The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-07-24
SURVIVING PALACES

Tradition gives way but slowly and
the adverse influence of past errors
Is still strongly felt, hence the neces.
sity for the educational features OF
public health work getting before the
public as this is one of the most i'm.
portant parts of State Health work
The more experienced the public
health officer becomes, the more he
realizes the need for re-education d
the public in general, and some doc
tors in particular, along hygienic and
sanitary lines. The surviving fall
lacies are all the more difficult to
erase or overcome due to the fact that
in many cases they contain some ele,
ment of half-truth. The sanitary
! Significance Of dirt has, no doubt,
caused more loose thinking than any
other topic. We are taught, instinct
lively, to abhor decaying organic mat
ter.
Murchison, in the middle of the 10Th
century, announced his "Pythogenic
Theory of Disease" which held filth
ito be dangerous, not as a possible We
hicle Of disease or predisposing con-
dition, but as the very source OF dis
ease The causitive agent of disease
was thought to arise de novo out of
filth, We now know that this theory
IS false, but it continues to have some
influence Some persons still believe,
unfortunately, that diphtheria or ty-
rhoid fever may develop from decay.
ing garbage or may be caused by. sew
Ter gas or other offensive doors.
We should endeavor to separate the
truth from the error in the general
condemnation OF filth and differentiate
between what is actually dangerous
and what is merely unpleasant or
mildly detrimental. Science now
shows that there are many kinds or
filth, some of which are extremely
dangerous, such as the undisinfected
excreta of typhoid or other intestinal
diseases, some of which are practical
~ harmless, fact now recognized in
the popular phrase good honest dirt"
and there are various degrees between
the two extremes. Above all, disease
spreading open privies are especially
dangerous. There are also the neg.
lected breeding places for disease
spreading flies, the stagnant water,
which furnishes a breeding place for
malarial mosquitoes, old out-houses
harboring rats and other vermin,
which are potential carriers of spe-
cifc disease.
Moreover, we may say dirt is at
least suspicious If not dangerous and
mainly for the reason that the dan
gerous kinds of dirt and the innocu-
GUS kinds may be all mixed together.
Usually dirty surroundings and dirty
habits go together Such facts show
that filth Is, generally speaking, inim-
ical to health and is subject for the
health officer. There Is difficulty,
however, in that there is In practice
little, II any, discrimination among
the different kinds OF filth. That Is to
say the health officer should recog-
nize what forms Of uncleanliness are
most dangerous and attack those first.
He will find that campaign for street
cleaning will result in but little as
vital factor in sanitation, while CAM
paign for sewers and the abolition of
open privies will result in great bene-
fit to the public in general
The false ideas about dirt may be
diverted from the more important
things. We now know that personal
uncleanlness Is the most dangerous
kind OF uncleanliness; and the people
should not forget this and clamor
about inadequate garbage collection,
plumbing inspection, or sewer gas and
fnu1 odors sucb az come from fertil-
izer factories OF course these odors
may exert a depressing influence, and
are Objectionable from an esthetic
viewpoint but we no longer consider
that there is any special connection
between sewer gas or odors and dis
ease.
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