The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1915-11-19
Sanitary Preparedness.

An ounce OF prevention is worth
ton of cure!
J The cost of disease prevention COM
pared with that of it's cure is as one
to a hundred perhaps thousand,
and it's lot surer in a large pro-
portion of the physical ills that at
fiict humans. An attack of typhoid
fever brings an expense anywhere up
to thousand dollars for doctors,
medicines, nurses and from six
weeks to three months of lost time
and every man must figure for him
self what that is worth.
You can be insured against typhoid
for a dollar or two and, in Florida
for nothing if you can't find the dol
lar. The same is true of num-
Der of other diseases-smallpo ma
laria, tetanus, diphtheria, even
against having a cold with it's vary
ing complications of grip influenza
and the rest. So it seems no one
really need be very sick in Florida UNI
less he, like the old negro, "enjoys
po health" This state has recently
been declared on the highest authori-
ty to have the lowest death rate of
all the Southern States, yet too few
people in Florida die of old age, too
many die before they ought to be
worn out.
The Southern Medical Association,
which recently met at Dallas, Texas,
spent an entire session discussing
sanitary preparedness, which some
speaker declared to be greater ma
tional need than military prepared
ness. DR.. Rupert Blue, Surgeon
General of the Public Health Ser
vice, one of the highest. authorities
in the nation on sanitation, empha-
sized the Importance of maintaining
the body of man constantly "on a war
footing against disease" The eff
cheney of sanitation, enforced though
it may be, was aptly illustrated by
the results of measures adopted in
the United States Army and Navy.
which in the former prevented a sin
gle death from typhoid through an
entire twelve months. A plea was
made for like protection in civil life.
Florida's Board of Health has bee l
for quarter century a pioneer IN
the fight for better sanitation, for
sanitary preparedness, and the learn
ed men at Dallas were discussing
matters that Florida's health officials
have made household words in this
state for years. For they have ad-
vocated not only the employment of
special disease preventives as they
have been worked out and proved by
medical science, but they have taught
and insisted that proper sanitation is
the best weapon against diseases of
all kinds for it puts the body in the
best condition to make the fight.
They have urged and argued that
cleanliness of person, of habits and of
surroundings induces the physical
power of resistance, which in itself
is the best preparedness.
The clean man, physically and NOR
ally, the man who lives his life not
in excuses but in moderation, the
man who at sixty looks, and prac-
tlcally is, twenty years younger, such
man is accepted by the insurance ex-
aminers, our severest critics, as the
best risk. He is willing to sacrifice
appetites and passions for something
worth while. He does not share thu
sentiments Of the old lady, who be-
ing advised as to her diet, replied 81
don't want to eat what is good for
me. | want to eat what I'd ruhter.
There is no lack in Florida of edu.
caiOnal opportunity as to sanitation
nor how it may be accomplished
The dangers peculiar to the climate
have been described thousand times
and the press of the state has beer
and iC inSnipal IN, +ho,o li,o,+;or, |,
the highest motives and intelligence
Perhaps more than in colder ATTITUDES
there is here disease-danger from
germ-carrying insects, and the las
twenty years have heightened the
list of such diseases. If Florida couc
Danish all diseases that are carried
by the several varieties of flies AM
mosquitoes, the doctors, or most %
them, would have to practice law Of
go to farming.
Therefore, Florida's hardest fgh
| for health should be directed agains
| these insects, to destroy condition:
| that favor their breeding, to screen
I them away from food, from pantry
| and kitchen and from the person eat
ing, working or sleeping. A fly i
| filthier than buzzard and a mosqul
| to proportionate to his size, more poi
| sOnous than a rattlesnake. Then VIII,
| come into contact with them when i
isn't necessary?
And in all the fight for better san
itation, or in our failure to make an,
fight at all, it is as true as whel
first questioned centuries ago that w,
are our brothers keepers. 1t be
comes a matter to be settled with on
| own consciences whether our selfish
ness shall imperil their safety. ]
might be as well to remind ouraelva
Of the converse proposition, that gu
rother is our keeper, and if his greco
or his neglect shall menace our well
being, the remedy is in our ow,
/ hands, peaceful if possible, by fore
, e nod J.. Co.. D.--..L &C ~