The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-10-03
THE SIGN OF SICKNESS

as a moral offense against socle-
! must appear the product OF a
disordered brain.
! Certainly illness is a mhsfor-
tune, some of it is more than
that; some diseases catch us by
accident, unpreventable acct
dent which no precaution can
lguard against, and some are
clearly avoidable. Our grand
mothers used to regard a rather
ing list of children's diseases as
inevitable, and they deliberately
ltried to time the period OF their
visitations to their young broods
at such intervals in their busy
lives when they themselves
might most conveniently nurse
the Youngsters. The more Sc
rious disease, which sometimes
resulted fatally, they considered
as visitations of an all-wise but
mysterious Providence.
/ They didn't know any better.
, We do. Medical science IN
those days hadA't advanced to
the stage where the doctors
mission was quite as much to
prevent as to cure disease. The
idea of advising with the family
physician to preserve health,
when it was already perfect,
would seem a Smoking waste
of time and mbney. The
science of keeping clean, medi-
cally clean, the science OF SAM
tation, hadn't been born then.
Now we realize that it is the
ost efficient weapon for the
preservation of physical strength
and health.
To be well, to stay well, is a
moral duty insofar as it can be
accomplished through an &C
uuaintance with recognized laws
by which we know disease is
spread from an infected source.
Such knowledge is available
even to the ignorant from au-
thoritative investigation.
We moderns have learned that
it is not necessary for any one to
have typhoid, malaria, smallpox,
even tuberculosis, because we
have learned how these disease
are communicated, and how they
develop. Knowing these funda-
mental facts we may, all OF us
if we will, avoid them. We
have no invaluable cures for the
advanced stages of these disease
but we have methods that ward
them off altogether, and who car
dispute the assertion that it /;
moral obligation to use them?
, 1t is duty that we owe our
, selves, our families and those
with whom We are intimatel,
) associated, for our comfort ane
theirs. We owe it to our neigh
bors, the community and thu
state, for every man owes it tt
, all the rest that he shall Away
be at his highest point of eff
cheney as a producer. The pros
S perity of the community depends
upon the best efforts of each in
ldividual and it becomes a patri
otto debt.
Even the measles and whoop
}, ing cough and those othe
e plaques of childhood may be
should be, avoided and if w
will, We may avoid them. The,
are not necessary and it ism
1 playing fair with the youngster
! to permit or enforce the ordea
). upon them. They can't hel
y themselves. We can protec
them and we should.
e The sick man is the useles
!, man-yet not quite useless fo
y he serves as an example to tn
y community of the result of neg
a lecting a plain duty, He who
3 disabled by illness is no longe
!; producer, he becomes an es
Is pense, a drag upon his friends
i an actual drawback to the ger
# eral prosperity.
''ee The gospel of good health
+ next to the gospel of Christian
ty-even a part of it. Ill healt
n is not ordinarily or often cor
: ducive to a lofty morality an
d as a part of our code of ethic'
if we will not admit it as a pal
of OUR practical everyday relis
ion, it should guide US to bette
= living.
H The basic fact remains, whetf
= er we make it part of our relis
n ion or merely a matter of ect
'. Monies, that we have no RICH
;e no need RI suffer from nreven