OPINIONS OF SANITARIANS. RA5 PUBLIC The first State Board of Health in the United States was that of Massachusetts, established in 1869. Since that date, twentysix States have established health organizations. By an act, approved March 7, 1881, a State Board was established in Indiana, and since that date, there has been fully organized in every county of the State, except one, a County Health Board; also, city and town boards in each incorporated city and town of the State. Such organization necessarily entails some expense, and places upon physicians and others certain duties, for the performance of which they do not receive what would appear to be adequate pay. It is the duty of those engaged in such work, or taking an interest therein, to inform those who seek information relative to the value of such work, and to show the need and good policy of keeping up the added expense to the State and increased labor that devolves upon the physicians and others. We here present the views of many who have for years been engaged in such work, and give, also, the recorded result, so that all may easily judge of its value and need. The introduction of any new system is generally met with more or less opposition, and it was not to be expected that the establishment of a State Board of Health would be an exception. It is gratifying to know that this opposition has been less than was anticipated. The cause of opposition may be said to be founded on a misapprehension or ignorance of the object of the law and the aims of the Board. It may be well to state that the chief aim of the law is, first, to collect facts and then to disseminate correct sanitary infor M833990 mation among the people. Whatever tends to increase the knowledge of the medical profession, tends to increase the safety and health of the people. It is due the medical profession to say that its members have generally been eager to seek all information that promises any beneficial knowledge, and the sanitary and vital facts, gathered by the State and local Boards, will furnish data from which we shall be able to arrive at correct conclusions, as to the causes and means of prevention of many diseases. The graveyards of the State are full of those who have fallen victims to their own lack of knowledge, or their own carelessness. It is within the bounds of truth to say that two-thirds of the children that die annually, in Indianapolis or other cities of the State, might have been rescued from death, had their parents possessed the information which should be within the reach of all. Not by means of any "Domestic Medicine," or "Every Man His Own Physician" book, but by well authenticated and practical facts, placed before the people in a reliable shape, so that they should be warned as to the dangers that can be avoided, as the red flag, warns of small-pox or the signal light, of the locomotive. Such disseminated intelligence would furnish the means of avoiding the danger. Take that disease so common among children, viz: Whooping cough-parents look upon it as one of the necessary ills that must fall upon all children, and regard it as being without danger to the child, and in many cases hail its appearance with a kind of semi-delight. It is true, there is comparatively little danger in the disease, if proper care is taken of the child, and this care must be exercised by the parents, and not by the medical attendant, if there be one. The truth must be made known to the people. Scarlet fever is justly regarded with dread, yet whooping cough has annually, in Indiana, carried to the grave more victims than scarlet fever, and while the Board has at present no means of knowing the exact facts in every case, yet the information it has, justifies it in saying that in nearly all cases of death from whooping cough during the past nine months, the fact that death ensued was due to want of proper care of the child by its parent or nurse, especially at a time when the patient is supposed to be convalescent. Diphtheria is another of those diseases that has caused fearful. ravages among children. Statistics, gathered by the Board, show that certain diseases are prevalent with this class of the population. This is not always from anything in their occupation or surroundings. The causes for the frequency of death must often be sought for elsewhere. A study of the tables compiled by the State Board, that will appear in the annual report, will show that bronchitis and pneumonia are particularly noticeable for the fatal ending in cases of children, and this frequently is, in a large degree, due to a want of proper preventive measures. Farmers and their families will, in winter, attend gatherings of various kinds in small and ill-ventilated school houses or churches; stoves are made red hot, and, from the steaming atmosphere, they go forth into the chilling air-ride home through the cold without properly protecting themselves. In the city, those who attend such assemblages go, at least, provided with wraps to protect themselves against such sudden changes, and the result is, they are less liable to those forms of disease. It is safe to say that one hundred persons are annually killed upon and by railroads of the State, and that, of the whole number, less than a score are employes of the railroad, while the other persons are those who have no business in the place where they meet their death. It is only bringing such facts to the minds of the people that they can be made to realize their danger. They hear of isolated cases of railroad injuries, but it is the figures in the aggregate that impress them. In accidents, of one kind and another, fully five hundred persons, annually, in Indiana, meet their death, and, in nine cases out of ten, carelessness somewhere is the cause. It may be asked, why the State should engage in the work? The State is directly interested in the life and health of every citizen. The longer lived and healthier its citizens, the stronger and wealthier the State becomes. As to vaccination, the policy of compulsory vaccination has been very much questioned, and the silly objection that such a system interferes with the rights of the citizen, has been made. Every citizen owes some obligation to the community where he lives, and while he may have an abstract right to deal with his own life, he has no right to endanger the life or health of another. |