Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-06-08
Home Health Hints
Reliable advice given in this
column on prevention and =
cure of disease. Put your ques-
ton in plain language. Your
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ton in plain language. Your
name will not be printed.
Ask The Bee to Help You.
Climate and Disease.
Climatic conditions, as is we'll
known, differ widely in various parts
Of the world, from which arises for
the most part great differences in
plant and animal life. Moreover,
practically everywhere, there are
seasonable variation more or less
pronounced, which have their cor
responding influence upon all living
things. In tropical and subtropical
countries, where high temperature
and q maximum amount OF moisture
predominant, the luxuriance OF the
foliage and the mustiformity Of ami
NAL life never ceases to, excite the
admiration aid wonder of the trav-
eler. While from the temperate zone,
in direction away from the equa-
tor, vegetable and animal life grows
less and less abundant and -four
ishes for a briefer period Of each
year, as we approach the frigid
zones. These diversities in climate
have given origin to forms of lie
peculiar to themselves, and attention
is directed to this most obvious
phenomenon because similar infiu-
ences play their part in the produce
ton Of disease the world over.
The diving agents of disease are
either animal or vegetable, and are
therefore subject to the same physi-
cal laws as govern higher forms of
life than they. Just as there are
plants and animals Indigenous to
the several regions, SO do we find
pathogenic agents in one region that
are not encountered in another.
Likewise, as many plants native to
temperate zones outgrow in size and
color all semblance to the original
when cultivated under atmospheric
conditions, so do certain diseases,
common in temperate ATTITUDES,
where they are relatively mild, as
sumo in the tropics virulence that
makes Of them a terrible scourge.
But here the simile Of fora and
fauna, and disease, ends. Tropical
plants, unless carefully nurtured, do
not prosper when transplanted in
temperate climates; whereas tropical
ulSCdScS uO, IL I'll al . LhS
least propitious when they are intro
duced. The microscopic agents of
disease are less sensitive in some
respects to physical agents than
plants, and moreover, are capable
Of ready adaptation to new environ
ment. Conquest, improved methods
Of travel, and shorter routes, have
brought the tropics to the very doors
of western nations, with the result
that in the great commercial benefits
accruing from easy intercourse there
has come a menace in the guise of
disease. Here and there tropical dis
eases have been introduced, and
while the number of such instances
is not great, and they have been sue
cessfully combatted, it has excited
alarm. And well might it: Europe
has a number of times been over
run with oriental plaques. Up to the
present these problems have been
dealt with chiefly in those countries
where such diseases prevail, but who
can say when from single i'm
ported case herculean task in
sanitation and preventative medicine
will not confront some nation? In
temperate latitudes, tropical heat is
seasonable for one or two months
each year, a time during which the
way is open for the spread of an
exotic disease. This danger the ma
tons are cognizant of, and special
commissions are forever investigat-
ing such diseases IN those regions
where they are epidemic; the reason
being to discover a preventive, for
it is obvious that the only safeguard
the peoples of temperate climates
have against foreign diseases is to
stamp them out in their home coun-
try. All the nations, also, on this
account have founded schools of
tropical medicine" where the cause
and prevention of tropical diseases
are studied, and where the same Is
taught to physicians and nurses
whose duty it may be, at some time,
to cope with them.
The Pfudery OF the Press.
All efforts to diminish the spread
of venereal diseases have encoun-
tered as real obstruction a peculiar
prudery in the American press. In
his recent work on 1.-THE American
Language" Mr.. H. Y. Mencken calls
attention to the fact that the de-
partment Of health in New York
City in 1914 announced that its ef-
forts to diminish venereal diseases
were handicapped because "in most
newspaper offices the words syphilis
or gonorrhea are still taboo and
without the use of these terms it is
almost impossible to correctly state
the problem" The army medical
corps in the early part of 1918 also
encountered the same difficulty;
most newspapers refused to print
it's bulletins regarding venereal dis
ease in the army. Zone of the
newspaper trade journals there
upon," Mencken says, sought the
opinions of editors upon the subject
and all of them save one declared
against the use of the two words
One editor placed the blame on the
postoffice, and another reported that
"at a recent conference of the
Scripps Northwest League Editors
it was decided that "the use of such
terms as gonorrhea, syphilis, and
even venereal diseases would not add
to the tone of the papers, and that
the term vice disease can be readily
substituted" Mr.. Mencken is of the
opinion that the most Pecksniff1an OF
American cities is Philadelphia, and
he cites as conspicuous example the
change by the Public Ledger of the
words "a virgin" to "a young girl
When the motion picture entitled
ITO He'll with the Kaiser" was ad-
vertised under government patron
age, all of the Philadelphia bill
boards changed the announcement
to read ITO H with the Kaiser"
Most of our readers know the nu-
merous synonyms used by the press
for syphilis, among them blood
poisoning" .ssocial eyil' and social