The Leader, enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1915-1921, 1916-05-31
TO PROMOTE HEALTH
OF GEORGIA PEOPLE
NEXT LEGISLATURE HAS
OPPORTUNITY OF PRO-
NOTING THE HEALTH
OF THE STATE.
{ By Emory r. Park, NJ. DIS

"The protection of the public
health is the first duty of a states
man." said Disraeli, and Glad
stone we'll said that upon the
health of the people depends the
wealth of the nation" There are
many opportunities open to the
statesmen of the coming legisla-
ture in the direction Of promoting
the public health of Georgia.
Among them are the following:
The vital statistics law was
passed in 1914, but no appropria-
ton has yet been made for the
carrying on of the work. This
unfortunate circumstance should
be corrected without further de-
lay. There are also certain chang
es which should be made in this
law, for, if it is put into opera
ton as it Is now written, it will
entail unnecessary hardShips up
on the people and be unnecessar-
| lily difficult and expensive to oper-
ate. This WI result in making
the law unpopular and in very
loW-grade statistics. Morbidity
statistics are of greater value to
public health workers than are
mortality statistics; yet, no men
ton OF collecting morbidity stat
iStiCs has been made The fol
lowing will show the advantage
OF morbidity over mortality re-
ports:
If there are, for instance, ten
cases of typhoid fever occurring
in community and eight get
we'll and two die, mortality re-
ports would only show the ones
that persisted morbidity Stats
tics however, would show all ten
cases. By all means morbidity
statistics should be collected as
we'll as statistics of mortality.
England and Australia freed
themselves of rabies by passing
and enforcing dog mnzzling acts,
and they place imported dogs in
quarantine for a sufficient length
of time to determine whether or
not it will be safe to let them
roam at large. Dog muzzling acts
are not only valuable for the pro-
lection of humans against hydro
phobia, but also animals as we'll.
Many dogs, under present condi-
tons in Georgia, develop hydro
Iphobia and die horrible deaths or
are killed and beheaded. During
the past three years there have
been 2,765 Georgia citizens treat
ed by the State Board of Health
laboratory for mad dog bites, and
there have also been 49S animals
that have received treatment.
There is no way to tell just how
many animals have had to be kill
ed throughout the state as a re-
suit of our not protecting them
against this malady. 1t is clearly
high time that we were doing
something toward freeing Our
state of this scourge.
! Water pollution occurs in di-
rect ratio to density of popula-
ton. There was time, perhaps,
when all Our water supplies were
practically pure, but with the in
crease of population has come in
crease in water pollution, and this
pollution will continue to increase
as time goes on until our drinking
water will be little better than
sewag" unless adequate steps are
taken 10 prevent it. The State
Board of Health should be given
the necessary power and funds to
enable it to safeguard the water
SUPPLIES of the state.
Smallpox has become so wide
spread that it is out of the ques-
ton to try to put it under control,
much less stamp it out, by quar-
antine (by "pesthouses"). The
situation in this matter has about
resolved itself into: be vaccinat
ed or have smallpox. Germany,
that great exponent of efficiency,
has stamped smallpox from her
empire by compulsory vaccina-
ton law. If this can be done in
Germany it can be done in Geor.
gia.
This state is spending $4,000
yearly for the maintenance of an
academy for the blind. This is
all well and good in so far as
it goes, but would it not be
splendid thing to so to work and
eliminate the causes which make
the existence of such an academy
necessary? Over 50 per cent of
all blindness is preventable. Why