The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1914-08-27
|D|RT IS HEALTHY? FOR THE CASTAWAYS
Medical Journal Gives Soil Clean
Bill of Health.
Bacteria of Fever and Other Diseases
Are Killed Instead of Nurtured
by Mother Earth, Is Doc
tors Pleasant Theory.

THAI many diseases arise from soil
| conditions was formerly a widespread
belief, and Is still asserted by many
authorities. A writer in the Medical
Council, Philadelphia, asserts that this
| theory is outworn and that the soil,
| except where abnormally infected, Is
| a conserver of health, not a harborer
of disease. T'ne theories that malaria
Is due to soil conditions, he says, have
| utterly collapsed, and of the disease
| once thought to originate in the soil,
Including military fever" typhoid,
| yellow fever, and more recently pei
lagra, erysipelas, beriberi, dysentery,
tuberculosis, tetanus, anthrax, amoe-
bold dysentery, cholera infantum and
epidemic meningitis, it is now fairly
certain that none is there present nor
m&lly. The organisms Of some may
infest both soil and water, but these
are only carriers" in such cases, not
generators.
AS medical science advances" he
writes, ut is more than probable that
the soil as a generator of disease will
be dismissed from consideration. 1t
is quite true that buried accumula-
tons OF filth may proliferate various
organisms. but that normal soil does
SO, except as taught in agricultural
books, Is not probable. The normal
bacteria of the soil are not pathogenic
to man.
After going through much authori-
tative literature, we are unable to find
many authenticated instances of patho-
genie bacteria normally occurI ing in
the soil. More and more is 1t being
thought that tetanus bacilli largely
come from the intestinal tracts of the
domestic animals and do not prolifer-
ate In the soil, although the spores
may long remain viable.
"As matter of fact, normal soil is
natural and beneficent bacteriolog-
ical laboratory, various nitrifying bac-
terra promoting growth and others de-
composing humus and organic matter,
thus rendering it available as plant
food. But when natural conditions are
disturbed the bacterial balance is also
disturbed and fungi, molds. algae and
other organisms proliferate, to the det-
riment of man and animals. Note, it
is not so much bacteria but other or
ganisms which proliferate. Disturbed
soil needs to be cultivated and cult
waited well. And yet the processes of
artificial cultivation are often product
i've Of vegetable forms of diminished
resistance, as note the phylloxera dis
ease Of cultivated grapes, the various
blights and the root growths so de-
structive of highly developed plant life.
''The soil is great conservator of
health, not menace; its life and death
processes are among the most wonder
full in nature. Back to the soil needs
to be health slogan as we'll as an eco
nomic one. But what kind Of soil?
The best answer is that of modern sci
entiflc farming, which conserves the
soil as we'll as man. Science was long
a very artificial thing; but it is now
being naturalized. And the encourag
ing thing is that science pays in eff
cheney and dollars and cents. Scien-
tific farming is not only the most prof
table, but it is one of the greatest con-
SENATORS Of public health.
And yet how foolish some santa
rians are! One alleged scientist re-
Gently stated that he would as soon
his children played with poison as with
earth, as all of the pathogenic bacteria
came from the soil. And another city
builder wishes that not one blade of
grass be allowed to grow within the
limits of the city. Children know bet
ter, and scientists should.
LET US go back to the soil and the
sun! Let us cease communicating the
soil and the atmosphere, and santa
ton will progress by leaps and bounds.
Sanitarians are, perforce of circum-
stances, compelled to make insanitary
conditions tolerable; but what a great
work could be done were these unnec-
| essary conditions removed and the
sanitarian allowed to devote his atten-
ton more to man in a proper environ
ment! Man himself is the great prob
lem, after all. This world is a place
where every prospect pleases and only
man is vile' Too long have we blamed
our troubles upon this good old earth
that we have abused so sorely. Let us
begin with ourselves and let the earth
wag along as the Creator intended it
| should"