PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELFARE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 53, 4 March 1939, Page 8

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELFARE

PHYSICAL FITNESS -6

Dear People, The celestial bodies, lhe body of the earth, the elemental bodies within the earth, and the animal, vegetable, mineral, and human bodies infesting the earth are all objects of study by individual sciences termed the natural and physical sciences. Boundary lines between the various sciences canno. always be drawn very sharply, for the simple reason that each of them at times with exactly the same subjects, thus overlapping at certain points. Again, the science of chemistry is the foundation of all other physical sciences; and it therefore comes about that specialists in biology, physiology, medicine and other sciences whose co-operation is needed for the formulation of any tTioroughly comprehensive scheme to ensure positive health each recognise that the chemical constitution of the human body must at any rate be taken into consideration when genuine health measures are framed. Ergo, health measures need chemists. National Fitness Needs Chemists The wholesome chemical constitution of the human body is dependent upon a similarly wholesome chemical constitution of those forms of living matter by which human life is sustained. In other words, man requires the establishment throughout of a wholesome chemical constitution in Ihe soil-bodies, the plant-bodies and the animal-bodies upon which he relies for the building-up and repair of his own living matter. Now, science as applied to agriculture, plant physiology, soil conservation and animal husbandry with the special purpose of creating in man a condition of physical and intellectual virility (as contrasted with increased yield and increased profits, at whatever cost to health, fertility, sanity, etc.) is of comparatively recent growth. The spirit of the age justifies the claim that the practical and immediate application of scientific knowledge to current problems, particularly to that of ensuring positive health, is a real and a vital need. National fitness needs chc/mists. Health Legislation Needs Chemists Scientific research is largely facilitated by the public purse. This is as it should be, for twentieth-century science is by no means a “luxury” but a dire necessity in the interests of the race. This being so, it cannot logically be argued that the public has not the right to learn, from simplified and attractive transcriptions, just what the scientists are up to. On the other hand, the plea of the scientists that civilisation needs the practical application of their knowledge to current problems (physical education included) must be conceded by every reasonable thinker, as well as by our legislators and administrators generally. Science cannot be said to be “practically applied” unless and until its findings are incorporated in our health legislation, of whatever kind, from the soil to the intellect, from the crib to the coffin. Health legislation needs chemists. Public Education Needs Chemists Yet many of the customs, laws and regulations in common usage are of the kind to pull one way, while the whole trend of scientific thought, invention and discovery pull in lhe opposite direction. The scientific view is, briefly, that the Jiving matter which forms the subject of experiment by our health and social legislators is made up of cells which require a certain quantity daily of lhe life-giving elements of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, stJphur, phosphorus, calcium, iron, iodine, tract elements, vitamins, etc., if those cells are to be maintained in positive health. The scientist knows as s

proved fact that large numbers of hunun bodies are daily being deprived of adequate supplies of these ••iifegivers, “because such human bodies are endeavouring to maintain their health by the consumption of plant-

bodies and animal-bodies which are themselves deficient in the essential life-giving factors named. Publiceducation urgently needs the guidance of chemists. Positive Health Needs Chemists Our present health legislation, however, is based upon the fallacy that every human body is already receiving full nutritive quantity and quality and that all that is now necessary for the attainment and retention ot positive human health is the provision of facilities for: (1) Additional sports grounds and playing fields, together with extended physical recreation, under the guidance of physical training experts, and with no check by the very specialists whose life-work it is to study the foundations of all physical and mental health; (2) Additional hospital and asylum accommodation, together with “early medical diagnosis” of all forms of physical and mental disease, in order to prevent the very complaints whose symptoms are to be diagnosed under the scheme! Genuine prevention of ill-health starts with life itself and is dependent upon no “early diagnosis,” however admirable. Therefore, prevention of ill-health needs the chemist and his scientific colleagues. Disease-resistance. Needs Chemists Disease-resistance is the natural reward of properly nourished protoplasm. It begins with soil-conserva-tion, and it will end with the endocrinological, psychological, medical and vocational supervision of every child in the Dominion, together with the revision of all legislation affecting agriculture, nutrition, birth, life and death by a co-ordinated, scientific board. What are our laws, our customs and our regulations worth, if not based on the latest scientific knowledge concerning their ultimate objective- the health, happiness, prosperity and efficiency of man, woman and child? No Chemist Need Apply! How long will New Zealanders tolerate legislation which ignores the counsel of the research chemist and his colleagues, the doctor, the biologist, the physiologist, and other scientists concerned with various aspects of positive health? Enough has been said in the present series of articles to demonstrate the trend of worldscientific opinion in regard to present health legislation; and the evidence quoted could be multiplied a hundred times, from data already in hand. When the French revolutionaries cut off the head of Lavoisier, the great chemist, they explained to the world: “We have no need of chemists!” When the New Zealand Government perpetrated a National Treatment-Insurance scheme and a Physical Drill-Extension scheme, they formulated their plans minus the guidance of that “head” of all sciences governing together the life, health, sanity, virility and fertility of man. In effect, they have caused history to repeat itself, in having explained to the world: “We have no need of chemists!” Yours as ever,

The above series of articles “Physical Fitness. 1-6” is certified to have been compiled and distributed by the Silent Peter Group of Publicists for and on behalf of the Physical and Mental Welfare Society of New Zealand, Incorporated, January and February, 1939.

Starting next week: “The Suicide Club.” based on the work of C. Alma Baker, C.M.G., of Malaya, New Zealand and London.