Show MANS fiREAT FItiIIT t WlT It DEAT it A n I J I Ii 7 I I v p k Z q t i J rtIt 1 t t x s > 1 Milton once saw in poetic fancy ar encounter I In which Satan fought wIth Death fought until one of the hideout hells gate < sentries who sat fast by rushed between and held the fatal key tween lodft however it is no poet wbc Today fight that has the greatest looks upon waged with Death Rather ever been who is handing the statistician It Is the to posterity and in figures down fight Man the victim of Death seems only attack 01 disposed to interfere in this J > on the grim reaper of men Science upon oi omen forces the In two distinct ways I are for an Increased men en masse National dlplo of life for wan term I the science of arbitration whey leaning to destructive wart Is preventing the deffrucUve tlon frequently oncesbook the world so which once and science In medicine ly and loriliaria and measures of sanitation is i surgery civilian longevity In the making for forces are opposed to Two great in politics which these Corruption the victim of its city may leave a great water and pollutions of air food 1 own the excesses as great degree I and in quite Individual man are undoing undo-ing cesses much of the that science has overcome In the death rate of the census In the avoidance of wars are Not only lives saved to the thousands oC tens of evolution of In the work but worJdsworlc ot war itself It has become the Implements of destruction such forsuch impossible i come the clashing of two armies life to follow On land and water the lighting mies has Increased to an extent that range battle between results a to its net I reduced civilized armies of today becomes green two r Question of which side was comes a forced to spend the greater sum of money To show just how marked has been i this ey change In modern warfare as affecting results the figures from a recent = fecting cent battlefield in Abyssinia are quoted showing that 19000 men were killed l and which wounded In one fight a number pales the death roll on both sides of the late SpanishAmerican war I WAR MADE cESS DEADLY Today the mere cost of ammunition and stores in the dolcl 1 accouterments has done most to keep the peace bc fcween civilized nations Once when a of nation was restive under an excess and when the population perhaps equipment a soldier was a little more a club with which ito beat out an than Today enemys brains war was cheap only a rich nation can afford to go to then its adversary will war and even be regarded rather more in the light oC Its treasury surplus ithan In its standing army and ships of battle Along these lines whatever the evolution I evolu-tion of arms and whatever the pressure upon diplomacy that finance and commerce I com-merce have exerted in staying war I must be counted the result of civilizations civiliza-tions fight against death Beyond these however the science of medicine and sanitation have done most in combating the destroyer But from the showing ofthe United States census between 1890 and 1900 one may see how the individual in his excesses has undone I un-done that which science had saved to I him In the seventeen of the diseases that kill the science of medicine moving I I mov-ing against those due to baccilli have I I reduced the death rate in the seventeen diseases a little more than eighteen in I the 100000 for the period At the same time five diseases that may be traced to overeating and drinking killed t > velve more men in the 100000 than they had killed In the ten years from 1SSO to 1890 In the last tenyear period the greatest inroads were made upon ravages of consumption One hundred hun-dred and ninety persons in every 100000 died of that diesase In that time whereas for the previous t pre-vious decaJe more than 254 persons died of It Knowledge of the disease perhaps per-haps with means prevent Infection is considered to have had more to do with the reduction in the death rate I than any specific treatments But in that period this grizzly servant of death for the first time was deposed as the greatest destructive agent giving place to pneumonia as the most threatening of al diseases that kill SUCCESS OF ANTITOXIN Dipththeria has been one of the dread scourges of men but through the antitoxin anti-toxin the death rate was Just cut in half from seventy to the 100000 in the SOs to thirtylive to the louwju in toe 90s In that period between 1SOO and I 1000 there were sharp fallings off In the death rates from debility and atrophy cholera Infantum bronchitis dlarrhcal diseases croup typhoid fever brain diseases and scarlet fever especially Perhaps only In diphtheria however T distinct specific be credited may one I wellknown said a this change with Antitoxin distinctly has 1 done physician this In Chicago the great major come ity of the deaths from diphtheria quarters of the city where to the poorer of methods of prevention people In Ignorance vention and cure seek to hide it r that comes to a Often the llrst news diphtheria is that of3 clan of physician and dead child in one of these families i find that he may when he goes Jn other child In the house has been 1 F every to the disease Especially I where exposed parents and children are dependent I busi lent for a living upon a peddling dealing and labor in sweat l ness junk interests u 1 their Shops they feel that it IB to as diphtheria case terests to hide a They look upon all i long as possible r supervision with suspicion and j medical Supcn JI I if the deaths In these quarters could have been in the stopped as they be enlightened sections of the city more fall marked there would have been a ing off In the death rate of the census That men have been undoing the oC In their excesses work of science l may be shown in eating and drinking the fact that pneumonia now takes the lead as a mankiller over tuberculosis Davis has The veteran Dr N S I brought out the fact with much emphasis em-phasis that men addicted to spirituous almost always die liquors to excess when seized with pneumonia The census lists Indicate that In addition disease dition to pneumonia heart traceable to apoplexy and diabetes all less overeating or drinking In more or marked Increases direct manner have shown creases In victims In many ways the at large tends to undo the great public > VorkOf physicians but in none snore certainly than in the indulgence of l i Its J appetites y EVIL INFLUENCE IN CITIES To these Indulgences the mlsgovern mentCif citieshas added to the death rolls oC the census in a marked vayiIn the death rate of Philadelphia Philadel-phia a physician recently uncovered to the public the part which a rotten municipal government may play In the mortality rolls of a big city He called attention i to the i fact that while nearly avery olherrblg city In the country had I shown a sharp decrease In the death I rate for ten years Vthe general death rate In this bossridden city has remained re-mained almost stationary Buffalo is complimented on the best showing made of any city in the United States but Philadelphia first and New York next are scored because of the charge that political rottenness Is at the bottom bot-tom of their death rates CITY DEATH RATE LOW It is recited that filthy alleys and 1 streets polluted drinking water lack of enforcement of ordinances framed to prevent communicable diseases and all the long train of neglected duties of I these municipalities In regard to public health arc responsible for checkmating much that medicine and surgery have done for public health In Chicago on the other hand the Health department at least on its I medical and scientific side has been kept free of > politics and as a result its success in holding its death rate to a Iqw figure has excited the admiration of sanitarians throughout the world The department t here has been quick to avail Itself of the latest discoveries in preventive and remedial agents and has been successful in introducing their use among the people Altogether it becomes certain that Death never had to work so hard to claim a victim as he works in this I first ydar of the twentieth century Chicago Tribune |