The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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24 The Healtji Bulletia- Ajyril, 1921
but nevertheless we are somewhat
shocked to read in the health column
of a North Carolina mornin,; daily,
which column is conducted by a man
who was formerly health officer of one
of the largest cities in the United
States, the following reply to a correspondent's
question as to why more
people seem to have heart disease than
ever before
"Both heart disease and sympathetic
high blood pressure are on the increase.
In the old days the number of people
who died before they were old enough
to develop heart disease or high blood
pressure was very large. Now it is
much smaller.
"The diseases such as typhoid, scarlet
fever and diphtheria, which formerly
killed many, have almost gone out of
business. There must be some disease
to terminate life some time or other,
and heart disease and high blood pressure
are serving."
Now in our opinion to argue that
there must be some disease to terminate
life some time or other would
be exactly like arguing that to end the
existence of every automobile it would
be necessary to run it into a tree and
tear it all to pieces. If there is any
truth or any scientific basis whatever
for the life-long contention of men like
Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, that if the
human race would adopt what Dr.
Kellogg terms a biological system of
living and apply fully the known principles
of disease prevention, the life
of every person could be well rounded,
barring termination by unavoidable accident,
and death eventually would be
a process as natural as birth itself. If,
as just stated, there is any basis of
truth in such teaching, then such doctrine
as preached in the health column
referred to is especially fallacious and
dangerous. If such be accepted generally,
there would be no need of any
more public health work and the newspaper
purchasing the material for such
a health column could very properly
save its money and devote its space to
discussions on how to reduce taxes
while spending more money building
roads and schools. There is no more
scientific reason for asserting that the
enormous increase in deaths from heart
disease is due to prolongation of life
and the adding of additional years
thereto than to argue that more people
are killed by lightning in town, because
more people live in town, than are
killed in the open spaces in the country.
The truth is, there are a great many
causes for the increase in the mortality
from heart disease ; some of which
causes are well-known and fully understood
and some of which are not.
In every exhaustive study and analysis
recently made by competent authorities
it has been clearly demonstrated
that scientific public health work does
not operate to preserve the unfit. One
of the most convincing of recent studies
was made by Professor I. S. Falk of
the Department of Hygiene and Bacteriology
of the University of Chicago
and a member of the staff of the
Chicago City Health Department. Professor
Falk presented his analysis in
a paiJer read at the last meeting of the
American Public Health Association
and published in the February, 1927, issue
of the Journal of that association.
The title of the paper is ''Does Infant
Welfare Work Operate to Preserve the
Unfit" We do not have space for the
article in full but we desire to call
attention to the opening paragraph,
which is a significant declaration of
principles governing all modern health
work
"It is a fundamental tenet among the
practitioners of preventive medicine
that premature morbidity and mortality
should be reduced to the practicable
minimum. The program of public health
administration in no wise contemplates
the 'preservation of the unfit.' The
avowed aims are the elimination of
insanitary conditions in the environment
of man, the provision of safe
and adequate food supplies, the proper
disposal of personal and community
wastes, the reduction of communicable
diseases, the specific immunization of
individuals against certain parasitic
diseases and the education of the public
in the pactice of personal hygiene."
In his concluding summary Doctor
Falk says that:
"There have been adduced significant
evidences that the saving of infant lives
is followed by associated savings in the
subsequent years of life. I can find no
evidence for, and much that is opposed
to the view, that the savings in subsequent
years of life would have been
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