physician thinks we are in danger of emphasizing too much the physiological side of the question and that the problem is largely a moral one. The following from a normal-school president is notable: That a knowledge of the essentials of personal and sex hygiene be requisite to the obtaining of a teacher's certificate and an outline of minimum work on the subject required by the state, should be made obligatory upon our training schools, with special conditions as to the qualifications of the teachers or physicians who do the work and here, perhaps, is the logical beginning. Respectfully submitted, MAGGIE W. BARRY, Chairman REPORT OF PUBLIC HEALTH EDUCATION COMMITTEE OF AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION The American Medical Association Committee for Public Health Education among women was appointed for the express purpose of meeting the ever-growing and popular demand for scientific instruction concerning the nature and prevention of disease. Appreciating the efforts put forth by countless public-spirited women, who thru their various organizations have striven for improved conditions in home and community, and realizing what a power intelligent women exert in the molding of public sentiment, this committee from among the medical profession offers in a spirit of altruism to co-operate with them in this vital work of health education, the importance of which cannot be overestimated. The psychological moment has come for such instruction, for the individual life has assumed an economic value, and health is now regarded as a national asset. The day of preventive medicine has arrived and our great national organization of physicians is delighted to recognize and encourage the arousing health conscience. While the laity is beginning to have a permanent glimmering of health truths, many of the older generation have been anæsthetized by repeated monotonies and it is in the plastic, receptive minds of the coming generation that the seeds of hygiene will bear richest fruit. It is easy to start a child right. He accepts and assimilates new truths, and these, becoming a part of his composition, find practical expression in adult life. To the grown-up the introduction of sanitary science seems an intrusion; it has survived primeval customs and conditions. Why disrupt them? The children are, therefore, the sanitarian's greatest asset and the improvement of their condition is the work of the century. This necessitates the education of their superiors in the science of right living, for in this movement for health conservation, parent, teacher, and child are vital and inseparable factors; while the sanitarian stands ready to lend advice or render active assistance wherever indicated. To quote President David Starr Jordan: If the great army of philanthropists ever exterminate sin and pestilence, if they ever work out our race's salvation, it will be because a little child has led them. And Dr. I. N. Hurty, chairman of the Committee on Methods of Public Education in Hygiene, affirms that if hygiene be effectually taught in the public schools and if medical inspection of school children is in force, then within a decade public health exhibits and pamphlet distribution may largely be done away with. In our United States there are always three million people sick and one million, five hundred thousand die annually. Heart and kidney diseases are steadily increasing, due to overwork of these organs, while as a most conservative estimate 75 per cent of our population is infected with venereal diseases. This amount of lost efficiency is matter for grave consideration. The developing child is entitled to a knowledge of his anatomy and physiology, of the laws of health, and the results of their infraction. Education is the only means of eradicating the venereal peril, and as citizens we owe every boy and girl a knowledge concerning these diseases and their communicability. As 85 per cent of our children leave school before the fifteenth year, this instruction must be given early. The parent is the ideal source of this information, but the school teacher or physical director must be prepared to supplement the all too frequently faulty home training. It is here that the American Medical Association Health Committee can sometimes be of service in instructing both parents and children in sex hygiene. A valuable bibliography on the prevention of disease, including the subject of social hygiene, has been compiled by the committee and these books and pamphlets should form an important part of every library. During the year just closed the American Medical Association Health Committee, with its one thousand and eight hundred enlisted physicians, has given two thousand and eight hundred public lectures to audiences aggregating two hundred and thirty thousand, besides accomplishing much of a practical nature. For instance, it has been instrumental in securing medical inspection of schools, the introduction of bubble cups and individual towels, improved ventilating systems in cars, and the establishment of comfort stations. In addition to the Central Committee of Ten appointed by the American Medical Association, there are forty-four state chairmen, also representatives in Panama, Alaska, and Hawaii. Their work in turn is divided among county chairmen. For the convenience of those who may desire the co-operation of this committee in the arrangement of health programs, a list of the state chairmen is appended and also a list of suggestive topics in use by the committee. Respectfully submitted, ELEANOR SEYMOUR, State Chairman, California LIST OF SUGGESTIVE TOPICS FOR HEALTH LECTURES I. The cause and prevention of common colds. 2. The air we breathe and the value of ventilation. 3. The prevention and cure of tuberculosis. 4. The importance of early diagnosis and treatment of adenoids. 5. The causes and prevention of deafness. 6. The value of pure food and the physiology of digestion. 7. The relation of wholesome food to good health, and the proper food for school children. 8. The relation of pure water to the public health. 9. Water-borne diseases. 10. The relation of flies, mosquitoes, and other insects to the public health. II. Pure milk and infant hygiene. 12. The care of the food at home. 13. The use and abuse of stimulants. 14. The relation of teeth to good health. 15. The causes and results of eye strain. 18. The medical examination of school children. 19. The prevention of some of the commoner diseases (skin diseases). 20. The hygienic management of nervous children. 21. The causes and prevention of mental diseases. 22. The value of exercise and rest. 23. The responsibility of girlhood to motherhood. 24. The health of women in youth and maturity. 25. The importance of early diagnosis of cancer in women. 26. The relation of social diseases to the family. 27. The responsibility of boyhood to fatherhood. 28. How to instruct children regarding the origin of life. 29. The value of vaccination and serum therapy. 30. The value of animal experimentation. 31. The prevention of infectious diseases. 32. How to meet emergencies, hemorrhage, burns, etc. 33. Diseases induced by certain industries. 34. The causes and prevention of rheumatism, appendicitis, and Bright's disease. CENTRAL COMMITTEE Rosalie Slaughter Morton, M.D., Honorary Chairman, New York, N.Y. Gertrude Felker, M.D., Secretary, Dayton, Ohio. Alice L. Hamilton, M.D., Boston, Mass. I. N. Hurty, M.D., Secretary, Indiana State Board of Health. W. F. Snow, M.D., Secretary, California State Board of Health. STATE CHAIRMEN Alabama-Dr. Anna May Robinson, 620 North Nineteenth Street, Birmingham. Arizona-Dr. Agnes McKee Wallace, 137 East Goodwin Street, Prescott. Arkansas-Dr. Nina Hardin, Fayetteville. California-Dr. Eleanor Seymour, State Hygienic Laboratory, Berkeley. Colorado-Dr. Alice Guthrie, 431 Temple Court Building, Denver. Indiana-Dr. I. N. Hurty, Indianapolis. Iowa-Dr. Jennie McCowen, Davenport. Kansas-Dr. Ida C. Barnes, 726 Kansas Avenue, Topeka. Kentucky-Dr. Delia Caldwell, Paducah. Louisiana-Dr. Oscar Dowling, Shreveport. Maine Dr. Lucinda B. Hatch, Spring and Emery Streets, Portland. Maryland-Dr. Anna Schultze-Abercrombie, 827 Hamilton Terrace, Baltimore. Dr. Evangeline W. Young, assistant state chairman, 131 Newbury Street, Boston. Michigan-Dr. Della T. Pierce, Kalamazoo. Minnesota-Dr. Laura A. Lane, 430 Mahoning Street, Hibbing. Mississippi-Dr. Sara Allen Castle, 2008 Eleventh Street, Meridian. Missouri-Dr. Dora Greene Wilson, Kansas City. Nebraska-Dr. Marie L. Grote, Ponca. Nevada-Dr. M. R. Walker, Reno. New Jersey Dr. Maria Mitchell Vinton, 15 Halstead Place, East Orange. New Hampshire-Dr. Marion L. Bugbee, New Hampshire Memorial Hall, Concord. New Mexico-Dr. Cecil W. Taylor-Goodman, New Armijo Block, Albuquerque. New York-Dr. May Allen, state secretary, 297 Alexander Street, Rochester. Dr. Anna White Marquis, assistant chairman, Norwich. North Carolina-Dr. Delia G. Dixon-Carroll, Raleigh, North Dakota-Dr. Elizabeth Rindlaub, Fargo. Ohio-Dr. Eleanora S. Everhard, The Calvert, Dayton. Oregon-Dr. Ethel Gray, Portland. Pennsylvania-Dr. Elizabeth Leiper Martin, 329 South Dallas Avenue, Pittsburgh. Rhode Island-Dr. G. L. Swartz, Providence. South Carolina-Dr. L. Rosa H. Gantt, Spartanburg. South Dakota-Dr. Annie B. Hainer, Sioux Falls. Tennessee-Dr. Elizabeth C. Kane, 732 Exchange Building, Memphis. Texas-Dr. Minnie C. Archer, Houston. Utah-Dr. Belle A. Gemmell, Salt Lake City. Vermont-Dr. Grace Sherwood, St. Albans.. Virginia-Dr. Emily C. Runyon, 1022 West Grace Street, Richmond. West Virginia-Dr. Mary Virginia McCune, Martinsburg. Washington-Dr. Marietta M. Armstrong, 520 Leary Building, Seattle. Wisconsin-Dr. Sara Eliott, 506 Grand Avenue, Waukesha. Wyoming-Dr. Letitia Wiseman, 4 Bank Block, Cheyenne. Alaska-Dr. Beatrice Pearce Dickenson, Ketchikan. Panama-Dr. Helen L. Doherty-McGillicuddy. Hawaii-Dr. Minnette Burnham, Honolulu. THE HEALTH OF THE CHILD THE JOINT CONCERN OF W. A. EVANS, M.D., PROFESSOR OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE, NORTHWESTERN This audience is composed of two portions-school teachers on the one hand and school patrons on the other. Between you responsibility is shared for the care of children during their most important years. A child goes into school with little memory and less judgment, with a small vocabulary and with less power of observation, with an untrained, unstored mind. In ten years, thru your joint care this mind is to be transformed. This function was primarily a family duty. Many years ago the state assumed its responsibility. The rights and obligations of the state in their legal and economic relations are almost universally accepted. That there is an implied partnership between teacher and parent to do this work is now widely tho not universally accepted. But the physical life of the child during those years is just as overshadowing as its mental life. By "overshadowing," I mean that when the child is growing from forty to one hundred and forty pounds and passing thru puberty, its physical being is more impressionable than at any other time in its life. The experiences of these years do not cause many deaths, but they determine the resistance and physical well-being of the person for many years after childhood has ended, and in some phases until the end of life. In fact, the child is not one. It is three in one-a physical, a mental, and a moral life—each separate, yet each so interwoven with the other that any impression made on any one is felt by each of the others. These phases of life are just dawning on our consciousness. Some parents are seeing it, some teachers are seeing it, and a few governments are seeing it. What we want is that teacher and parent may understand their joint responsibility in this field. I am sure that you teachers have often seen pupils who were not learning and who were not in good physical condition, where you felt certain that you could work it out satisfactorily if you could have an understanding with the parents. I am sure that you parents have known of children whose home influences made for a good physique, a good physical brain as a basis for an alert, sane, psychic mind, yet who were not thriving mentally or physically. You have concluded that the schoolroom was too hot, too dry, or too foul, or the pupils carried too much infection-acute infection, subinfection, or latent infection. So you have drifted on. May we not then spend this hour in talking together about those physical influences which exist in schoolrooms sometimes-the responsibility for which lies sometimes with the teacher and sometimes with the parent? I think school children are more frequently harmed by bad air in the schoolrooms than by any other cause. |