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Augusta a Pure Food and Products Center—Co-operation and Efficienc
HEALTH
PROBLEMS
IN TIE SOUTH
By
- Dr. Scale Harris
President Taft. In a recent speech,
said, "I he completion of the Pana
ma Canal, the greatest industrial
achievement in the history of the
world, was rendered possible only by
the sanitary imTpovements inaugu
rated by Col. Gorgas.” This South
erner, with his assistants, inr.de the
t'anal Zone one of the most health
ful spots on the globe, thereby prov
ing that it Is possible to eliminate
tropical diseases from a veritable
itjngle. The death rate on (lie Canal
| Zione today is lower than that of any
American city.
Augusta today is doing more advanced
work in handling its health problems
thaji any other Souther* city.
What Are These Proglems.
That a good health record Is import
s'ntf for the agricultural and industrial
development of a country is manifest to
any,i one who lias seriously considered the
• location. Capitalists, in seeking new lo
•■alfties for great industrial enterprises
for, colonizing Immigrants upon unde
veloped lands, other tilings being equal,
select places having the best record lor
health, Kince Augusta’s future depends
to some extent upon the agricultural
development of tlie cut-over timber lands
in this section II is most important that
the’health problems of the rural districts
as well as those that obtain In cities,
shofild be studied.
Malaria.
Perhaps the most important health
problem which affects (lie prosperity of
the■ :south is malaria. One lias bui to
travel in the eastern, northern and west
ern states to find that in those sections
tile entire soutJi is regarded as a hot bed
for malaria, and ro doubt thousands of
Settlers have sought homes in the west
and e'sewbere because they feared to
firing their families to a section which
they considered so unhealthful as the
south, and tr.aJiy Travelers avoid tho
south, from the fenr of becoming infect
ed w th malaria. Much of this Is due to
I■’ sin dice and to igßorjatice of health con
ditions,. but it is also true that there is
4iio”f malaria here than should be, he
rn use. with present knowledge of the
disease there should be none at all.
That malaria has played a major part
Ih- the Jail of nations !is shown from the
study <>• Grecian and Roman history. Dr.
Vfv K. Tliavcr, of the Johns Hopkins
Medical fchiiol, in his masterly oration
on before the American Medical
Association ihrev years ago, showed that
i lie decadence of the Greeks was large
ly. due lo malaria. It is also true t it
malaria has had much to do with the
transformation of the |ancient "Lordly
iioninn," who was "greater than a king."
into the frirli vending “Dago” on the
streets today.
‘ Costs Millions of Dollars.
Malaria is not only the cause of ninny
d<‘iuis and an immense amount of suf
fering, hut it costs tile south many inil
lions of dollars each year. The quinine
and other medicines used In treating
malaria cost an enormous sum of money,
in it , tlie greater loss is from the de
feated . i riling capacity of the laboring
Classes who suffer most from both acute
and chronic forms of the disease. Also,
In 'estimating the cosl of a disease, the
value of each human life sacrificed must
lie considered.
The smith Is enjoying splendid pros
perity In all lines and she should erase
fPc ill her fair name the blot of malaria,
because it is a disease which call be pre
vented and which should not exist. All
licit is necessary Is to educate tlie peo
ple to Ilie ideM that the anopheles mos
quito is tlie only source of the disease,
and lo provide the means of destroying
their breeding places.
,/lTic value of disseminating such
knowledge lias been demonstrated by the
tact Hint tlie families of the intelligent
citizens, who sleep in screened houses.
WEEMS A. SMITH. Pres. JULIAN M. SMITH, Treas.
SMITH BROTHERS CO.
WHOLESALE GROCERS anil GRAIN DEALERS
One of the largest and best known Wholesale
Grocery Houses in the South. All orders handled
promptly and given our careful attention.
AGENTS
Omega Floor, Plain and Sensation Selfrising Flour
SALESMEN
r. s. McWilliams, d. j. buckley, paul hill,
S. W. LINDSAY, J. W. BRANTLEY, FRANK MOYER.
even in districts where malaria is most
prevalent, now enjoy almost perfect irn
munty from tlie disease, as do those who
take the proyhyiact’c doses of quinine.
Education List.
Education is therefore the most Im
portant step in the prevention of mala
ria. The public schools should take up
the work and children should be taught
the source of malaria and how it may
he prevented. Municipalities counties,
and states should ad in this great work
by furnishing the means to drain and ve
clnim the swamps and lowlands and by
enacting and enforcing legislation to de
stroy tlie malariabearing mosquitoes.
When this is done, and it will be done
before many years have e’apsed, tlie
south will be rid of a disease which saps
vitality of thousands of her citizens, and
which more than all other causes, gives
tier the reputation of being unhealthful.
Yellow Fever.
The epidemics of yellow fever have
cost the Gulf and Atlantic States mil
lions of dollars in comeree, besides the
loss of thousands of lives and unfold
suffering. it lias also interfered great
ly with the industrial development of the
Gulf States by preventing many indus
tries from locating in places likely to
become infected. For years a number
of the leading life insurance companies
would not accept risks living on tlie
Gulf Coast on account of the danger of
yellow fever. Many good citizens seek
ing new localities have avoided this sec
lion, because they were afraid of yellow
fever epidemics.
The greatest boon that lias been given
to the Gulf Coast in many years was tlie
work of tlie United States Army Yel
low Fever Commission, consisting, of
Doctors Reed, Carroll. Lazear and Agru
montc, which demonstrated beyond a
shadow of a doubt that the transmis
sion of yellow fever is by tlie mosquito
and since the public understands that
there is no longer danger of the disease
becoming epidemic, the Gulf cities have
taken on an amazing growth.
Medical Triumphs.
The work done by Dr. William Gorgas
and ills assistants in Havana during tlie
years 1900 and 3901. based upon the
mosquito theory of yellow fever, was
one of the greatest triumphs of medicine
in all history, and not only freed Hava
na from yellow fever for the first time in
a century, hut made it as healthful a
city as New York or any other Ameri
can city.
in ridding New Orleans of yellow fever
in 1905, Dr. J. H. White, of the United
Stales Public Health Service demon
strated to tlie world that a well estab
lished epidemic, even under the most
unfavorable conditions,. can be stamped
out of the city during the summer, and
now no Intelligent man believes that any
serious epidemic of yellow fever cut.
ever again occur in the south. For this
work, Dr. White's name deserves to lie
ranked with that of Gorgas, and the en
tire south owes him a debt of gratitude
which it can never pay.
The United States Public Health
Service is performing invaluable service
in preventing the introduction of yellow
fever into the south, but the Gulf cities
should do their part In destroying the
breeding places of the stegomyia, so that
in tlie event of tlie possibility of a case
of yellow fever being introduced, the
disease could not spread. it is regret
aide that the Gulf cities are not doing
their full duty in destroying mosquitoes
and in keeping conditions such that yel
low fever could not spread if a ease
should be introduced without the knowl
edge of the health authorities. This is
going to become more important as our
commerce increases with tho Central
and Koutb American countries, and for
tlie sake of commercial safety, it is tho
duty of the Southern states, and par
ticularly tlie cities of *he Gulf Coast, to
become’ so IVee from the stegomyia that
should a ease slip through the efficient
quarantine of the United States Public
Health Service, no other cases could de
velop.
Hook-Worm.
Among the beneficent results of the
Spunish-Ainerican war was tlie impetus
given to tlie study of tropical diseases
by American physicians and scientists
and one of the greatest discoveries of re
cent years, one which should rank with
that of proving tlie mosqutte transmis
sion of yellow fever, was I lie discovery
that tlie anemia which caused about one
third of all deaths on the island of Porto
Rico was due to an intestinal parasite,
tlie hook-worm.
it was also discovered that the anemia
seen among tlie poor whites in the rural
districts of the South was due to tlie
same cause. This hook-worm anemia,
by sapping the energy and strength of
tlie man, women, and particularly the
children, made them stupid and shiftless
so that the malady was called the “lazy"
disease. Thousands have died in the
rural districts of the south, and many
more have been marie inefficient work
ers, because of this disease. The lands
have not been properly cultivated and
many of the poor whites of the rural dis-
tricts have not made good citizens be
cause they were really ill from hook
worm anemia.
With tlie development of the cotton
mill Industry in the south, the whites
from the rural districts were brought to
gether as operatives in the mills and
many of them became pale, lazy, and
stupid, a condition which was tailed cot
ton mill anemia. This condition was
thought to be due to the inhalation of
dust and lint, but Dr. Stiles has proved
it to lie hook-worm disease, and due to
the soil polution.
By the administration of a few doses
of thymol, those poor, unfortunate indi
viduals may be cured of this disease, and
thousands have already been relieved
and are leading happy and efficient lives.
Thymol is a specific remedy for hook
worm but it is better to go back of this
and prevent the disease. Soil polution
is the source of the spread of hook
worm, and the suggestions of Dr. Stiles
aw to its prevention that are being car
ried out by the Rockefeller Commission
for the eradication of the hook-worm is
aiding materially in the solution of an
other of the problems affecting South
ern prosperity. ,
Pellagra.
Perhaps no other disease which is sup
posed to prevail more in the South than
in other parts of the country is so fear
ed by would-be immigrants as the symp
tom complex known as pellagra. Though
it prevails in every state in the union to
a greater or lesser extent tlie south gets
tlie credit of being most subject to its
ravages.
In combating the spread of this dis
ease hygiene and sanitation, though im
portant. bear but a secondary relation to
its control. The cause of this disease is
still a matter of dispute. The great ma
jority of investigators believe they find
a connection between it and the con
sumption of maize and its products. On
one point all are agreed and that is that
those who have already contracted the
disease are unfavorably affected by a
diet of com products.
An explanation is needed of the fact
that for a century or more the people of
tlie south have thriven and maintained
robust health upon a diet whose cereal
element was chiefly Indian corn, yet it
is only during the last twenty years that
any pellagra lias been recognized in this
section, and only during the last seven
years that it has reached serious pro
portions.
The explanation, or at least an ex
planation is at hand. In tlie years be
fore pellagra was known among us the
corn we used was raised and ground at
home. Only when we began to depend
upon the fields of the northwest for our
cornbread did the disease appear at all,
and a sudden access of virulence prompt
ly followed an expansion of enterprise in
that region whereby corn that had been
considered unfit even for tlie food of cat
tle was rendered available for com
merce. Every year in different parts
of that region protracted rains caused
vast areas of maize to sprout and fer
ment in the fields before it was gather
ed. it was discovered that such corn
could be kiln dried and otherwise doc
tored so as to conceal its unwholsotne
conditions. lmediatelv vast kilns were
elected along the trunk iine railroads
travr sing those states and those estab
lishments have been running day and
night during the crop season and for
months thereafter every year since their
establishment.
Brought From Northwest.
Train loads of damaged corn are con
stantly delivered to be cured and doctor
ed after which they are taken by groat
milling establishments to be transformed
into tempting foods for man and beast.
It is believed that but little of tlie bolted
corn meal that is shipped to tlie south
escapes this form of adulteration rims
conveying the chemical toxins unchanged
to tlie digestive organs of southern con
sumers.
The opponents of the erfrn theory of
the origin of pellagra think they have
an unanswerable argument when they
point to sufferers with the disease who
claim never to have eaten cornbread, hut
this argument falls to tlie ground when
it is known that many of file cheaper
grades of flour, all of tlie prepared bat
ter cake flours and some of tlie break
last foods consist largely of corn in va
rious conditions of adulteration.
Finally it is significant that since l lie
introduction of these mammoth dry
kilns into the business the prevalence ol
pellagra has promptly increased an hun
dred fold. The inference is irresistible
nnd tlie only remedy is a National De
partment of Public Health whose offi
cials will have full power and authority
to investigate and control every dry
kiln in existence, to keep track of its
products and see that none of them en
ter into food for human beings.
A still better remedy so far as we ol
the south are concerned would be for
southern planters to raise all the corn
needed for home consumption and thus
at one happy stroke conserve tlie health,
the lives and the fortunes of our sunny
land.
THE AUGUSTA HERALD, AUGUSTA, GA.
ASK FOR NEAPOLITAN BRICK ICE CREAM
Delivered in the new san
itary one service package.
Made Especially for Home Use
- ' %
«
A convenient and delicious dessert.
The Hill Ice Cream Co.
Phone 1871 607 Broad St.
CLARK MILLING COMPANY
High Grade Flour, Meal, Grits, Bran and Feed
To our Friends and Patrons:— » ... '
We wish to announce that -we have recently completely remodeled our plant and have installed
throughout the most modern improved machinery for the manufacture of high grade flours, meal
and mill products.
We respectfully solicit your business which will have our prompt and careful attention.
CLARK MILLING COMPANY
MILLERS OF
AUGUSTA, GEORGIA
“AUGUSTA IN 1914”