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

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December, 1927 The Health Bulletin 21
reaching new heights. Occasionallj' the
lower branches, no longer giving nourishment
to the tree, slough off. We
should not be ashamed to change ovir
methods, rather we should be ashamed
never to do so. We should try new
things, but should show common sense
about it. The science which can point
to its achievements against smallpox,
malaria, yellow fever, diphtheria, typhoid
and typhus fevers, tuberculosis
and a score of other diseases, as well
as to a rapid lengthening of human
life, and especially to the saving of
vast numbers of infants from early
death, need not be ashamed to acknowledge
that some experiments have
failed ; neither should it hesitate to admit
that we are still merely picking
up pebbles on the shore of the sea
of knowledge, and that what is not
known about maintaining and perfecting
the health of mankind is far greater
than what is known. The opiwrtunities
for discovery are as great as before
the days of Harvey, Pasteur and Lister.
Discoveries While Pursuing Daily
Duties
"We are apt to think of science as
concerned only with the microscope, the
test tube and the chemical balance.
It is my urgent desire to impress upon
both laymen and professional health
workers that some of the most valuable
truths of sanitary science have
been discovered in the field, at the
bedside, or at the desk of the statistician.
Great as are the contributions of
the laboratory, they must all be
checked by observations on human beings.
There is the greatest need for
scientific investigation by health officers
and field workers. Such studies
have borne splendid fruit in the past
and will do so in the future.
"It was by his study of his patients,
rather than by chemical tests, that
Sir George Baker, in the ISth century,
showed that 'Devonshire co.ic' was the
result of lead poisoning, due to the
custom in that part of England of
keeping cider in lead lined vessels.
"Beriberi is a very serious disease of
the tropics affecting the nervous system.
According to Sellards, the nature
of the diseases was discovered in the
following way. In 1890 Dr. Eijkman, a
Dutch physician in Java, was studying
another disease and was using chickens
for his experiments. The chickens
died so fast with paralysis that he
feared he would have to stop his work.
Suddenly, they began to get better
but after a time the same disease attacked
them again. Eijkman gave
the boy who took care of the
money to
chickens to buy cheap unpolished rice
for them, but the boy kept the money
and begged nice white rice from the
hospital steward. It was then that the
chickens died. The steward was away
for a time and the boy had to buy unpolished
rice. Then the chickens recovered.
The chicken disease reminded
Eijkman of beiiberi and he tried feeding
unpolished rice to beriberi patients.
They too recovered. The iwlishing of
rice seemed to i-emove something, the
lack of which caused beriberi in persons
whose diet consisted chietly of
polished rice. This disease is now
largely controlled, but best of all. Funk,
while trying to learn the nature of this
substance, laid the foundation for the
study of vitamins.
"Austin Flint, with no knowledge of
germs, showed that typhoid fever is
spread by drinking water. At about the
same time, Dr. John Snow, of London,
traced cholera to the celebrated Broad
Street Well. These observations have
been of inestimable value to preventive
medicine.
"It was not in the laboratory, but
while going through the tenements of a
New England mill village during the
course of a typhoid fever outbreak,
that Sedgwick observed the transfer of
frtsh excretions from child to child,
and recognized the imixtrtance of contact
infection, a conception which has
revolutionized our methods of handling
contagious diseases.
"It was Finlay's observations on the
surroundings of his yellow fever
patients in Cuba which led to his suspicion
that a certain species of mosquito
transmits this disease. While at
w-ork for the government trying to
stamp out yellow fever in the South,
Henry Carter observed that after this
disease is brought to a place, a certain
number of the days must elapse before
it begins to spread. These two facts,
brought to the attention of our army
< fficers, soon led to the complete solution
of the problem and control of the
disease."