The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1914-10-30

big places and In small. Then oul
conception of a public health de
partment especially I'm the smaller
places was a medical man who would
casually put up and casually take
down placards when infectious dl
seases were more or less accident
ally reported to him; and one OF
more worn-out old men who helped
the health officer in this onerou'
task, burned a little sulphur OF
boiled q little formaldehyde in the
room where the patient was sup
posed to have been confined, occa
sionally rebuked some householder
for an untidy backward, n garbage
heap, or cess-pool and In general
wandered about the community In
a more or less desultory way urg
ing people of the less wealthy resi-
! Dental districts to cleanup. Most
citizens looked upon the health de
partment as a harmless necessary
evil. to be "Cicced on" to neighbors
ut times when the neighbors made
any unusual contribution to the
general odors OF the vicinity and 10
( be resented by themselves with
conscious dignity and hurt pride
whenever the inspector turned his
thoughts their way. "My well is
the best well In the township: but
my neighbours well-I don't see how
those people drink It. My back yard
is all right-but it's a wonder my
neighbor's back yard does not breed
a pestilence."
Everyone shuffled Along.
Everyone shuffled along very
' comfortably, was born, had all the
regulation three and one-half chill
dren infectious diseases, per head
before he was twenty-one passed
adult diseases as were open to him
to contract, grew old, and died with
pleasant IL hazy impression that
his community was the healthiest In
the state, that he was entitled to
pity people who had to live under
a less-well regulated public health
regime, and that, all things con-
sidered the health department did
very well in view of the fact that
they really had not much to do any
way in such a healthy community.
That the operations of such
health departments accomplished
nothing in the prevention OF disease
and death, that they made many I'M
necessary ordinances imposed many
wholly needless burdens and caused
many a wholly useless cleanup, that
they were helpless in the presence
OF an epidemic and absolutely fu-
tile to stem even the usual cur
rent Of disease never seems to have
entered anybody's head.
But we have reached an age
where we do not take for granted
that a thing is good simply because
ii is long established. We require
every body and every thing to show
some reason for existence. some re.
suit obtained for time and money
expended. we want to know and we
want to be shown.
This investigative turn of the
public mind into established pro-
ceedures revealed some curious
things concerning the old style
health department; such as that
despite the alleged health depart
ment activities, disease was just as
prevalent in communities with such
health departments as I'm those with
out: that in brief, whatever func-
tons a health department exercised
they were not functions which had
any marked effect I'm disease and
death.
Present Conception Of Health Body.
THE present conception OF
modern health department Is a body
OF highly trained people who really
know all about the diseases they
exist to prevent; who really know
how to prevent them; and who really
have the necessary facilities to
really accomplish prevention.
I'VE no longer believe in a pro-
miscuous way the old-wives fables
that specific diseases Of definite and
now we'll known origin can develop
from bad smells or decomposing
vegetable or animal matter. We do
not attribute every disease to sewer
gas or swampy land. We recognize
that Of all the diseases man Is heir
to, the ones which we can prevent
are all contracted by more or less
direct contact with previous cases;
and the modern health department
Is intent on knowing and supervis-
ing every case until II can no longer
spread the disease.
About all we have at last recog-
nized the apparently only too OBJ
vious fact. nevertheless long over
looked. that Il Is not the severe
case OF diphtheria or scarlet fever,
tuberculosis or smallpox that chiefly
spreads infection. for the severe
case is sick In bed as a rule and
comes in contact almost solely with
the doctor and nurse II is, we see
now clearly. the mild, the unrecog-
nized and too often the deliberately
concealed case, the case not sick
enough to go to bed, not sick
enough even to call a doctor, that
runs about the community at large
and disseminates infection to all
corners.
When II Is Useless.
The modern health department
which contents itself with placard-
ing several cases during the height
OF the disease is a futile and prac-
tically useless municipal department,
unjust in that II penalties the honest
citizen who allows his doctor to re-
port the case, while his neighbors'
children with the same disease es.
cape; futile, because for the one
case thus isolated, dozen are often
running free and uncontrolled.
The supervision of infectious d.
q =.