The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-01-06
Plan CAMPAIGN OF EDUCATION
TO FIGHT THE. CANCER CURSE
National Rattle Has Commenced Similar To That Which
Worked Wonders Against the Great White Plague
Risk Is In Delayed Surgery:

have remade the world and reVolu-
tionized life during the last nifty years
none are more important to the inul-
vidual man and woman, perhaps, than
the altered viewpoint of the medical
faculty toward tie general pupilc.
Formerly men OF medicine liz not
take the public into their confidence
There were several reasons for this
attitude. In the first place the pub
lie did not possess the general edu-
cation which would enable 1t to grasp
more than rudimentay ideas of sanl'
tation and hygiene. In other words'
the public mind was not prepared Tor
the confidence which physicians now
place in it, says a special writer in the
New York Sun.
There was another important rea-
son for the medical mans attitude;
he was by no means sure or himself.
He was still in the era of experimental
practice to q far greater degree than
he is today. He was not certain or
his diagnosis or his ours of treat
ment in cases that today are definite
~ charted. The practitioner OF Tor
mer times would have considered II
highly dangerous to give a fever pa
tient all the water he wanted to
drink; to make "a I'VE
outdoors night as we'll as day; to
place a sufferer from pneumonia on
the roof Of his city home in freezing
weather.
Medical research has given practi-
TONERS the confidence that accompa-
MES absolute surety in directions
which were largely experimental only
a few years ago. Through newspapers
and magazines, through college
courses and schools and public lee
lures, has been aroused a great and
widespread public interest in all mat
ters pertaining to health, longevity
and general we'll being.
Thus it happened that as a result
of many developments conditions
were fitting some time ago for medi-
cal practitioners completely to re-
verse the attitude they had previously
held toward the public; to take the
public into tkair confidence, and urge
the public to assist them in stamping
out disease formerly believed to be
ineradicable.
Tuberculosis Campaign.
But a few years have elapsed since
the campaign was commenced against
the great white plague; with what re-
suits every intelligent person is IA
Lliliar. And 1t marked more strik-
ingly than anything else the complete
transformation OF the medical facul-
tvs attitude toward the general pub
lie.
The actual cause OF tubercular af.
lection was ascertained without Ques
ton and the conditions under which
It thrived. simultaneously was seer
the remedy. Fresh air. sunlight, h
best OF food and plenty Of it. rest O.
mind and body-and every hope 70
complete recOvery-that. IN brief. wa
n prescription. instead Of long veal
OF semi-imprisonment in close room
and avoidance of fresh air.
Until the anti-tuberculosis campaig1
was fully under way the general pub
lie had but the slightest idea OF tn
extent and the ravages Of this dis
ease in its various forms. And nov
that the campaign has resulted i
victories fer science and commo
sense hardly hoped for by its mos
sanguine supporters, the medical fac
ulty has inaugurated another cwide
spread campaign against a foe eve
more insidious and more Difficult
deal with-that of cancer. The Cor
gress of Surgeons of North Carolin
met at Chicago recently to conside
the entire subject, and especially t
start a national movement for publ
education regarding the disease,
the confident expectation that tho,
sands Of men and women now suffe,
ing Its ~incipient forms may have the
loves prolonged, hat others ms
avoid needless agony accompanyir
YES prolonged, that others m
be wholly cured.
Why lancer Is InSidiouS.
Up to the present time no mar h
arisen who can prove to the wor
Of science that he knows absolute
and without question the exact eau
of cancerous affection. This is VIII
makes cancer a foe far more inside
to deal with than tuberculosis. r.
difficulty is increased by the fact tn
cancer Is far more common than (
public believes.
When a man gAs appendicitis
knows it; he needs no confrmaA
besides that Of his family physics
Likewise when tuberculosis is SUI
GENTLY advanced there is little di
Guilty in diagnosing 1t. Other disea.
are recognized generally as bel
widespread. But the average pers
of Intelligence has but the faint
idea of the earlier symptoms of CO
nar n~noraft,o fo-, r,A1