The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-08-01
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CLEANLINESS AND DISEASE
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Board of Health Bulletin)

Be clean If you would be health
This is one of the commandments
of the Gospel of the modern .sanitar-
ian. 1t is the basic foundation on
which rest all the laws and rules UNI
lder which the up-to-date physician
makes his fight for the physical well
fare of his patients. It is the most
often repeated and the most empha-
sized of the orders that he issues to
his clients. for he knows that recov-
cry from disease and from wounds
and the preservation of normal health
conditions are next to impossible In
the presence of uncleanliness.
In the fight against infantile para.
lysis, which is occupying the most
strenuous attention of the medical pro-
fession in the United States, this law
has assumed new and added signif-
icance. Admittedly the disease is
lstill very much of mystery, In its
origin, its progress and methods of
development and as the most effective.
treatment. but from their observation.
the medical men Of the country agree
that its virulence is greater in the
midst of unhygienic surroundings than
under those where care is taken to
create and preserve the proper condi-
tions of clean living.
In this respect the disease follows
exactly in line of all Affections that
are known to be of germorigin, in
deed, of all physical arrangements to
which humans are the legitimate
heirs.
Their is no better preventative
against disease than proper hygiene,
none more essential and the tenn
peratures of summer, whether in the
North or the South, call for extraor-
Urinary precautions in this direction.
The reason is that putrefaction and
decay are more rapid, as is all chem
iical reaction, under heat than under
the lower temperatures of the cool
er season. The breeding of flies and
mosquitoes, the carriers of disease
producing germs, is favored by sum-
mer heat. whether 1t be in Florida or
in Maine.
| 1t Is only natural that under the
stress of emergency particular atten-
ton should be given to cleaning up
the premises, to the prompt and reg
ular removal Of garbage and refuse,
but here's something to remember.
The influence of unclean physical
surroundings, like that of moral un-
cleanness, is not Immediately cut off
by sudden reformation. 1t remains
for time to produce evil results in
spite of improved surroundings. Our
bodies, like our souls, must be rid
of the poison of evil before they can
absorb full value of healthful sur
roundings.
1t follows that we should always be
in state of preparedness against dis
ease of whatever nature, mainly by
the preservation of normal hygienic
conditions, by habit of regular eating,
bathing and clothing adapted to the
personal occupation, by plenty of
sleep and by indulgence in no form
of excess. Persons who acquire and
follow habit of regular normal living,
unpunctuated by even occasional riots
OF excess, are best armed against dis
1 ease, even though they be surrounded
by unhygienic conditions, but even
such are subject to the poison of dirt,
and no one is reasonably safe unless
he is armed by personal cleanliness
and by uncontaminated surroundings.
In the conditions that have a pos
sible menace for Florida during the
present summer, the matter of prop
er personal hygiene and hygienic cir
cumstances is Of the utmost import
ance. and by preserving such condi-
lions the people of Florida can most
effectively aid the health authorities
In their fight against invasion by In
fantile paralysis