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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (June 27, 1901)
'Cbe Conservative * HEALTH AND HOW TO PRESERVE IT. ( Written for THE CONSERVATIVE by Law rence Irwell. ) A scientific view of life regards it as being composed of a series of actions , which are now fairly defined in their nature. These actions , known to physiologists elegists as functions , are discharged by special organs ; and health may there fore be defined as "the perfect discharge of all functions through which life is maintained" the harmonious working of the organs constituting the body. Life , being a highly complex series of actions , naturally involves complicated conditions for their due performance. Ill-health means , of course , that the equilibrium existing between the various actions of the body is upset , and this equilibrium is subject , as is all compli cated machinery , to many and varied causes of disturbance. Man , in com mon with the lower animals , is de pendent upon his surroundings for the necessities of life , and these surround ings , while ministering to his wants , may , in certain circumstances , become sources of disease. The water we drink is as much a necessity of life as the air we breathe , but it is liable to cause seri ous disorders' when the supply is ob tained from improper sources. Again , numerous diseases to which man is sub I ject are traceable to over-indulgence in special articles of diet , or to an insuffi cient quantity of certain necessary foods. It is not an exaggeration to say that most persons in good circumstances eat too much meat , and do not drink suffi cient water. Heredity. In addition to the outward sources of health disturbance , there are other and more subtle causes which complicate the problem of health. Each individual inherits from his ancestors a certain physical constitution. This constitu tion , although liable to modification , nevertheless determines to a great ex tent the physical life of the person pos sessing it. Each individual , therefore , must be viewed as drawing his chances of good health , or of its absence , from a double source from the constitution which he has inherited and from the surroundings which make up the life he lives and pursues. Aim of Sanitary Science. It is the aim and object of modern sanitary science to deal as clearly and definitely as possible with the sources both of health and of disease. Hygiene , the science of health , devotes attention to the surroundings amid which our lives are passed ; it seeks to provide us with the necessary conditions of life in the most desirable form. Its object is to urge us to breathe pure air , to consume suitable food , to work , but not to worry , to take reasonable recreation , and to husband our resources , so as to prolong | the period of life , and secure a painless death. The important branch of knowl edge known as hygiene teaches us that , with an inherited constitution of a healthy kind , we ought to take every means of securing its welfare ; and when , upon the other hand , a defective frame has fallen to our lot , health-science tells us how we moke the best of it. Even to the individual who has been handi capped in the struggle for existence by physical infirmity and inherited disease , hygiene is found to convey the cheering assurance that it is possible to prolong life and obtain a part at least of the hap piness which the possession of health alone can bestow. In illustration of this assertion , I may cite the case of a person born with a tendency to pthisis , popularly known as consumption. Sta tistics prove beyond doubt that if his life be passed tinder the guidance of health laws if he be properly clothed , provided with a suitable diet , compelled to live in a pure atmosphere , and to avoid excess of nervous strain he may reach the age of thirty-five without the disease to which he is specially liable at tacking him , and once past that age , he may reasonably hope to become in due course an old man. Another example , is the case of one who inherits a special susceptibility in the direction of some mental disorder. Mysterious as such tendency is , it can be shown that by proper attention to the education of the child , by curbing the passions , and con trolling the emotions , aided by care in the choice of food , as well as in the selection of desirable physical surround ings , prolongation of life may be in sured , and so may freedom from one of the most terrible afflictions which at tacks the human race. Hygiene Successful. The knowledge which we now possess concerning hygiene constitutes a tri umph of modern science ; it demon strates that in the war against disease , man finds untold benefit in observing the laws which experience and investi gation have deduced for the regulation of his life. It is ignorance or neglect of these laws which sends thousands of men and women to an early grave , de stroying , of course , hopes and oppor tunities which may at one time have contained the promise of high excellence in many departments of human activity. The one great truth , which health re formers are never tired of proclaiming , because they know it is true , is that the majority of the diseases which afflict hnmanity ore , in reality , of a preventa ble character. Until this truth has been thoroughly accepted , not only by indi viduals , but also by nations , no real progress in sanitary science can be at tained , or even expected. To realize fully the immense power , which the practical application of the indisputable doctrine that most diseases are pre ventable , places in our hands , we must know something of the causes of certain disorders , which , though powerful and ubiquitous , are nevertheless within hu man control. Among these diseases , the most prominent are those popularly known as contagions , or infections scientifically called zymotic. Modern science has demonstrated the possibility of escape from these terrors by proper attention to the conditions under which they are spread. We hold hi our own hands the power both of increasing and decreasing the chances of early deathand and nowhere is the power of man over the forces of nature better exemplified than in the lessened mortality which follows even moderate attention to the laws of health. There is an ideal to which the American people ought to as pire ; and the first step towards it , is im provement of the health of the present generation. If this object were kept as steadily in view as it is in the cultiva tion of the domestic animals , the bene ficial results would be apparent in our children and in our grandchildren. A slight development for the better in each generation would imply progress , yield ing most important results in an in definite time results which , if suddenly manifested , would appear miraculous. Preventable Deaths. The number of deaths in the United States last year is not yet obtainable , but the total number of recorded deaths in 1890 , according to the census of that year , was 875,521. Of this number , at least 100,000 were "unnecessary and pre ventable , " if our existing knowledge of disease and its causes had been properly applied. Moreover , not only could the lives of these persons have been saved , but , in addition , a vast amount of nonfatal - fatal sickness could have been avoided by reasonable attention to hygienic laws. Thes3 figures of mortality and facts con cerning preventable illness are sufficient to arouse the most lethargic of us into ac tivity in the observance of hygienic laws. But , if the nation at large is to partici pate in the work of health-reform , it is necessary that education in sanitary science should have a place in the train ing of the young as well as in the prac tice of adults. While anxious to avoid being tedious , I would urge that if there is one consideration which more than another should be kept in view , it is that every good citizen ought to consider it a duty which he owes to himself and to the community to acquire all possibl information concerning the art of living healthy , and , having obtained the knowl edge , he ought to put it in practice. It is only through individual effort that anything like national interest in health- science can be fostered. There cannot be any royal road which will place length of days within the easy reach of a nation any more than there can be a smooth pathway towards full and per fect knowledge in any other branch of
