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

February, 1927 The Health Bulletin 15
meclica, in that it never really does
what it appears to do. Alcohol makes
you think you are warm when you are
cold, strong when you are weak, and
rich when you are poor." We leave
it to our readers. If anybody has ever
seen a more concise and correct statement
concerning alcohol as a drug, we
would like to look at it.
Tlie author has some interesting
chapters on the effect of raising blood
pressure with such things as affection,
fanatical religious views, undue apprehension,
and domestic troubles. All of
which is a matter of common knowledge.
He has a very laughable reference
to the test of the genuineness of
religion as indicated by a test of blood
pressure. For example, he mentions the
case of at least one confessed hyprocrite,
a politician who joined the
chui'ch confessedly for the purpose of
advancing his political interest—confessed
it to the doctor, of course, and
nobody else—and that the pressure, of
course, remained the same, very high.
He contrasts this very interestingly
with other examples which need not be
mentioned here.
The author very pertinently observes
that physicians should not inform their
patients of an elevation in blood pressure
unless the physician explains definitely
to the patient all about it, its
full significance and prognosis, for the
simple reason that it Is so easy to get
a patient to worrying about his high
blood pressure and to thus develop
what the author calls "blood pressui-e
scare." We wish to endorse this statement,
because while we are sure that
the great majority of physicians carefully
guard against carelessness on this
point, we have a suflicient number of
letters coming to this ofiice in which the
writers nearly all begin, "My doctor
says my blood pressure is very high,
and so on."
The book closes with the prediction
that in a few years a coroner's inquest
will be necessary every time an American
citizen dies under 50 years of age
in order to fix the responsibility for
such untimely death. In view of the
wide-spread appeal now being made
throughout American medical circles
for the periodic physical examination
of every individual on his or her birthday.
It is significant to note that the
author called this a "Health Audit"
and advocated it twenty years ago.
We will let the Louisiana Health
Bulletin close this discussion in a review
all its own entitled "Arteriosclerosis."
Says that Bulletin:
"Whenever anything goes wrong that
cannot be lucidly explained, either
idiosyncrasy, 'anlage,' heredity, disposition
or the ductless glands are called
into account for the case. But they
prove nothing, nor do they offer anything
better than a loophole for evading
an issue or cloaking ignorance. Perhaps
after all our vaunted progress and
accumulated knowledge of arteriosclerosis
and allied diseases is nothing more
than the stumbling about in a marsh
of words. And nature's forces go
serenely on according to 'laws' which
we are blamed for disregarding. But
ignorance of either natural or manmade
laws excuses no man from consequences
of infraction."
RESOURCE
The prevention of disease is nothing
more nor less than the practical application
of scientific knowledge to the
end that preventable diseases may be
prevented. In other words the utilization
of our resources, known to be effective.
An illustration of this practical
application came our way the other
day. In company with some other
health oflicers we were riding along
Hillsboro Road in West Raleigh when
a negro boy on a motorcycle passed our
car. Just after passing a big ugly dog
dashed out of a yard and made for
the negro on the cycle. The boy without
veering his cycle an inch or changing
speed a particle, cooly lifted the
leg on the side next the dog, over to
the opposite side and proceeded on
like the ladies in the old days used
to ride horseback. The look that negro
gave the dog was a study in heredity.
No dog ever born has been able to outwit
an able bodied negro youth when
it comes to application of his instinctive
resources needed for his own protection.
A white youth under similar