The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1917-08-30
CLEAN FOOD ESSENTIAL FOR HEALTH.
Little Talks on Health and Hygiene by
Samuel G. Dixon, N. D., IL. D.,
Commissioner of Health.

| Ne'sS sSSSNs h'NSiS ~ OhS VI shS
weasel's. They kill quite liber-
ally of their prey when the op-
portunity offers and then allow it
almost to decay before they feed
upon it. Primitive man hunted
and devoured his food much like
the lower animals.
Later in the history of man
he learned to make fire and
cook his food, and it is now quite
evident from what we find in the
Indian mounds that it became
the custom, for instance. of the
American Indians to have great
clam bakes on the Atlantic Coast.
Sometimes in these mounds we
find bones of deer, showing that
they had more than ane kind of
foodstuff.
AS relics of a still later age, we
find in the mounds various little
implements that were evidently
used for handling and serving
the food.
This begins to approach con-
ditions in the present state of
civilization that we now find in
the large centers of population.
Thousands of people make their
sole livelihood preparing food for
the table and taking care of the
dishes and the serving Of the
food, from the small boarding
houses to the enormous hotels.
In these places the health of
those thus employed has not had
any police supervision and yet
we have known that commInica-
lie diseases have been on tne ra-
pid increase and horrible di seases
have been passed from one per-
son to another until they have
become a great menace to the
health, happiness and efficiency
of our people.
The State of Pennsylvania,
fortunately, in 1915 succeeded in
passing a law thai requires those
in charge of restaurants, board
ing houses, hotels, etc., to look
after the health of their people.
The law handles it in this way,
that it holds the proprietor of
those places for employing people
who have these dangerous dis
eases that can be communicated
to their customers through the
foodstuff itself, or through the
dishes, forks, knives, spoons, etc.
Cooks and walters cannot, under
our new law, pursue their occu-
pations without satisfying those
they propose to serve that they |
are clean from these diseases the |
law is trying to prevent being
thus spread. The moment this
new lay was signed by the
Governor, a large number of
walters left their places in the
Pullman coaches on the railroad
and from the great railroad
restaurants, as well as from the
large and active hotels.
This became well known and
the newspapers and journals en-
deavored to spread this news
that the people might wake up
to what had existed and what
the new law proposed to protect
them from.
When the bill asking for this
law was introduced in the General
Assembly some of the great rail-
road companies that have large
restaurants at their termini
appreciated that it was a great
sanitary measure and before the
bill became law they adopted
its good points in the manage
ment of their great eating cent
ers throughout the United States.
This law, like other new laws
that mean to bring about a great
change in public policies, has to
be sanely enforced, and the old
system of preparing food and
washing of dishes in hotels and
restaurants must not be too
suddenly destroyed. The time,
fortunately, is here when the
public has become educated and
the people are demanding that
the spirit of this good law be
carried ont Some hotels advar-