Proceedings of the quarter-centennial celebration of the establishment of the Michigan State Board of Health : held at Detroit, Michigan, August 9, 1898.

Michigan. State Board of Health

Date:: 1898

Credit: Proceedings of the quarter-centennial celebration of the establishment of the Michigan State Board of Health : held at Detroit, Michigan, August 9, 1898. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$that, (Ini-iiij; iliis period of active iie\vspa[)ei' (lisciiwsioii, IteLween 00 and To i)er cent of the population of Chicaf^o, inclndin}f upwards of 200,000 school children, ahsolutely abandoned the use of the raw, untreated hydrant wat(‘r for drinking purposes. In 1800 the deaths from tyj)hoid fever—the typical iinj)ure water dis- ease—were 751. In 1807 they numbered only 487, or more than 40 per cent less than in 1800. The sanitary (piality of the water was substantially' the same during the two years, and this forty-odd j)er cent reduction I regard as attrib- utable solely to the newspaper agitation and its salutary warning elfect ui)on the public mind. During the early jairt of the ]»resent year a fair share of space and attention was given to the bulletins of the Dei)artment, and the warning to “boil the water”, issued from time to lime, was given due prominence c'lnd editorial eni])hasis, with a gratifying effect upon the typhoid-fever death rate. >8ince the destruction of the Maim*, however, the all-engrossing w’ar news has nionoj)oli7.ed the columns of the papers and, as wuis said in one of onr recent bulletins, “the repeated warnings of the Dejtartment against the use of the raw' hydrant water in its ])resent condition do not seein to be taken seriously by the j)ublic.” These w'arnings lack the force and elfect that were given to them by editorial comment a year ago and to this I consider is due the recent increase of typhoid deaths. Up to March 12 there had been only 7!) deaths from tyj)hoid fever this year as against 108 during the same ]>eriod last year. Since that date 11]) to the close of last month there w'ere 270 tyjihoid deaths as against 112 last year. And yet the quality of the water siqijily during the first six months last year w'as distinctly worse than this year. In this excess of deaths from a ])iirely ])reventable disease, wdiich ex- cess in all human ])robability, might have been avoided by giving the same jniblicity' to the character of the w'ater sii])])ly as w'as done a year ago, sanitarians may see another illustration of the value of the ])ress as a ])otent auxiliary in their labors, while Chicago has in it another cause to “Kemember the .Maine.” I w ill detain you w ith only one more thought which seems to me w'orthy of present consideration. Natural law' intends that man shall live and be useful and not that he sliall be degenerate or dependent or that he shall prematurely die. The w'orld is for man and his u])-building, for the develnjiing of his mental, moral and j)hysical stature. The fiiture sanitarian will broaden out u])on this basis. He must educat<* the masses upon the know'n laws of reproduction and enable human beings to ini])rove their breeding as the farmer improves all domestic animals by proper mating. The remedy for the social evil that leaves sucli human w'i'ecks in its w'ake—that causes such loathsome diseases and w'hich modern knowledge has shown indirectly furnishes so much of the surgeon’s ])ractice for the remedy of disease, ])articularly of w'omen, must come through a thorough dissemination among the public of knowdedge now* chiefly held by those of the inedical profession. Let parents and their daughters once fully understand the jeopardy girls are ]>laced in by marriage with men wdio have lived reckless and impure lives and there will be less need for sur- geons to practice their divine art upon w'omen in fhe future. Let all und(*rstand that much of (his dangei* aud disease has its in-$