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Show I Fundamental Principles of j l! Heallhll A t A ! I v J" By ALBERT S. GRAY, M. D. JM J I I $ ascertaining the facta, tabulating these facts and giving the tabulated results and the conclusions to be deduced de-duced therefrom the widest publicity; and further, a body authorized to act in an advisory capacity to any community com-munity on request or to voluntarily publicly recommend action along definite defi-nite lines where conditions warrant and make Buch publicity necessary. Such an organization would command com-mand the confidence and respect of all sane citizens and enable the United States quickly to take her place among the civilized nations of the world In the prevention of avoidable disease because we are too Bane a people to pursue fads and fancies If shown that they mean premature extinction. (Copyright, 1914, by A. S. Gray) DIAGNOSIS. "Who shall decide when doctors disagree?" dis-agree?" There surely will be no dissenting dis-senting voice if we answer that question ques-tion with one short word FACTS. It would seem that it should not be a difficult matter to secure the facts concerning any given subject; but it Is. Much data Is available but we have come to distrust It because we know so many Investigate not to ascertain the truth, but merely to win a point for some particular theory, just as some lawyers strive only to win cases, not to secure justice; some doctors to "cure" diseases, not to pre-Tent pre-Tent sickness; some ministers to gain church attendance, not to secure -wholesome practical morality In the home and In the place of business. The fault undoubtedly lies In our educational edu-cational system. What the world wants to know is, what Is known, not what Is thought, and it Is not getting what it wants and needs. In consequence conse-quence we are continually being called on to decide momentous questions involving in-volving our lives without possessing adequate Information concerning the fundamental facts. How fit is the average sick man to decide what shall be done? And yet the burden of that decision usually rests on him. There are two methods of education, the natural and the artificial. By the natural method one observes particular particu-lar facts and forms therefrom general Ideas. By the artificial method one acquires a vast store of general Ideas through hearing or reading what other people have observed and think. The first method Is very reliable but very slow. The second method, the one on which most of us depend for our ad-Tancement, ad-Tancement, Is rapid but very unreliable unrelia-ble unless we are extremely careful In selecting the source of our Information. Informa-tion. This explains why It so frequently fre-quently happens that after a long course of learning we enter real life either with an almost artless ignorance igno-rance of many Important things or with wrong and often distorted and unwholesome ideas about them. We were either misinformed, or were not instructed at all, and must learn in the school of bitter experience what we might easily have been taught We must go to those competent to speak with the authority of experience experi-ence for our knowledge, or work It out each for himself. A very casual consideration of the subject wilt show It to be quite Impossible that we . search oat the truth each for himself; therefore, for our knowledge we must go to those who by reason of training and experience are qualified to speak with authority. And even to make such selection requires good judgment and no small degree of training under existing conditions, because matters In general are too often questions of opinion. No progress has ever been made In any science until three things have been discovered: determined units; oeasured units; devices for measurement. measure-ment. These three requirements are comprehensively covered by our census cen-sus enumeration, birth and mortality tables, when efficiently handled. And until this data is efficiently handled disease will continue to be a matter of opinion, whim and dogma, and the sick to be subjects for exploitation and rich material for the personal aggrandizement of the most incompetent, incompe-tent, because the most incompetent in their ignorance make the boldest and most attractive claims. It is a curious fact that people In general dislike the simple, direct truth they want It emasculated and . sugar coated; and nothing but the cold, hard mathematics of the situation situa-tion can overcome this desire for the least unpleasant interpretation of evident evi-dent facts. The first step in the study of dis- ease prevention Is to have a known THE LINE OF GRAVITY. A plumb line dropped In front of a normal human figure will be found to run down through the center of the nose and chin and, splitting the trunk of the body along the median line through the navel, will touch the ground at a point midway between the two feet. Viewed from the side, a plumb line will cut the posterior edge of the tragus tra-gus (the prominence at the external opening of the ear), pass through the middle of the head of the humerus in the Bhoulder joint, cut the posterior edge of the femur (thigh bone) in the hip joint and, passing through the middle of the knee Joint, through the middle of the end of the fibula (the bony prominence just outside the ankle joint) will touch the ground at a point approximately two and one-half one-half inches anterior to the back of the heel. This normal type of figure Is In exact ex-act mechanical balance, and by reason of the automatic operation of the coordinating co-ordinating centers of the sympathetic nervous system requires no conscious effort or undue expenditure of energy to maintain the body in the upright position. Departure from this standard normal nor-mal type falls Into two general classes: one In which the hip and knee joints are thrown behind the line of gravity, and the other In which the hip and knee joints are found in front of the tine of gravity. Because of the characteristic attitude atti-tude assumed in order to compensate the displaced points of gravity the former has been designated "The Kangaroo" Kan-garoo" and the latter "The Gorilla" type of figure. Both these abnormal types maintain the erect position only by reason of a more or less voluntary effort and by virtue of an undue tension on certain muscles necessary to overcome the gravitational pull; both are chronic sufferers from backaches and headaches, head-aches, and both are subject to all sorts of "muscular rheumatisms." Quacks get rich coining the desire for relief from these chronic and most "mysterious" pains; and many diagnoses diag-noses of diseases that never exist are made because of them. But it Is gravity grav-ity that makes the backaches and most of the headaches not disease; and these conditions are usually aggravated ag-gravated by the wrong kind of shoes and the wrong kind of corsets. If a building is out of plumb, alarm is felt for the welfare of the people in It lest It fall down, and the authorities authori-ties send expert engineers to Investigate Investi-gate the foundations. Not until the weak spots are repaired and the building build-ing is jacked back Into line Is it considered con-sidered safe to inhabit. The foundation founda-tion of anything Is the base on which It stands on the earth, and man has not yet succeeded In making a statue of the normal erect human figure In bronze, marble, wood or any other medium capable of standing firmly without being bolted to a substantial base. This would appear to Indicate that our foundation, the feet, are none too firm and that therefore we are not in a position to take liberties with them because the margin of stability is too small. But we do so to our great detriment. Standing together two normal feet show a perfectly straight line, and a straight tread or "Meyer's line" extending ex-tending from the center of the tip of the great toe through Its base to the center of the heel. Taking "Meyer's line" as a base, a line prolonged from the center of the heel at an equal distance dis-tance from the outside line of the foot will cut through the center of the head of the fourth metatarsal bone and follow the median line to the end of the fourth toe, striking an angle of about 16 degrees. And a diagonal line drawn through the middle of the " base and an accurate registration of birtha is scarcely to be found in the United States, and 25 of our 48 states do not require registration of deaths! At the present time we have reliable mortality returns on only 61.8 per cent, birth returns on less than 25 per cent, and accident returns on but an insignificant portion of our 100,000,000 population. We know more about cat-tic, cat-tic, sheep and hogs than we do about our men, women and children. We do not know and we have no accurate moans for determining "Where we are at," and nothing short of a national clearing house will enable us to know. hi place of 48 distinct bodies having . Jurisdiction over birth, accident and mortality returns there should be one. W'uat we need In this country is a well trained central body, free from the paralyzing effects of pecuniary embarrassment and its temptations, possessed of minds big enough, broad - enough and keen enough to see and to grasp the really few fundamental principles of life; with authority to reach over and beyond state, county, ; and municipal boundaries, thereby being be-ing freed from the blighting influence of local prejudice and self-interest; - with powers specifically limited to bearing surface of the anterior foot will cut "Meyer's line" at about the big toe Joint on an angle of 37 degrees and will cut the line extending from the center of the heel to the tip of the fourth toe on an angle of about 53 degrees. As a matter of fact the center cen-ter of the bearing surface of the normal foot approximates a section of a circle drawn on a radius of about one-third the length of the foot from about the middle of the arch to a point midway between the head of the first metatarsal bone and the end of the great toe. Because our shoemakers do not follow fol-low the anatomical line of the bearing surface of our feet our base is wrong and we are not firm and sure of foot and we are crippled and exhausted thereby and made less alert than we should be. We instinctively have confidence confi-dence in the ability of a well balanced figure and we instinctively expect stol-idness stol-idness and stupidity in the "gorilla" type. People tending towards either of the abnormal types should pay particular par-ticular attention to the fit and adjustment adjust-ment of all garments worn because an alert brain will not be found in a cramped body. Displaced gravity points mean nervous exhaustion. |