The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1916-11-09
EDUCATION IN SANITATION,

knowledge rightly used is a
power for good. ......@......
Florida s State Board of Health
has believed for a good many
years that the prevention OF dis
ease is considerably more sensible
than to permit it to come and then
try to get out of trouble by curing
it. A large share of its efforts for
the public good has been along the
line of education in sanitary
matters, with the idea that a
knowledge of the conditions that
invite disease would be forearmed
against it.
Not many centuries have passed
since diseases especially the cpl
denies which have ravaged Eu-
rope and decimated its population,
were thought to be an unavoidable
visitation of the wrath of an ang-
cred deity, and not many decad-
es ago our grandparents regP"a"d
disease and death as a sort of
Christian discipline for those who
were spared and an awful fate lin
the majority of cases) for those
who were not. Doctors in those
bygone days had reputation of
having some mysterious partner
ship with the devil and they had
to keep up the deception or admit
the truth that they didn't know
a great deal more about disease
than did their trusting and fear
ing patients.
But the up-to-date physician, in
cluding the profession of the last
80 to so years, recognizing the u
niversal law of cause and effect,
has applied that principle to his
study of disease, and with this
turn in methods began the sue
cessful fight against human phys
ical ills, and incidentally the pro-
fession has more savory stand
ing in the estimation of the people.
One after another the mysteries
of disease have been revealed
their transmission from one indiv-
idual to another and the conse-
quent spreading of infection, and
means of stopping such ravages
have been studied and solved.
With such knowledge epidemics
have been averted and stopped alb
ruptly when started.
OF course, the language of the
up-to-date doctor abounds in mys-
teriOus words and terms, not UNI
derstandable and hardly translat-
able to the ordinary layman, and
all the more mysterious because
meangingless to the unenlighten-
ed. This Technology has seemed a
sort of entrenchment behind
which the profession made last
stand for the preservation Of its
sanctity and dignity and reputa-
tion for unfathomable wisdom.
But these same doctors, partiou-
larly the older members of the !
profession have awakened at last /
to the idea that. in order to get |
the best results for the greatest |
number. the lavman must be taken |
into their confidence and educated |
to cooperate intelligently with the !
profession. For an intelligent man |
works a good deal more efficiently |
if he knows what he is doing and |
why he is doing it. And so the
doctors have been translating
their technicalities into under
Standable English and have been
telling their patients the why of
treatment methods.
And more than this, as the doc
tor scientists have discovered the
causes of disease, they have been
telling the people of their findings
and have invited a partnership
for the suppression or the preven-
tion of disease. The plan worked
from the beginning and the sick
and death rates began to show
signs of decrease. 1t developed
the profession or science of sani-
tation. 1t demonstrated the i'm
portance of cleanliness of person
and surroundings and showed the
relation between filth and disease.
1t went a long way to prove that /
the doctors were practically help
less to maintain any high degree
of public health unless the public
helped.
Florida's s Health Board has been
among the pioneers in this coun-
try in the effort to Systematically
educate the people and only those
who can't read the English Ian
guage need be ignorant, in this
state on matters Of sanitation.
But you can't make the horse
drink if he doesn't want to. Flor