The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-01-26
HOLDS DISEASE
NOT NECESSARY
DR.. c. n. MAYO SHOWS THAT
MANY OF OUR ILLS ARE
PREvENTABLE
CANCER KILLS MORE THAN WORLD WAR
Famous Rochester Surgeon Gives
Views or Health of Nation
and Its Needs
BY Charles II, MAYO. M. d.

surgeon i'll the world today is un
~doubtedly DR.. Charles H. Mayo, of
Rochester, Mimi. To him have
come men and women from every
part of the world and the Mayo
hospital has become a world insti-
tuition. His advice is sought by
medical mel in all parts of the
civilized globe and he is generally
considered the last resort in surgery
when all other means have failed.
His article should be read with care
full attention.
Death, although inevitable to all
multicellular life, be it plant or ami
NAL, is often untimely from disease.
The efficiency of nations largely
depends on a full appreciation of
disease as a cause Of sickness in all
types of life, and it's control or pre-
vention. Germany doubled her popu-
lation in W generations and restored
her wornout land by scientific care
until it's acreage production far exceed
ed our own. 1t is generally conceded
that disease is largely Unnecessary
not only contagious diseases but
also the common diseases which
make invalids Of so many persons,
That diseases of plants, grains
trees, animals and persons are due
to microbic action is becoming gen.
orally known. A few persons are
mentally so constituted that they
refuse to believe that the same
agents cause diseases of people. 1t
is fortunate indeed that there are
more helpful than harmful microbes,
since higher life could not exist with
out the single-celled organisms
Many such organisms are used in the
arts and sciences, in the making Of
dyes n fermented products, in the
household in the making of bread
through the action of the yeast. The
avoidance of them in the preservation
OF fruit and vegetables can we'll be
comapred with the methods of modern
aseptic surgery. In each cubic inch
Of soil there are millions of bacteria,
acting as chemical soil solvents for
plant root absorption. Some varieties
fix the nitrogen Of the air for the
nourishment of plants, for example,
alfalfa; Henry Ford plans to obtain
practically the same results at Muscle
Shoals by electrically fixing the nitro
gen of the air.
In recognition of the fact that all
h;nhnr 1ifo 80 ,t~,--1;x- 1900. a.
destroying agents which have an
equal desire to live, we spray and
fumigate plants and orchards to
destroy insects, moulds and d~estruc-
tive germs, or to maintain a temper
allure for food, such as milk, which
prevents the growth of ~deleterious
microbes. The farmer sprays his
potato vines, cleans his seed grain,
and treats it to prevent mould, rust
and smut, as a result of research work
on agriculture. Such studies have also
shown that wheat rust is carried
through the winter on a barberry
shrub, that botulism, a deadly poison
and product of bacterial action, de-
velopes in badly preserved olives as
well as in other foods. Such microbes
kill, if eaten, and cause the disease
Timber neck" in chickens, although
they are often carried in the intest-
ines of hogs without apparent harm.
Great economic losses occur from
diseases Of domestic animals, such
as contagious pneumonia, hemmorr-
hagic septicemia, and black-leg. Vac
cination has proved very effective in
cases Of blackleg, and the use of
vaccine and serum prevent hog cholera
If employed before the disease super
venes.
tuberculosis is a great destroyer
of cattle, hogs and chickens, and the
State agricultural departments are
doing a great deal to eradicate the
disease. Infected milk is a frequent
cause of tuberculosis of the lymph
glands of the necks Of children as
well as of intestinal tuberculosis,
which leads to prolonged ill-health
and handicaps them early in life. Our
larger cities compel the inspection of
diaries and the testing of cows for
tuberculosis, DR. the pasteurization of
milk to protect children against milk
borne diseases. Many epidemics of
contagious sore throat and typhoid
have been traced to contaminated
milk. Man is subject to CHAMBERS con-
veyed from diseased horses and to
actinomycosis and carbuncles from
diseased cows.
Within a few decades the world has
recognized certain carriers of disease,
such as the mosquito in disseminating
yellow fever and malaria. The lack
Of this kn0wloduo lod "a loilaa.o H.. 49,