Norwich bulletin., 1916-11-23
NovEM9ER BULLETIN OF STATE HEALTH BOARD
Says Fifty Per Gent. of School Chill
 dren Have Defective Teeth.


 nectfcut State Board of Health is de- voted in part to good teeth. Says the bulletin:
 Poor, broken-down teeth cannot properly masticate food-the stomach is required to haRdle this improperly prepared food until it balks-the en- tire system becomes disaExanged and the individual becomes nervous, irrit- able and ineficient-a physical wreck. "All for the want of a horse shoe nail"
 This is not all. The ragged roots and cavities in teeth harbor purify ing food and germs which slowly but surely poison the body. Many. cases of tonsilitis, rheumatism and heart dis ease result from infection from the teeth.
 Recent investigations made by the United States Public Health Service show that fify per cent. of school chill onstrates that destructive changes in teeth begin early in life, and irrepara- bie damage is done long before the cold reaches an age where it can real lze the value of good teeth.
 This places the responsibility for good teeth upon the parent. The ig- .norant or careless parent is to blame for this fifty per cent. of children hampered in mental and physical growth because of poor teeth
 It is our duty, therefore, to edu- cate parents as to the value of perfect essity of carefully watching their children. 7tiThey should be made to IeahEe that a few dollars paid to the dentists early in life will purchase for their children priceless jewels and health
 Where parents fail to fulfill this duty, the responsibility devolves up on thes state. The children are the future citizens and. upon their individ- ual health and efficiency depends the welfare of the nation.
 .4 iSehooe teachers can and are doing much in intoxicating habits of per- sonal cleanliness on the school child, but dental inspection in schools should be more generally carried out. This work should be promoted along the following lines:
 First. with the intent of locating the chilf'en with defective teeth ?. Second for the purpose of notifying careless or indifferent parents of ex istfng trouble, and ..
 Third, to provide such dental atten- tion as may be needed Tor children ex- tention as may be needed for chil- dren neglected because of indifference or poverty 't
 The early care of teeth is undoubt- edly one of our greatest health prob lems.
 . Il lie Dul1SIln aISOE COnLdlnS GXlractS from committee report American Public Health Association on the pres ent knowledge of Infantile Paralysis which disease caused such a scare hereabouts last summer. The report says: :1'
 is nicroorganism. a so-called vii rus which may be positively identi- fled at present only by its production of poliomye1tis in monkeys experi mentally inoculated. Such experi- mects have shown this virus to be present not only in the nervous tis- sues and certain other organs of per tons who have died of poliomyelitis, but also in the nose. mouth, and bow el' discharges of patients suffering from the disease. It has been prov en by similar experiments that healthy associates of poliomyelitis cases may harbor the virus in their noses and taroats.
 These experiments, together with the fact that monkeys have been in- fected by direct application of the virus to the mucous membrane of the nose and by feeding of the virus, are strong evidences that in nature infec- tion may be directly spread from per ] son to person.
 Observations on the occurrence o1 1 the disease might seem at first l thought to be inconsistent with this I ognized cases can serdom be traced l However, this may be adequately ex- pla;ned by the lack of means for de. tecting mild nonparalytic cases and | by the belief that healthy carriers o1 1 the virus and undetected cases arc | considerably numerous than frankly | para1yzed cases. l. | Many facts such as the seasonal in. cidence and rural prevalence of the disease, have seemed to indicate tha sorne insect or animal host, as yet un recognized, may be a necessary factoi in the spread sof poliomyelitis, bu tspecific evidence to this effect Is lack I ing, and sthe weight of present opinion inc1ines to the. view that poliomye lftis is exclusively a human diseas and is spread by personal contac whatever other cause may be found t, contribute to its spread. In persona contact we mean to include all tn usual opportunities, direct and indi
 rect, immediate or intermediate fo
 the transferenee of body discharge i as possibility that the infection ma:
 occur through contaminated food The incubation period has not beea definitely established in human be fings.@ The Information at hand indi
 eates that 1t is less than two weeks land probably in the great majority 6
 eases between three and eight days. 1~s IT the foregoing conception of tn Il disease is correct, 1t is obvious tha II effective preventive measures, ap preaching cofnplete control are i'm T practicable because isolation of rec oganized cases of the disease and re straint : upon their immediate asso
 ciates must fail to prevent the sprea
 of infection by unreeognized case ei andsscarriers. These difficulties <woul
 appaftr to be inherent in the nature c
 the disease. Nevertheless, we ma
 hope for the development of nor thorou gh .ss. owledge which will per unit of more effective control of tn
 disease than sis now practicable. o first importance is the more genera
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