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

TH£ JIEALTH BULLETIN.he receives. Mrs. Williams, after beingexamined by Dr. Smith, undergoesa slight operation under local anesthesia,and is relieved of the first an:]only malignant cells found in herbreast. Richard Roe, who is preparingfor a long journey, is vaccinatedagainst typhoid fever, a disease nolonger existent in Dr. Smith's city,since pollution of the water has beendiscontinued. John Doe, who is amiueralogical expert and wishes to dosome prospecting in high altitudes,has his heart examined.There are numerous applicants forpulmonary examinations. This isdone by Dr. Smith and his assitants ina most thorough and up-to-date manner,and advice is given each accordingto the findings. It has been manyyears since Dr. Smith has seen an advancedcase of pulmonary tuberculosis,and the great white plague will soonbe a tiling of the past. Everybodygoes to a physician twice a year andundergoes a thorough examination.The result of this examination isstated in a permanent record, and notwo consecutive examinations aremade by the same physician, in orderthat a condition overlooked by onemay be detected by another. Cases ofdoubt or in which there is differenceof opinion are referred to specialboards.The average of human lifehas beengreatly increased and the sum of humansuffering has been greatiy decreased.Preventive has largely replacedcurative medicine. Tenementsare no longer known; prostitution, andwitli it the venereal diseases, has disappeared;institutions for the feeblemindedare no longer needed, becaussthe breed has died out; insanity israpidly decreasing, because its chiefprogenitors, alcoholism and syphilis,have been suppressed.These and many other pleasingvisions come to Dr. Smith in hisdream, from which he is startled bvtlie ring of the telephone at his elbow.The call says: "Come quickly to PatRyan's saloon at the corner of Myrtleand Second. There has been adrunken row. Bring your surgical instruments." Then the smiles whichhad played over the face of the doctorin his dream were displaced by lines ofcare, and he went forth into the darknessof ignorance and crime.There are many Dr. Smiths andthey have been seeing pleasing visionsin their dreams and meeting withstern realities in their waking hours.Nearly fifty thousand Dr. Smiths constitutethe American Medical Association,which is expending thousands oidollars annually in trying to so educatethe people that unnecessary diseasewill be prevented. The doctors areasking that the work of the national,state, municipal and rural health organizationsmay be made more effective,that the knowledge gained in th-^study of the causation of disease maybe utilized. The world has seen whathas been done in Havana and in theCanal Zone, how yellow fever and malariahave been suppressed, and hovrthe most pestilential spots on earthmay be converted into healthful habitationsfor man. Scientific medicinehas made these demonstrations, andthe world applauds, but seems slow tomake general application of the rulesof hygiene.The unvaccinated are the dangerouspeople. They are the ones, and theonly ones, that perpetuate this loathsomedisease, that cause gullible publicofficials to erect "pesthouses" atpublic expense. And, by the way, publicexpense usually means at the expenseof the vaccinated, for the bestand most intelligent people of todayare vaccinated. Only the careless, theignorant, and particularly the negroe?,are unvaccinated. To which class diyou belong?