Evening star., 1925-09-01
Health Officers Report.

health officer is gratifying in many
ways, but especially so in the matter
of infant mortality. he says that
Washington has the lowest death rate
in its history among infants under
one year old. The death rate for white
infants was ell per cent and 1892
for colored, an average rate of 75.7.
The lower death rate of infants is
due to the improved education of
mothers in the care of babies, and for
this improved understanding great
credit goes to medical science. An in
creasing number of prospective moth
ers go to hospitals for the great event,
and this makes for the safety of
mother and babe. More exacting reg
ulutions of dairies and the milk sup
ply contribute to infant and adult
health, and the purity of the Districts
drinking water and the extension of
filtered water service play a part in
the general situation.
The expansion of Washington into
new territory is preventing unwhole
some crowding of population. There
is increasing recognition of the impor
tance of sanitation and year by year
the standards of sanitation are raised.
Today poor people have sanitary con-
veniences and safeguards which most
well-to-do people did not have a gen
GRAFTON or two ago, or even few
years ago. The Importance of knowl
edge of sanitation and sanitary living
surroundings is shown by the differ
ence in the death rate of white and
colored infants. While the white citi-
zens of the District are concerned
with correct living and health meas
ures for all the people. the matter of
the higher death rate of colored in
fants is of particular concern to col
ored people and is a point on which
leaders of the negro race and all its
better informed and more progressive
members should devote especial effort.
Poorer worldly circumstances are not
necessarily a bar to health and there
is no cause which cannot be remedied
to prevent the death rate of negro
infants from being materially lowered.
DR.. Fowler's report contains a strik
ing argument in favor of vaccination
against smallpox. In 1924 147 cases
of this disease were reported in the
District. From January to June, 1925,
there were fifty-nine cases and twenty
deaths. DR.. Fowler says that of the
8 y,fy L,oI
been successfully vaccinated, one fifty
years before the attack, one thirty
eight years before, one eighteen years
before and one fourteen years before
the attack. Each of these patients
had the disease in relatively mild form
and each got well.
The death rate from organic heart
disease was high. Seven hundred and
fifty-one persons died from this cause
more than from pneumonia or other
single cause. This is matter for dis
cussion by physicians. but a layman
may be permitted to make an observa-
ton. 1t seems that this malady is
comparatively rare among manual
"ol hClo tCAeAlINCly
desk workers. The inference is that
the man with office employment does
not do enough work with his arms
and legs. This points to the need for
more outdoor exercise and less ener-
waiting and monotonous grind indoors.
1t also points to the desirability of
plentiful, plain and wholesome food
and more regularity as to rest and
sleep.
The health officer urges a larger
force of medical and dental practi-
TONERS, that children entering the
public schools may be examined, and
where defects are found that such
defects may be given needed treat
ment. Health is the most important
question and there ought to be no in.
disposition toward supplying ample
public funds for the promotion of the
health of the people of the city.