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Show Noted Medical Authority Stresses Drug Law Need Dr. Morris Fishbein Prepares Special Article for Telegram While in S. L. r.SIIK-'a ante: Ir. Mnrrt. ruhh-tn. writer of Ike Sillr S-allS rmiima appear. Ins In The Trtrsrain. pravlnS lac InUwwIns nprrlal rolnma lor The Trlrsram rt- Sa. wklle la nail Lake CM. By MORRIS FISHBEIN. M. D. The announcement that the federal government is requesting . new food and drug legislation should be welcome to all the people cf our country. The recent deaths of some 80 people as a result of taking a new elixir of sulphanilamide made with diethylene glycol gly-col as a solvent focuses public attention on the need for such new . control. Our present food end drug act was passed in 1908. The great advances ad-vances made in the fields of chemistry, chem-istry, pharmacology and medicine ' since that time and the new discoveries dis-coveries which come almost every day in these fields indicate that legislators must be alert to keep abreast of ths progress of science. ' Moreover, the advertising industry indus-try has developed tremendously since that time and more materials of sll kinds sre purchased today be-causs be-causs of claims made through ad- (Cnntmnrd r, Pmer Eigbtl (Column four) Need for Drug Law Stressed By Noted MedicaKAuthority vertisinr than In any other way. To be efficient, the new legislation must control not only the claims made on the labels and on the packages pack-ages but also claims made in all i collateral advertising such as that on the billboards, the radio, the newspapers, the magazines and di-rcctly di-rcctly by mail. Among the most serious problems of disea.se control today are those concerned with, the prevenLian and treatment of pneumonia, now second sec-ond in the list of causes of death. We have learned that there are many different types of the germ that causes pneumonia, and that the specific serums are necessary in treating it. These must be given early and in fairly large dosage to be successful. Most good health departments and the laboratories of hospitals possess facilities for'determining the type of pneumococcus that is responsible. responsi-ble. Then the doctor can arrange to give the necessary aerum for that typa of pneumococcus if a special spe-cial aerum is available. For some of the types of pneumococci we do not yet have aeruma but research is proceeding on a large scale and the United States public health service serv-ice is giving special attentionjo the subject. Deaths from motor cara did not appear at all in the li.it of causes of death in 1900. Today they are tenth in the list of causes of death right along with diabetes. The average aver-age man feara diabetes but people have not yet learned to feafdeatn from motor car accidents. Nevertheless. Neverthe-less. 38.000 Americans die each year from this cause. There are just two classes of people peo-ple left, the quick and the dead. This J is all a part of the current tendency to speed up human life, gearing it j to the speed of the machines. Yet the human being waa never built to attain the speed at which he now attempts to travel Neither the eye. the ear, nor In many instance the brain of man. Is tuned to a reaction time capable of meeting the emergencies emer-gencies that arise in modern rates of travel. If we are to make any appreciable dent in the death rate from motor car accidents, it will have to come from a nationwide determination de-termination to slow down or from some new method of protection of the average man from the inadequacies inade-quacies in our present means. First in the list of causes of death today are diaeaaea of the heart, moat of which represent again the wearing wear-ing out of the human organism. There is only one way to rest the heart, and that is to li down and relax so that it will beat leaa forcibly and lesa often. The heart beats constantly con-stantly from a time before birth to the moment of death. The wise men giva their hearts a chance to recuperate re-cuperate by regular periods of rest. DePauw university is in Green-castle, Green-castle, lnd., 40 miles west of Indianapolis. |