The Adair County news., 1915-01-06
HEALTH OFFICERS COLUMN.
BY u. L. TAYLOR.

|
newspaper business to write what he
calls salutatory, in which he lays
down his platform. He tells in that
platform what he proposes to do.
What policies he proposes to advocate,
and what he will oppose, so that the
people can tell what they may expect
from the paper. 1 have not gone into
the newspaper business, but the editor
of the Adair County News has very
kindly given me permission to use one
column each week during the year 1915
for the promotion of the public
health. 1 have been in the habit of
visiting the schools in the county each
year, and talking to the teachers and
the scholars on the subject of santa
tion and right living. In these talks
1 have audiences of from 10 to so, and
1 visit them only once year, but in
: this new arrangement, l will talk to
an audience of several thousand, and
talk to them once every week. ! am
a pioneer in this kind of work. No
other health officer in the State, or
out of it for that matter, has ever un-
dertaken anything like it before. l
was the first in the State to visit the
schools. At an annual meeting of the
Kentucky Medical Association I or 8
years ago in Louisville, some member
in talk, said he thought it would be
we'll to have the health officer do this
thing, when told him that l had al
ready been doing it for two years. 1
have continued in that business ever
since that time. l was the first in
any of the counties round about to be-
gin to fumigate the houses where con-
sumptives have died and where other
people had been sick from other pre-
ventable and germ diseases. This has
been great work, but the audiences
have been too small. l have never
been able to get the parents out to
hear me, and the trustees very rarely.
+ The teachers have always given rue
their support, and done what they
could to promote the public health.
and feel assured that they will con.
tinue to do SO, but the Adair County
= News reaches an audience, including
all the members of the families where
7 the paper goes, of several thousand
each week. In these articles L shall
aim to discuss all preventable diseases,
and give the latest phases of them,
and how they may he prevented.
/, shall undertake to give the causes OF
all these diseases, and how they may
be avoided. / am not in the practice
of medicine, and don't propose to try
S to cure any body that is sick, but will
continually look after the sanitary
surroundings of the houes, and try tC
e keep others from getting sick. In the
4 building of new school houses, shall
e not surrender my lawful right, TO look
after location, construction and espec
tally the ventilation of them. and set
that they are built according to thu
teachings of modern sanitation,
shall let no false modesty deter nj
from telling the people what the!
!, ought to do to be saved from the raw
II ages of disease 1 shall not undertak,
n to say sharp, smart things, but d.
what L can to build up strong pub
. lie sentiment throughout the count,
= in favor of the public health. 1 ma,
4, tell an anecdote occasionally to illus
trate some point l wish to enforce
but my writings shall be as solid as
IL can make them, and my selection
l. from other writer's shall be after tn
"a same order. L want the cooperation
of all the teachers, and am sure
d shall have that. L want the cooper
,. alton of all the trustees, and believ
q l shall have that, and / know that
shall have the CO. operation Of the su
perintendent of the public schools.
4 want the help of the doctors and tn
" registrars, but more than all these
u want the help of the magistrates, TIL
y county officers and the men and won
&c en- of the whole county. In my ridin
over the county shall be continual
Or handicapped by bad roads. For NOR
s. than sixty years have been travelin
le through the mud, and that has AWAY
D. been my worst trouble, and l ca
e truthfuily say that l have ridden owe
this county more than any other liz
;, ing man. hope that before man
:. moons the people will wake up to tn
- fact that they are needing better road
:. as badly as they are needing bette
. health. | shall prosecute the hoo
worm campaign, and try and get tn
people in better state OF health.
it