The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-03-23
MUTUAL RESPONSIBILITY
Man is mans worst enemy!

we are TeSpOuSlDle lUT Jul oiolh
ers well-being whether we admit the
fact or not. or whether il is mutually
agreeable. We have it in our power
to injure him and he has like
power over us. We may be mutual
menaces. and the worst of it is that
we don't realize it, or knowing it.
we don't care.
With rare exceptions the disease
and distempers that afflct us are
communicable by germ carriers from
one human host to the next victim. III
we fail to recognize the fact and act
accordingly by protecting others
from ourselves, We are guilty of
moral wrong.
The accepted theory of modern
medical science asserts that If tuber-
culosis, yellow fever, malaria, small
pox, typhoid fever. even colds. bron-
chitis and many other diseases could
once be stamped out everywhere,
humanity would be freed from them
for all time, because they are COM
municable only by the transference
Of germs, and the germ of each dis
ease can carry only that particular
disease and no other. But so long
as these various germs continue to
exist there is always the danger of
their spread to new victims.
This declaration of science is not
Utopian, because where proper and
intelligently administered precaution
is observed, there follows reducing
of the disease. even of the commoner
diseases, absolutely stamping them
out within prescribed sections or ter
ritories.
But to reach such results, scien-
fists and sanitists are powerless to
do more than to point out the way
It rests with individual men and
women, the people themselves. to
bring about the ideal conditions OF
universal healthfulness.
The germ of tuberculosis makes
the patient the source of injection
and 1t is evident that to reduce the
danger of infection. to prevent the
e,read of the disease. the germ must
be kept from reaching new victims
If such germ transferrence coulc
be prevented, even lessened, the pro-
portion of one tubercular patient tt
every seven of the population OF the
United States would be vastly
changed. 1t is matter of infinite
precaution and watchfulness. but II
is possible.
The same is true of typhoid feve1
and the entire feasibility Of reduc
ing the prevalence of the disease ma
been demonstrated in the United
States Army; also in the city of Jack
sonville, where the screening OF eartl
closets brought the number OF death
, from 81 in 1910, to IA in 1915. o
which six cases originated OUTSIDE
the city.
. But in disease of less fatal per
centages, there is the same danger
communication. II no one had
cold. no one else could have cold
, We do not catch cold" from draft
. or wet feet, but because we get tn
germ of a cold from some one VIII
, already harbors 1t in his system. IT.
hard to upset such cherished tradi
tions, but this IL one that should b
, banished from our minds.
, The germs of colds. bronchitis an
other affections Of the mucous mem
, branes of the throat. are expelled b
sneezing, coughing, even by EN-
phasized talking. OF course thes
{ germs don't retain their power 10
harm in the open air longer than
r few seconds but when person
r within two or three feet of such eS
posture the probable result Is anothe
e victim with a hard cold. In tn
t crowded church or theater or stree
e car, where people are necessaril
gathered in close proximity, the ind
$ vidual who fails to smother n
1 cough or sneeze in handkerchief
a guilty of an improperly not sane
{ toned in good society but more tina
e that, he is guilty of moral oifens
( against his neighbors who just siml
ly can't help themselves.
This idea of mutual responsibility,
especially in health matters, Is al
solutely unacceptable. It's as IKE
II as the fact that death is the fate
1 - holm