HEALTH NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20426, 5 June 1928, Page 4

HEALTH NOTES.

CONQUEST OF DISEASE. “EVERY MAN’S DUTY.” Contributed by the Department of Health. Sir George Newman (chief medical officer, British Ministry of Health) continues as follows in his Hastings popular lecture: — , . , Before leaving these maxims of body nurture there are three things I have to say-about them which are not of less importance because they can be said shortly. The first is this: All these six principles of nutrition must be followed if we would obtain true nutrure ot the body. It is idle, and, indeed, harmful, to advocate any one or other of them at the expense of the remainder, ihe loss of any one of them will impaw mans health and eventually imperil his life. The neglect of them is the occasion ot disease! Yet, as Thucydides, the Greek historian, said: _“ So little most men take in search for truth, so much more readily will they tiirn to what comes first.” Secondly, each of these principles must be followed in moderation and not to the extreme. The Greeks were wise in their admonition: “Know thyself, and be moderate.” In fact, the pathway to health of body and mind is lifelong education,. and the mind may rule the body and the body be, as Cicero said, “ fit to obey the prescriptions ot the mind.” Thirdly, the practice of each of them must accord with the total normal functioning of the body, the end and object of which is health, ihe body aas many powers of protection, defence, ana repair, but the laws of Nature are exacting, and even severe, on any assault upon, misuse, or abuse of, vital functions. In other words, the body will stand considerable strain along the line of its own powers, but no disharmony with impunity.

TWO SUBTLE DANGERS. In these days of public education in health, it is necessary to avoid two subtle dangers. On the one hand we must beware m “ stunts ” and “panaceas ; Nature is too varied and the world too wide for ultimate truth to lie along that road. On the other hand, perverse or ignorant unwillingness to accept the established findings of science is likely to deprive us of valuable aids in tue struggle for life and the survival of the best. He is a wise man who finds out the faculties and powers of his own body and nurtures them rather than misdirecting or neglecting them. The spirit we need to cultivate should spring from an effective and reasonable co-operation between the dictates of humanity, the rights of the individual, and the established truths of science. It was Laertius, the Stoic, who said, long ago: ‘ The end is _to act in conformity with Nature, with the Nature that is within us and with the Nature of the universe.” Finally, we must ask ourselves the question: How can these essential conditions of nurture be organised? The position is this. We have first to deal with tne nature of man’s body and its individual nurture in order to secure a resistant, effective, and reproductive body; then, m a civilised State, we have to prpvide the opportunity for all men to ensure tor themselves and their families this nurture. Some can do much without communal aid, the majority cannot; in any event, no man can live unto lunvwlt. Whether we like it or not, we are members one of another. As in nature, so in iocicty, solidarity, and interdependence ire inherent. Hence, in a civilised State ;; is the nature and nurture of the mividual and the communal organisation if opportunity which are the foundations ~f national health. The organisation of health, which is the organisation of life, is the primary, though not the supreme, usiness of Government, of statecraft, whether central or local. PREVENTIVE MEDICINE.

Xow, the purpose of preventive medicine may be expressed in simple words. It is to improve the total environment of man’s body, to develop and maintain his innate capacity, to avoid or reduce disharmony and disease in its early stages (in order to escape or postpone its later and mortal results in the body), to prolong and enlarge man’s days, and to extend the frontiers of life. The community will adopt diverse means for the fulfilment of such a policy; some methods will be voluntary: or professional, others ‘will be undertaken by official administration, central or local. “ Power,” said John Rtuart Mill, “may he localised, but knowledge, to be most useful, must be centralised.” What are the main lines of this policy? 1. First, there must be created and maintained a sanitary environment, the external scaffolding of health; housing, water supply, drainage and refuse removal, sanitary work places, sound roads, clean streets, and well-ordered towns.

2. Secondly, there must be systemtic nurture beginning before birth—the protection of motherhood, infant welfare, ild hygiene, the care of the adolescent, practical, comprehensible, and liberal education, and a wholesome food supply.

3. Thirdly, there must be a preventive organisation, bv which the agencies of infection and disease are brought under control —the segregation of infectious persons, disinfection, quarantine, supervision of the channels and materials of infection, the reduction of mass infection, the production of immunity, the provision of antitoxins, the special and direct attack upon all forms of epidemic disease. 4. Lastly, there must be public and private medical services (of which tie medical man is, and always must be, the exponent and practitioner) in order that correct diagnosis ' and sound treatment may be available for the whole community. CHIEF ASSET OF NATION.

There you have the great articles of the modern practice of preventive medicine. They all belong to each other, and no local authority can’ afford to neglect any one of the four. They constitute the elements of the modern programme of preventive medicine, a programme introduced by the medical practitioners of the eighteenth century. “ Germs of Disease ” are important, but we must not go germ-mad. Sanifary and medical experts have their place; but health is every man’s duty. It must be every man’s quest ere it can become a national conquest. The essential thing is the healthy and resistant body of man, and the maintenance of his harmonious functioning, in- relation to Nature and his environment, and in relation to human society. Progress depends more upon personal, social, and moral evolution than the advance of sanitary, science —more upon wisdom than knowledge. The vastly improved health of the people in our generation has no doubt been partly due to the fuller application of medicine and sanitation, but still more to the forces of education, sociology, and biology. If we reflect upon these considerations we shall discover that the preservation of human life, the enlargement of its capacity, and the increase of its productivity, is not a mere doctor’s stunt, but springs from deep human instincts, and is established upon broad social and economic conditions. It is, in' fact, social and medical in structure, though economic and moral in inspiration. It is, I submit, the primary need, as it is the chief -asset, of a nation.