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

The Health Bulletin August. 1911
theory. It is evident that in a wellordered
State the care of the physical
health of people must occupy first
place." One of the remarkable statements
in the Dictator's program—his
platform, we might call it—is that he
is a "Convinced Ruralist." He says
that "industrial urbanism leads to
sterility of population, and, second,
that small rural property leads to
the same result." In short, his program
for a strong rural population
composed of people living on moderate-sized
farms would stand between
what he calls "infinite moral cowardice
of the so-called upper classes
of society" and the "industrial urbanism"
on the other hand.
He compares the birth rate of Italy,
which has 27 per 1,000 of population,
with that of the other European
countries. He points out that Sweden
has the lowest birth rate, 17 per
1,000; Norway, only 19; and Denmark,
21. He also makes the statement
that Germany is in full decadence
in this respect. He claims
that the birth rate in Germany has
fallen from 35 per 1,000 to 20. He
says that "the birth rate of France
has already stopped for the last fifteen
years at about 18 per 1,000."
But he also calls attention to the fact
that in certain sections of France the
birth rate is rising. He places England
even lower than Sweden, claiming
that England's birth rate in 1926
was the lowest in Europe, being only
16.7 per 1,000 population. He says
that he has closed twenty-five thousand
saloons in Italy during the past
few years and claims that the deaths
from alcoholism have decreased accordingly.
He laments the fact that
the mortality due to insanity is on
the increase, as are the number of
suicides. He places especial emphasis
on the fine work that has been done
throughout Italy under the National
Foundation for the Protection of
Maternity and Infancy. He reviews
the wonderful progress that has been
done under his direction in favor of
a libei-alized medical profession,
school hygiene, and nation-wide sanitary
improvements, as well as in the
fine work of safeguarding the food
supplies of Italy. Great progress
has been made in the water and sewage
problems commensurate to any
other country. He mentions the fact
that the social diseases have increased
and explains that more strict measures
are necessary for the control of
these maladies. He is unable to explain
that in
certain sections of Italy
the tuberculosis death rate has increased.
The »ame may be said concerning
cancer. The age-old problem
of malaria for the Roman Empire
has been handled in a satisfactory
manner, he says.
The main purpose we have in calling
attention to advancement of public
health work stressed in Mussolini's
address is on account of the fact that
pellagra has been almost wiped out.
In the language of Mussolini, "the
social malady which has most oppressed
the Italian nation for at least
forty years past has now entirely disappeared.
I refer to pellagra." In
1925 there were only 108 deaths in
the whole of Italy from this disease.
Kindly compare that to the deaths in
North Carolina for the year 1926.
In 1926 we had 458 deaths in a population
of less than 3,000,000. The
Italian deaths of 108 in a population
of 40,000,000 bear out Mussolini's
statement that the disease has practically
disappeared. He says it can
be said that the Italian nation has
definitely won this battle. We certainly
hope that before many more
years it can be said that the State
of North Carolina has also won this
battle. We feel that we are betraying
no confidence when we state that
a distinguished North Carolina physician
is now engaged in an exhaustive
research concerning the present
status of what might be called recrudescence
of pellagra in North
Carolina. We hope that he will be
I