Show preventive MEDICINE I 1 by dr 0 E Cole iian ladies and gentleman we are all striving to acquire money and if we have the other necessary ideals the more money we acquire the better for ourselves and the community A due reward for our labor and skill is both r and necessary we must lay up a store against old age or the day of s akness or accident if eunity cones co nes we should strive to acquire still more but never as the miser who merely adds bond to bond mine to mine mill on to million and from time to time gloats with glee overa s glowing hoard but as the fountain which gathers from every passing cloud the showers that filter thru the boil away down below the surface of many broad acres f land and then distill it in 1 mp d streams of water to the gladdening of the parched land and the joy of the thirsty traveler A man s life consi not in the abundance of things which he possess eth his living may depend on thee can al things but his life depends on far better and more important thugs the joy of the discovery of a new truth a new means of diagnosing a disease d better method of performing a surgical operation a new medicine or serum for treating disease which may save hund reds and even thousands of human lives sets the nen es a tingle and filla the soul with joy as nothing else can do I 1 am here therefore to address you on a subject in the discussion ol 01 which I 1 trust I 1 may cause you to carry away some thoughts winch shall result in the saving of a life 0 lives and if so I 1 would feel that my reward was far greater than if I 1 had received a large fe for a difficult surgical operation with this preface 1 invite you to con sider with me this evening the subject preventive med cine when your professor hickman ed me to address you ton I 1 was glad to oblige him and glad for the opportune opp ty of letting the people of Cast ledale and community know the facts and conditions which exist in our country and in our town relative to this the most important subject of today A subject that io receiving more thought more work and doing a great deal more good for the human family than any other one idea ever advanced by pre bentive medicine I 1 mean preventing d sease this is the uppermost idea of the physician of today the medicine of the future will be largely prevention the old adage an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is b ing act ed upon today as never before the general is making great studies also along this line and this 13 extremely necessary for without your support we can do very little tive medicine should start in the home by keeping clean as cleanliness is next to godliness and as cleana ness i e extreme cleanliness as you will see later on will prevent so many diseases we can not attach too much importance to it the great advances in surgery are due to the application of this virtue the modern surgeon arrays himself in spotless 1 nen washes his hands 40 times and even then put on sterilized gloves of rubber and meets his patient in i room from which every possible particle of dirt has been excluded his patient gets well bick people die of dirt from the beginning of the world this has been the most prevalent of all diseases the salvation of the children from d sease is to keep them clean the old adage d rt is healthy is not true the health of our town depends on clean streets clean yards and clean houses we must breath clean air drink clean water this is the tims of the year for general leaning let us be more thorough thoi ough this year than ever be fore and thereby aid in the world wide stamping out of disease it is allotted to man once to die is a sacred statement but for oung lives to be stamped out before they are scarce begun is a heartrending tion and a d loss to the community the higher d ath rate is during the first five years ot 1 fe and mostly d ie to d ceases 1 are preventable of our people die every year from cause which in be pre vented there are 5 needlessly ill every year more than i of all deaths that now occur in the united states are pre mature i e the are due to diseases which can be prevented there are constantly about 3 persons sen in the united states more than 1 of which illness is i reven table if these diseases were prevented it wp ild increase the average of human life by least 15 years the average varies in different countries in this country at present it is 45 in india it is 23 years due not to climatic conditions but to ignorance ces and to the religious superstition of the people they will not kil a snake in india and thousands die every year from the pois on of snake bites in united states we die in like minner from typhoid fever and consumption because we neglect to s causes of these diseases the cure of disease has been variously at in all ages of wh ch we have an record but its prevention is purely a modern advancement in science just to what extent and with how sue cess I 1 will try to show smallpox in 1798 was a pitiless scourge at this time jenner suggested and proved the efficiency of vaccination so that at present the disease demands only a passing thought because of the relatively few epidemics which occur ana because of the mild attacks of the disease in fait we pay too little at to it we are not eivir g suf focient attention to vaccination the only preventive measure I 1 am satisfied that if every child was vaccinated at two or not later than three years of age and again at twelve and every 10 or 16 years thereafter small pox could be entirely wiped out it has only been in recent years that the germ theory of disease was proven in 1887 it was positively shown that the infections diseases were caused by micro organisms it has been said and is practically a truth that making the diagnosis or d s covering the baese of a disease is half the cure this we find especially true in diseases caused by pathogenic germs because these germs can be kill ed and to this advancement in tive med cine we are indebted to a doctor by the name of lister who taught u antisepsis asepsis which is the method of destroying these germs by po drugs and the application of heat and thus making blood poison cases after a surgical operation almost a thing of the past the bubonic plague is one of our most dreaded diseases due to a germ the bacillus bestis and is largely earned from place to place by rats and ground squirrels and conveyed from them to the human family bv the flea were it not for the fact that our national laws need remodeling I 1 would need say very little of this disease it be ing rare in this country but at present and for several years past the plague BBS infected california and has been earned and extended all the dav from seattle to los angeles simply because hat special point in our national law comes ui der the direct supervision of if treasury department and the sec rotary 0 the treasury for and financial reasons ordered the local which had been established abolished the duties which should be un ted under one department called the department of health are ed to the various der art ments at V ash ington but on march 10 this year senator owen of oklahoma introduced in the U S senate a bill provi ahng for a separate department led oyer by a secretary of health this measure in all probability will become a law had this department been established anor to 1990 when the blagus first broke out in the chinese district of san francisco there would be at the present time no trace of the disease in the country the asiatic cholera is a water born disease due to a germ the comma bacillus be cillus d sc by dr koch in 1881 it may be prevented by rigid quarantine destruction of flies and proper attention to the water supply malaria is another dreadful disease and a scourge to the human race pro deuced by a germ the plasmodium malaria discovered in 1880 by dr lavarco this had little effect in pre venting the disease sim 1 affording indication for the treatment but in 1897 capan ross solved the mysteries of this disease by making the discovery that a certain variety of mosquito car ned the anfee ion from a person affect ed by malaria to the healthy i in them the disease this disease can be exterminated and has been largely checked by the distraction dist ruction of the mos quito the scourge of the south is yellow fever it was not lack of funds that caused De Lessups to give up building the canam i canal but the fearful mor tal ty among his men from yellow fever and malaria yellow fever is also i germ disease and as in malar a is car ned by the mosquito both diseases are almost entirely stamped out in the panama canal zone pellagra due to eating defective corn and hook worm d sease caused by pol lution of the soil with entrance of the worm through impure food and water into the intestinal canal are d ceases that are comparatively ne v and receive ing a great deal of work relative to their prevention while these diseases are all interest ing to hear about they interest us in this part of the country but little and I 1 therefore pass to our common diseases the most important of wh ch in this community is probably typhoid fever this is one of the best known and wide ly d diseases it is present in nearly all local ties and at times be comes epidemic it is distributed through so 1 pollution and taken into the gastro intestinal tract by means of food and drink the house fly is a common carrier hence they should be kept absolutely away aiom food and from the sick room it is a germ disease and infections therefore the patient having typhoid should be iso and nurs having the care of the case should disinfect all discharges and b very cleanly in her dress use disinfecting solution si on her hands continued in conr axt issue |