Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-02-18

Ellis HuDllC h6alLn Law became
effective in Sumter county, the
Times Recorder promised several
articles from Rep. r. c. Ellis, of
Tiff, the author of the measure.
This is the first article, which tells
the people of the county and state
many interesting facts concern
ing the law
Editor Times Recorder:
II has Leen several years since l
moved awty, but I still love Americas
and Sumter county, and am delighted
TO know you have adopted the Public
Health Law in Sumter county. The
proper enforcement of this law will
not only prevent sickness and death,
but will also save the people of the
county more money than any other de-
partment of the county government.
The discovery of disease-causing
germs and the PRONUNCIATION of the
Germ Theory" in 1850, changed for
the most part, the whole course of
medical science Prior to that dis
covery the medical profession sought
only to cure disease. Prophylaxis or
sanitation, seeks to prevent disease.
1t is true that both quarantine and
prior to this discovery, but to only. q
limited extent and the principles on
which they are based were not known.
Sanitation or preventive medicine,
then, may well be called new science.
When science learned that germs
caused diseases it could then go to
work to eradicate the cause and pre-
vent the disease. Typhoid fever may
be prevented by either of these two
methods. The cause can be removed
by proper sanitation, or we can Kill
the house fly, which is the chief means
or spread, or kill the germ by vacci-
nation. BY the use of these two meth
DDS, Pasteur, the great French scien-
list says man can one day Danish all
germ diseases off the face of the
earth. The most eminent scientists
Atoday' say that there is now in the pos
, session of medical men enough know
ledge, if properly applied, to Danish
from the earth practically every
known germ disease. But while the
medical profession posses this know
ledge, it has no adequate means Of
applying it for the benefit of mankind
at large. The family doctor is called
in only after the person is sick, where
as the disease should have been pre-
vented altogether by the application
of the principles of the science of san
itation before he got sick at all.
What Sanitation AccOmplishes.
The family physician studies disease
ard treats it from the standpoint OF
the bedside of the individual. Santa
ton studies disease and treats it from
the standpoint of the community. This
treatment of disease from the COM
munity standpoint must of necessity
be done by the government, and is
called public health work. These two
methods of dealing with the disease
have created two different classes of
medical men, one being the common
e. ,nL1 he haI
public health officer. The Georgia
Public Health Law provides the state
and county machinery necessary to
apply modern sanitary methods in the
prevention of disease.
Great epidemics used to sweep into
a country from abroad leaving death
and destruction in their path, Chol-
era in Japan in 1885 took 100000 lives
and cost 100000, 100000; yellow fever
in the United States in 1873 took al
large toll in lives and entailed loss
Of 500, 000,0 100000. The Bubonic
plague has almost depopulated Ger
tain sections of Asia in recent years,
not to mention the black plague OF
EUROPE in the Middle Ages. Science
low knows how to combat these dread
diseases, and we no longer fear
seouTges of yellow fever of the plague,
because the United States Public
Health service stands. as it truly is,
an army along our frontiers to keep
aout these dreaded internal enemies,
(which exact toll of human life so
large and entail an economic loss So
great that the cost in life and property
of the few incursions of the plague,
cholera and yellow fever, was so small
ia comparison, even before effective
methods were discovered for dealing
with them, as hardly to be reckoned in
the class of destroyers. These other
diseases are so common that their
ravages excite no comment, and we do
not realize the enormous destruction
&c iun,sn life they cause nor the