Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1917-10-26
The PUBLIC HEALTH

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chine, not even the human one, no
matter how perfect, can run or be run
continuously; it will wear out. While
the famous "One-hoss Shay"
"Went to pieces all at once
All at once and nothing first
Just as bubbles, when they burst"
Neither human beings nor any other
class of deicately complicated ma
chinery usually passes out of existence
in this manner. In the natural course
of events some one piece, some one or
gan gives way, and in spite of good
care and clever management the liv-
ing mechanism breaks down and
death ensues. Though wear and tear
do gradually bring about the hating,
irregular movements Of age and the
crust of rheumatism" may invade the
joints and injure the bearings, too
often the real cause is outside of the
machinery. Too many farmers. over
this country leave costly and valua-
BILE machinery standing in the fields to
rust and weather away, but they are
few in proportion to the human be-
ings who care even less for the most
delicate and complicated machine
he. hpr 4La
oretically death should be the final
stoppage of all the machinery by gen.
eral debility Of each and every organ
and part; it practically is brought
about in most persons by the destruc-
ton through pure carelessness of
some one organ, which thus deranges
the whole body. Very often this care
lessness is not fault of the individ-
ual who is injured, but of the general
public among whom this individual
chances to reside. 1t is becoming
more and more evident as we study
the causes Of death that the science
of health is but in it's infancy. An
other term at present coming into use
for the science of health is Sanitary
Science. The principle function of
this new science is the prevention of
premature death. A remarkably small
percentage of all the deaths Of human
beings are caused by natural causes,
and all other causes can be classed
as premature. At present we are not
in position to undertake very much
supervision over many of the consti-
tutional forms of disease, yet even
these may often be prevented by pro-
per care in surrounding the ailing in
dividual with the right environment.
| However, when we come to the envir-
onmental disease the problems direct
ly open to sanitary science are varied
and numerous. Accidental and vio-
lent causes of Deaths falls, freezing,
burning, drowning, murders, fall more
under the care of officials especially
designated to prevent such environ
mental troubles and in any event eff
feet but a small proportion of the gen
eral population. The great majority
are, however, preventable under pro-
per regulations Of living.
The present great field where SAM
tation must be employed is that Of
the infectious diseases, and by this
term we here include many diseases
that do not at the time of their
occurrence cause the death of the in
dividual They often do so injure
some organ or tissue Of the body that
it will not thereafter properly perform
it's part in maintaining the health and
well-being of the individual Sooner
or later other overworked parts be-
come involved in the general destruc-
ton that must take place when one
part of the mechanism continues to
be faulty and death occurs; caused in
reality by an environmental condition
that may have occurred but for a few
moments many years before. A con-
dition due to lack of enforcing
some simple sanitary measure well
known to all. Later we will hope TO
illustrate this with cases that will
bring the vitalness of the matter
home to all of us.
The necessity of sanitary laws is
now apparent to the majority of the
population, but the necessity of the
enforcement of those when applied di-
rectly to you and me does not always
seem to be so apparent. Education
along the lines of the necessity Of
sanitation is needed in every com
munity, and it will be the purpore of
the articles which follow to endeavor