Henry Baird Favill, AB, MD, LL.D., 1860-1916, a ... - University Library

298 HENRY BAIRD FAVILL
child; in sports, the incompetent child; in the factory or
workshop, the inefficient hand; in asylums and almshouses,
the defective individual; in the courts, the habitual criminal;
in the saloon,
the besotted habitue; in society, the invalid
parasite; in business, the perverted marauder; in the
pulpit, the distorted bigot; in the schoolroom, the nervous
critic — all
of them harking back to a foundation of imperfect
health for the common factor in explanation, and even
in extenuation, of their faults.
Statistics are open to interpretation and hence not to
be followed too closeh^ ;
throws much light upon these questions.
In the great cities,
nevertheless, extensive observation
broadly speaking, 85 per cent of the
relief extended through organized charity is made necessary
by sickness and accident. Our increasing social delinquency,
growing out of poverty and its necessary conditions,
is thus directly and causally coupled with ill health. That
these unfortunate conditions in turn produce and aggravate
disease, establishing thereby a vicious circle, is beside the
point.
The fact
upon which we should focus our attention is,
that imperfect health is an effective barrier to individual
development and an enormous clog upon social progress.
The impression prevails widely that ill health is unavoidable
and that most conditions of
disease are not only inscrutable,
but that they remain at a certain degree of
destructiveness unaffected by human endeavor or intelligence.
This is positively untrue. The average duration
of life has increased markedly in the last few centuries, and
this increase is
noticeable in direct proportion to the progress
in civilization of the various peoples under observation.
This is true in spite of the fact that the conditions of
urban life operate strongly in the opposite direction. What
the showing would be if this entirely removable incubus
were to disappear is a matter of conjecture, but enough
is known to warrant us in saying that public health is