the blood,
Dr. Walsh recognizes that the end has
not been reached. "In the past" he
says, "wo have dealt with the abnormal
mind and diseased body too exclusively.
Hygiene has been little more than a
negation, hint of what not to do. That
young science is just beginning to real
ize that it has future"
DR.. Gorgas and his aids at Panama
proved that hygiene is much more than
a theory or young science. By clean
ing up the malarial districts and com
pelling the men to live under hygienic
conditions, the region which had become
known as practically death trap was
made one of the healthieist in the world.
Undoubtedly some quinine was used
to prevent the malaria in the beginning,
but when the hygienic conditions were
established all kinds of medicines be-
came practically unnecessary. The
Americans cleanup of Havana tells a
similar story of the efficacy Of hygiene.
If the science is "young one" it is
young only to those who have put more
faith in medicine than in correct living.
Dr.. Walsh gives evidences that the
medical profession are learning from
the sanitary engineers things more
than have been included in
their college curriculum.