The Nome daily nugget., 1936-04-25

stopped 10 conSider that, due to the ef- forts of your public health officials, you have more efficient health than your grandfathers had, or that your father had in his youth? You really have streamline health. You can work hard CT for more years of your life than your forefathers did.
 In 1885 the span of life expectancy was only 30 years; today, 1885, it is ap- proximately increased exactly 100 per cent.
 We take 1t so for granted today that large city is a healthy place in which to live that it is difficult to think back to the 17SO-1S3O half century when London was changing from virtually village to the first great industrial cen ter of modern times That half century was the beginning of the machine age.
 And that beginning took a tremen- dous toll of life. The country popula tion flocked into London to get the pit tance of the machine. but as soon as they came they died. The crowded squalid living conditions and the long dark hours were too hard. Though the influx was constant, it was no, enough to balance the rapid death rate. An authority of that time made the state ment in 1900 that the death rate was in proportion to the density of the pop ulation. He said he had observed that the more people were congregated to- gether in cities, the higher was the death toll.
 If this condition had continued to be true-during the one hundred and thir- ty-five years since that time, doubt if we would have any cities of over 10000 population. No one would want to live in such unhealthful places.
 But we have made vast progress in safeguarding health. The health con- trolling agencies have made 1t possible to keep healthy as many people as the architects and engineers can concen- trate in any given area. Indeed, the present-day death rate in large cities is as low if not lower than in sparsely populated rural communities.
 It is not only doctors that are in charge of this public health service. There are many other highly educated, ell-trained men and women responsi- ble for large part of the success Of the work.
 First there are the sanitary engi- neers who are employed in the prac- tical application of the principles of sanitary science, such as safeguarding our drinking water. This requires knowledge of the biological life in streams and rivers, and of stream pol lution with human and animal eXcreta and with industrial wastes. Mosquito control also comes in this department, and the engineers must know about the life and breeding habits of mosqui- toes, and must be able to identify the various mosquito races so as to distin guish those which carry malaria, vel low fever and dengue fever.
 If you could peep into the depart ment of vital statistics of your state health offices, you might wonder what the mathematicians you saw there would have to do with health. They seem to be keeping books, but the books are those nearest to St. Peter. You and I are on their books. They make two records for each of us: our entrance into this world and our exit from it.
 The department of communicable diseases is made up of do ctors who have snecialized in this field. Then there are laboratories in which there are many persons trained in bacteri- ology, serology and chemistry. They make tests and analyses of all sorts. Tn brief, every matter connected with public health in any way comes under the supervision of your state depart ment of public health.
 It is due to this supervision that we no longer fear typhoid fever, cholera or other epidemic diseases.
 But while we have made enormous strides in public health. most of them in the last hundred years. we public health officials are far from satisfied. We want the public health to be much better than it is. We want, for instance. to wipe diphtheria off the face of the earth. We have the knowledge to do It now, and if every parent in the coun- try would cooperate, we could accom-, pllsh it.
 e. Western Newspaper UnioL