The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1916-07-13
ADOPTS ONLY PROVEN METH.
obs OF COMBATING
DISEASE
Is Acusfomed TO Criticism, Which
Differs from Fauif-Finding Has
Grown in Effectiveness and
Takes a High Rank

Between criticism and fault
4 finding there is a wide gap. Fol
many years Florida s State Boarc
of Health and its Health Officer
have been targets for both. The
: Executive Officer of the Boare
stands responsible at all times fol
any and everything written by
him or inserted in the publications
of the Board with his approval
and furthermore, criticism is al
ways welcome, even invited
Fault-fnding is unfair because II
only points out supposed defect
more or less imaginary, and
suggests no remedy. Often il
charges its self-judged culprits
with statements that have new
or been made, even occa:
sionIlly when fired against the
Florida State Board of Health or
its Executive Officer, with declar-
) ations, the direct opposite of those
that have been made and repeat
edly emphasized.
The Board is accustomed to
+ criticism. For a dozen years aft
er its organization, in 1889, sue
cessive legislatures had the habit
of moving to abolish the Board,
and the futile scheme was Matched
up spasmodically thereafter, but
always there has been the balance
of wisdom that defeated it. AS
the Board grew in experience and
effectiveness, as smallpox was
] confined to narrower limits of ter
ritory and virulence, as yellow fe-
!. yer was controlled and banished,
and other general prevalence of
disease became less frequent, the
work w the Board has been recog-
inized ard appreciated, and it
would be bold man in these
years to suggest that it be wiped
out. The press of the state with
rare and increasingly rarer excep-
tions, has generally supported the
work of the constituted authoriti-
es in charge of the physical well
fare of Florida. Beyond the bor-
ders of the State, the work
has been appreciated perhaps
even more than south of the st.
Marys River. The health officer
of a neighboring commonwealth
has been credited with the state
ment that Florida has the only
board of health worthy of the
name in all the Southern States.
It's accomplishments in closing
and keeping closed the doors of
one of the principal entrances in
to the United States against cpl
demic diseases from the Islands of
the Southern seas, has been extoll-
ed by health authorities of the ma
tion.
Never has this Board advocated
the use of methods Of eradication
or prevention of disease which
have not been fully proven to be
correct and received the stamp of
approval of the highest scientific
authorities of the world. 1t has
kept in closest touch with the de-
velopements of medical science,
believing that the people of Flori-
da whose health interests have
been committed to it as a most sol
emn responsibility, are entitled to
the benefits of the best things that
the scientific world has to give,
Never has it Experimental"
with unproven theories. Not un-
til it had been demonstrated that
the yellow fever germ is carried
by the mosquito, did it advocate
and practice methods in accord
ance with that demonstration. By
the use CT those methods it has
stamped out in its beginning more
than one menaeing epidemic, and
sometimes in the face of the most
violent opposition and threats of
personal violence to the Board s
Executive Officer.
Never until the anti-typhoid
vaccine had been confirmed as an
efficient preventative of the dis
ease, did this Board urge its use in
this State, and then it spread
broadcast the knowledge by every
means in its power, that lives
might be saved and the disease