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Show I '. j State fleeting flealtli flints By DR. O. E. COLEMAN I At a recent meeting of the county commissioners it was deemed advisable to send me as county physician of the ; county to attend the annual meeting of health officers of the state at Salt Lake City and that when I returned to call a meeting of the health officers and present pre-sent a report of said meeting, according accord-ing to this action I have called you together to-gether today. i In my report 1 have tried to select those points, which I gathered from the various papers there presented, which we can apply here and from which we can derive the most benefit. The first paper read was one on Medical Med-ical supervision of the public schools ; by Dr. H. A. Adamson of Richmond, i Health may be considered the key-I key-I note, the goal of effect, not only in j school hygiene and sanitation, but in the entire physical education of the j child. Health is not the end of life or j education, but is an asserting for the j realization of worthy ends more immed- iate or ultimate in the career of the in- dividual. The people of this country ; are rapidly awakening to the apprecia- tion of the national resources. The most j important-of all the nation's resources ' is the health of the people and the most j valuable asset is the health of the chil-! chil-! dren. It is the business of the nation j to protect from harm at any cost the I heirs of all the heritage of the past. Under the newest favorable conditions the school is sure to be in some respect, i an unhygienic and insanitary place. I Pupils are arbitrarily housed deprived j to a certain extent of fresh air and stin-: stin-: shine at an age when fresh air and sun-I sun-I shine are most important to them. They I are confined to the school room, com-! com-! pelled of-times to sit still and keep still ; when reasonable freedom of movement is absolutely necessary. They are crowded into schools under conditions favorable for the collection and distribution distrib-ution of disease germs, at the age when they are most susceptible to such infection. infec-tion. Therefore the most expert care can only partially reduce the danger. No subject is taught with less intelli gence than that of health. Finally the very child for whom the whole educational system exists, is often so handicapped by unrecognized physical defects, as to diminish very materially if not to nullify the desired effect of education. Without a school physician and a good system of examination examina-tion this most vital point cannot be reached. Organized medical supervision was begun in the various cities, Brussels 1874; Paris 1879; London 1S91; New-York New-York 1S92; Boston 1S94 and in Japan 1896. In this country several states have passed laws effecting medical inspection in-spection of schools, namely, Connecticut New Jersey, Vermon and Massachusetts. Without state laws the board of health of New York, Utah and California have provided for examination of eye sight : and hearing in the schools. About 100 cities of the United States ! have provided for medical supervision. In many European countries much attention is given to physical defects. The most successful system is called Uiesbaden. The main points in thisj system are co-operation of the parents, I completeness of the examination, the frequency and regular examinations, filing of the health report, children of subnormal type are profitably delayed in interm school. In district schools and in schools in small communities where the Doctor does not make ti.ily visits, the teacher has the tesponsil.ility of detecting at least the signs of acute disease. The following are a few of the more important import-ant conditions: Pallor in young girls usually means anemia. It may also mean disease of the kidneys especially when associated with putl'ness of the face. Shortness of breath usually means disease of heart or lungs, if with blueness the heart, if with cough the lungs. Swelling of the j neck may be due to mumps or enlarge-I enlarge-I ment of the cervical glands, if the swelling swell-ing comes on suddently it may mean s on.e acute condition of throat, if slowly they are often tubercular. They may also be the result of irritation of the scalp, or of lice in the hair. Flushing of the face often means fever and should he reported. Eruptions of any sort are especially es-pecially important to notice because they may mean some of the contagious diseases. di-seases. The eruption of scarlet fever is a bright scarlet color and usually appears ap-pears first on the neck and chest. There is often a pale ring about the mouth, and usually a sore throat. The eruption of measles is "a rose or purplish color and is in blotches about the size of a pea. It appears first on the face and is associated with a running nose or eyes. The eruption of chicken pox appear.-, first as small red pimples which become blisters. If they do not turn to blisters then email pox may be suspected. Vomiting usually means some digestion disturbance, but it may be the first symptom of many of the acute diseases. The teachers under this system should also be able to give the first test for eye sight and hearing, adenoids, enlarged en-larged tonsils, also bad teeth must be noticed and reported. I After this paper a resolution was adopted recommending the passage of a law for the medical inspection of achools I would advise that in your different districts you give this serious thought, and make an effort to have your school boards put into practice the ideas here presented. Other papers read before the meeting discussed prevention of typhoid fever, quarantine and disinfection, patent medicines and public health, sewerage, , tuberculosis, modern sanitation and its effect on human life, public water sup- ply, prevention of blindness, relation of the teacher to school sanitation, pre- vention of small pox and a few other subjects of less importance to us in this county. ' Dr. Beatly, state secretary of health, recommends resolutions against, the common communion cup and the common com-mon general drinking cup as they are oftimes the means of conveying disease from the sick to the well. Dr. Hughes of Provo said an almost perfect system of school supervision was being successfully carried on in Provo. He also said there are 12,000,000 school ceildren in the United States iufferinc from curable defects. One hundred anil twenty-five persons died in Utah of typhoid fever hist year. TvptuMii seems to be slightly contagi-oiis contagi-oiis as well us infectious, therefore the patient .should be in a mom by himself am none but the nurse ami family physician should attend. The stools, vomitus. urine and sputum should be disinfected. The best disinfectant is chloranated lime six ounces to the gallon, bichloride may be used, also carbolic acid, the latter in 5 per cent solution. The vessel should stand for three hours before being emptied. The drinking water for the patient should he boiled as should also the water for the family and where an epidemic is prevailing everybody should drink boiled water. Dr. Paul said the opinion is general that the children's contagious diseases should be had and be done with it. This is enoiuous, for all infectious and contagious diseases can be entirely wiped out by thorough quarantine, disinfection dis-infection and vaccination, and these measures therefore should be compulsory compul-sory in all instances. Whooping cough as mild as it usually is causes a great many deaths, and should be rigidly quarantined, and those a ho violate the law or break the quarantine should receive re-ceive the full penalty. .Vaccination against small pox is the only sure proplylaetie agent and pro tects for a variable period, the average being 5 years, although in a great many instances the immunity lasts through life. Tile great ' opposition to this mer.sure is that occasionally bad results re-sults have occurred as the losing of an arm or a leg and the losing of a life, yet these results have ocec.rred because of some outward infection gainirg access to the w ouncl and producing blood poison as often occurs from a scratch on the linger or slight abrase on the skin. The had re.-ults mentioned above are as nothing compared with the millions of (ieaths and deformities produced by srn;.!l pex before Edward Jenner intro-ucced intro-ucced vaccination. In Europe small pox was the dreaded scourge. 400.000 persor s died each year from this disease. Most children in London had the disease lietore seven years ot age. A German proverb reads "From small pox and j love but few remain free." We, at this time, have to deal with j small pox very infrequently. If every : person were vaccinated and revaccinated ! tie disease would be entirely wiped out. ' In Philadelphia seven hundred medical I students were conducted through the I sn.all pox hospital to be taught the various phases of the dUease. Only ' one student contracted the disease, and i he had not been vaccinated, neither of his parents believed in vaccination, j The medical fraternity, almost as a j unit, beiieve in vaccination and they ' and their families are the best vaccinated j class. Statistics show that thirteen medical men out of a million die from j small pox as against seventy-three out ! of a million for the general population Sanitation, said Dr. Bently, is a very modern institution, less than a generation genera-tion ago it was practically unknown as a science, that in the past few years it has, been made the subject of careful study, with the result, that the death rate has been wonderfully decreased. It came because of the enormous death . rate which made it necessary. The death rate of pulmonary diseases, while not so high as in many eastern states, is still higher than is necessary and can be still further decreased, if we all work toward the end of better sanitation. In this community we are quite free from tuberculosis, yet there are a number num-ber of fuch cases in the state. Fresh air and sunlight are the principal medicines med-icines in this disease. Consumption is a curable disease, twenty-five years ago it was considered practically incurable. Experience and experiment have proven that all incipient incip-ient cases can be cured. AH that is necessary to affect a cure is fresh air, wholesome, easily digested food, such as raw eggs, milk, meat and any food with high nutritive value. Use no drugs or patent medicines, they are w-orthless and dangerous. Patients must sleep alone, use individual eating uiei.vils and avoid contact with ot!;. i.- of the i.imily. 75.000,000 is spent ev, rv year in the United States for patent ne i.icines and all the public gets in reio; o is alcohol, opium, v cocaine and mueo I r; :i.l. Dr. Calderwood who read a j ;:p r on this subject urged legislation for ii.e prosecution prose-cution of quacks and patent m-dicine concerns, and asked the a.-.-i eiautfn to go on record with a resolution ioi.M'Ui-ming ioi.M'Ui-ming the manufacture and of all such products.. Most of the patent medicine sold in America today is exploited ex-ploited by advertisements. These advertisements ad-vertisements contain testimonials from people who got well in spite of the patent pat-ent medicine used. Most of these preparations are designed design-ed to produce an appetite for them. Peruna for instruct? contains nearly 'as much alcohol as whiskey. A great many ladies throughout this suction use Peruna If they would drink pure whiskey they would get just as much apparent benefit. bene-fit. There is no real benefit in either. Peruna cannot be sold at. all near Indian In-dian agencies as the Indians get on peruna drunks. The patent medicine' companies insert in their advertising ' contracts what is known as the red; clause, which reads, "this contract be-j comes null and void in cae of hostile ' legislation in your state to the sale of! patent medicines. " The object of this 1 is to make the newspaper use is influence in-fluence against any such legislation. i A Chicago drug store hung a placard in its window- saying "do not ask us what any old patent medicine is worth as the question embarrsses us for they are worthless, ask what we sell them ) for.'" Yet one-third of the sales of this drug store are patent medicines. We I see advertisements of sure cure for I cancers, sure cure for tuberculosis, sure i cure for gallstones and the like. They ' are all worthless and are frauds of the : worst type. Dr. Fred Stauffer gave a very inter-i inter-i esting paper on blindness. In the i United States there are 80S blind per-j per-j sons to the million which gives us 60 l less than the average. That in which we are most interested is the percentage ; of this number due to causes which we Wan prevent. An average of :5 per j cent is due to these causes. Tnis me. ins ; that 17,500 blind out of the S'J.OdO blind ! reported by the eleventh United States 1 census could have been prevented. The one disease which caused more ! blindness than any other or than all 1 others is ophthalmia of the ni-w born, i This is an iiitlamution of the eyes caused j by a specific germ and usually contiact-jedin contiact-jedin the process of birth where the 1 mother has had this disease, although ; it may be caused by the nurse or attendant. attend-ant. The disease is preventable by placing a certain medicine in the eyes .and if the disease has already started can be cured if seen early by Lie physician. In this section I have never ; seen a case. In the large cities it is more prevalent. There are also those cases of preventable prevent-able blindness due to toy pistols and air guns in the hands of children. The number of blind from ties cause is considerable, con-siderable, and legislation to protect against this kind of blindness is all important. im-portant. Fracoma is an infectious disease of the eye producing redness and discharge occurs in epidemics, and produces blindness blind-ness very often. Blindness from unsuccessful un-successful operations on the eye, can only be reduced by more stringent laws, eliminating quacks, preventing epto-j epto-j metrists ,from fitting glass, s to eyes that are perishing for want of medical lor surgical treatment, yet there i.re those and they are many throughout the county, who when a man representing ; himself to be a big eye doctor drives ! through the county and calls on them telling them how badly they need glasses, glass-es, wid bite at once and pass over their hard earned money to a total stranger, who knows absolutely nothing about the eye and has no further interest in them j than to sell the glasses and get his pay ! and usually at a fabulous price. Our drinking water is very unsanitary I the majority of the people drinking j right out of our ditches without filter-ling filter-ling or boiling. If this water ever be-J be-J comes infested with tphoid germs I should look for a big typhoid epidemic I and in all probability great loss of life. To let this subject be taken in hand and advise the people of your various districts dis-tricts to build cisterns with good filtering filter-ing trenches leading to same and advise i your people to boil the drinking water, especially in the autumn when typhoid j is more prevalent. Another very important matter for your attention is the pools of water that are allowed to stand the year round in the streets and along the roads. These are disease breeder's amenaee ;o i the public health and those guilty of ' causing the same should he taught that this infringement on the laws cannot go ' unpunished. Besides we will be aiding I the good roads movement which in this (section of country is next in importance to the protection of the public health, i Another .-.latter is the allowing dead animals to lie in places which drain into jour drinking water. These x matters j should all be hunted out by our local health officers. Don't sit around and j wait for some one to inform you. When : people see you are trying to help them ; they w ill all try to help you in your work land make all better and happier. I Another very important subject to I consider is the outhouse or privy. The sanitary privy is made tight and dark, yet with good ventilation, the ventilators ventilat-ors being covered with a material to exclude ex-clude flies. The vault being a box on top of the ground with a hinge door in the back, through which a large vessel that' w'ifl' 'not leak ' can be passed and placed under the seat. This vessel to contain antiseptic material to destroy ! all disease germs and odors, and to be 1 remove,! every few days, emptied and I burned. If this building be made and the ji.'im-iples carried out in this way j fie - 'Miuiot congregate as they do now an 1 ih' from these places to our tables, , carry ins all manner of filth an ,: disease with them. 1 This is the best and onle per feet p'an. Another and far better :l::sn t:i...i ..!' us have is to dig a large vault n. . gi ...im! and throw into this often, hoe . dry earth and ashes and as in the other plan have it made dark and so tight that flies can not enter. Just look around and ' see how bad and unsanitary these outhouses out-houses are. j Another thing it costs very little to ' screen your dwellings, of course the , most of the houses here are screened. I ; Where they are notI find the flies so ! thick I can scarcely enter, and oftimes i where there are screens 1 find similar; ! conditions. Why is this? There are j 1 several reasons. There are so many , 1 breeding places in the back yard, man- ! ; ure piles, unsanitary privy, pigpens, ' I wastewater an.! slops thrown just out-i ; side the back door. So many flies are j j hatched they are aim st sure to pass I j through the screen door each time it is ! opened, and again people havn't learned ' 1 the lesson of the filthiness of the fly land therefore don't try to drive it out j of the house. I I have endeavored to give you some j ! points that I trust may be a help to you. j The subject is so broad anf so much! may be said that it is impossible to go ! into the different subjects in any more ! ! detail at this time but if we can see any j j good in these meetings I will be only to ! glad to have them at intervals and let 1 each health officer present his views on ways and means'of preventing disease, and bring up subjects for discussion particularly relating to your district. In this way it appears to me we can do the most good to the greatest number and the people of the valley in a very few years, if not now, will see that I we have started a great and good work. It was decided by unanimous vote of those present that these meetings should be In Id often and that the next meeting meet-ing be in the month of May. The exact l date to be named later by the county I physician. |