The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1919-06-06
MEETING OF 3
MEDIC ~,

o oSSslon of the Florida MATS iirS' days
conventi holding its forty-sixth an n1SO1
pansr n',on IN this city. Amon~ thn
was o. read at the afternoon sess;ns
MIDI; one concerning the practio o'ion
niG G"iI n.y. which was the oa'," OF
! So4 ssaeuSs!on and the subject for
year, of mothers and children tiffV--s-
berighted methods.
The morning session opened in the
Biscasne Yacht Club at 10 o'clock, the
NJ @. Seing called to order by DR..
I-@NsUlMS On COCK chairman of the COM
miffae arrangements. The o,,o,,;,,o. g.
prayer was 5fsSsa by Rev, ". W.
Faris, D. D., pastor ef<. SssSs 0f the
Presbyterian church. The addfes>Sll
welcome followed on behalf of ~
city. Acting Mayor j. T. Blackmon
turned over the keys of the city to the
physicians. DIR. E. K. Jaudon deliv4
cred an address of welcome on behalf
of the Dade County Medical Society.
DR.. F. j. Walter, of Daytona, presi-
responded to the address Of welcome
dent of the state medical association
in an appropriate manner. He spolSc
of the pleasure it gave the state boGy
to be in the Magic City and told of
his impressions of Miami.
After luncheon in the Hotel Urmey,
the afternoon meeting convened and
the first paper scheduled was Public
Health Activities, by o. H. Cox, M.
D., past assistant surgeon, U. S. pub
lie health service. This was highly
interesting topic and considerable
discussion followed. The need of
broader public health service, and the
educational features of the work We're
dwelt upon.
Need of Education.
In delivering his paper on "Syph- !
ills; The Public Understanding and
misunderstanding of it," DR.. H. E.
Whitford struck the keynote in the
need of public health service, educa-
ton in the schools to prevent the raw
ages of this disease and many other
things. He said he did not know
whether the statistics compiled were
corrct but this state has been classed
by the surgeon generals office as hav-
ing the greatest percentage of syph-
Ills of any in the United States.
DR.. Whitford says he was surprised
at the great strides made during the
war in stamping out this disease.
Heretofore wars had tended to in |
crease veneral diseases raher than
to abate them, he said. He spoke of |
the great work as being one of the |
most wonderful parts of the war and |
brought out the fact that more than
four million men had learned meth |
DDS to prevent the disease and also
to avoid it. He advocated the educa-
ton of the school children along these |
linees, gradually so they would not
look upon lewd conversation as a |
myth and something to be tried out,
and urged that they be told the effects
of such diseases as they grow up
More stringent control of prostitutes
also was advocated. 4
DR.. w. w. mcdonnell, city healAh
officer for Jacksonville, discussing
Dr. Whitford's paper, said the large
percentage of veneral diseases shown
in the report of the surgeon general
had probably been due to the thous-
ands of negroes who had stood the
Wasserman test at Camp Johnson,
and that the general public at large |
was probably not so largely infected. |
The turpentine camp negroes made |
this percentage so large in his opinion |
He said that one of the greatest rea-
sons the disease had not been checked +!
in this state was because of the lack !
of places to treat cases. There had |
been no place to get treatment free of !
charge when the patient was unable |
to pay for it, he asserted. Jackson
ville's laboratories had treated 945 |
people in three months, he stated,
with an average of 297 injections a
month and SIS cases a day, all of
whom could not pay for the treatment.
He stated every effort was being
made to reach mothers, and he advo-
Gated more advertising as well as the
cooperation of all physicians.
DR.. Gwinn spoke of the educational
film being sent over the country by
the government, entitled: Fit to
Fight" and said it was doing wonder
full work. He advocated the use of
more pictures of this kind for the ed
ucation of the people. Il
DR.. DuPuis also spoke on the sub
ject and advocated broader aducation
in the schools and cited the fact that
the old mythical Illusions in this re-
gard ought to be done away with.
tuberculosis Talk.
DR.. Hickson next spoke on the work
of the State Anti tuberculosis Asso-
citation and stated that there We're
three sections of the work, the first
being executive, the second education
and the third nursing. He spoke of