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

262 THE HEALTH BULLETIN.of alcohol. The facts are bad enoughwithout the exaggerated statements sooften made by the uninformed temperanceadvocate. The time is ripe for agreat and sane temperance movement,conducted by our profession, tellingthe public simply the truth about alcohol,disseminating knowledge of theincontrovertible facts. The value ofsuch a movement to this country isbeyond the power of the most hopefulto foresee.Venebeal Diseases.Our profession has signally failedin its duty to the public in that wehave not given them the facts in regardto venereal diseases. Of courseI do not mean that we should exposeindividual cases—a thousand timesno!—but we should let the peopleknow that an authority says that inthe United States 65 per cent of adultmales have had gonorrhea; that inthis country 800,000 males reach maturityannually, and of this number500,000 become infected with gonorrhea.The public should know that,of the 14,000,000 male adults under theage of thirty in the United States, themost reliable observers calculate that8,000,000 have gonorrhea or its sequelae.Our women should know thata man who has once had gonorrheais a dangerous man to marry,and that from 65 to 75 per cent of thewomen who wed are accepting this danger.The public should know thatone-third of the deaths from apoplexyare nothing but syphilitic affections.They should know that locomotorataxia, Brlght's disease, paresis, manyother forms of insanity, and those unaccountablemoral lapses are frequentlyvenereal indications. The trailof physical suffering which follows inthe wake of these diseases is insignificantwhen compared with the mentalanguish, the broken hearts, anithe saddened homes that mark theirpath.At the bottom of these troubles liesthe ignorance which it is incumbentupon us to help to remove. Wheneverthe public realizes that it pays, in dollarsand cents, to prevent disease, tosay nothing of the relief from sufferingand sickness, they will cooperatewith us, and not till then.In conclusion, I wish to repeat whatI said here a year ago. We are livingtoday in a time of transition, I mightsay a time of crisis. While our politiciansare fighting over the tariff, we, Jthe medical profession, have issues of ^paramount importance to solve. Forwhat is more important from everypoint of view than the health andracial integrity of a nation? Let us bein the vanguard with Him who said, "Iam come that they might have life, andthat they might have it more abundantly."Let us then realize the importofthe task before us. Let us go forward,harbingers of hope, pluck theprematurely dead from the tomb,strev/ flowers upon the path of theliving, and, in our unselfish service tohumanity, emblazon our names highup among the immortals.No AlternativeDoctor (to operetta Diva who wishes— to be vaccinated) "Shall I vaccinateyour arm?"Diva— "Heavens! No, of course not.Think of me as an artist with a scaron my arm! You must vaccinate mewhere it won't show."Doctor— "I think you had bettertake it internally."Keep your children away from otherchildren who are sick, at least untilyou are sure that the sick child hasno contagious disease.