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

26 The Health Bulletin Juhi. 1927
of tlu' (liflVrenee iH'twocn sound tlioiijiht
and visionary speculation. Since that
day we have come to what is known
as the scientilic ajre.
Almost all over the world men are
niakinfj ohservations, collecting accurate
information, comparing ascertained
facts and worlving toward established
conclusions. Although great
progress has been made and certain
fundamental rules have become well
established, we cannot yet estimate the
development of scientific research as
much more than begun. But great
effort is being put out all around us
and a constant advancement of knowledge
is in progress. This has been
especially true in the science of medicine.
Many of the diseases which laid
a heavy toll on life have been entirely
eradicated and many others have been
greatly circumscribed. The average
length of life has been much increased.
But there is still an enormous economic
loss in sickness and the list of maladies
for which no remedy is known is still
large. How far the mind has an effect
on the body is not yet accurately
known. What mental reactions may
be set up to preserve health or combat
disease cannot yet be stated.
The Necessity of
an Open Mind
If there is any one thing which the
progress of science has taught us, it is
the necessity of an open mind. Without
this attitude very little advance
could be made. Truth must always be
able to demonstrate itself. But when it
has been demonstrated, in whatsoever
direction it may lead, it ought to be
followed. The remarkable ability of
America to adopt this policy has been
one of the leading factors in its rise
to power. When a principle has been
demonstrated, the American people
have not hesitated to adopt it and put
it into practice. Being free from the
unwarranted impediments of custom
and caste, we have been able to accept
whole-heartedly the results of research
and investigation and the benefits of
discovery and invention.
This policy has been the practical
working out of the applied theory of
efficiency in life. We have opened our
mines and assembled coal and iron with
which we have wrought wonderful
machinery, we have harnessed our
water power, we have directed invention
to agriculture, the result of which
has been to put more power at the disposal
of the individual, eliminating
waste and increasing production. It
has all been a coordination of effort
which has raised the whole standard
of life.
In the development of this general
policy the science of medicine has had
its part to play. No tendencies in recent
history have been more outstanding
than those toward conservation and cooperation,
both in public and in private
activities. For years the value of conservation
of our material resources,
forests, mineral deposits, water power,
animal life, has been generally recognized.
Movements have been started to
cut down waste and unnecessary destruction
in business and industrial
operations. We are practicing economy
in our governmental affairs. But the
conservation of human health and life
is one of the greatest achievements
in the advance of civilization, both socially
and economically.
What an incalculable loss to the
world may have been the premature
blotting out of a single brilliant creative
mind which might have been
saved through modern healing or preventive
measures. Efliciency experts
translate into dollars and cents what
disease and the resulting loss of manpower
mean. Directly, disease costs
heavily. Indirectly, its results are even
more costly.
In the days before medical men robbed
them of their terrors, a single case
of yellow fever or cholera reported in
New York Harbor caused such panic as
seriously to interfere with business.
Now such sporadic cases would scarcely
cause public comment. Industry now
figures what disease and temporary disability
of employees, from the highest
to the lowest, means on the yearly
balance sheet. It is not uncommon for
a corporation to take out an insurance
policy for its own benefit on the life
of an executive. Thus it attempts to
neutralize the monetary loss it presumably
might suffer through being deprived
of his services.
Factory buildings now are equipped
with modren sanitary and hygienic de-