only have great changes taken place every generation or every decade, but year after year produces a new advocate for a new theory of disease, each condemning its predecessor, and alike to be condemned by its successor. Another subject among a number of others to which I would like to refer, is the relation of the patent medicines to the public health. The avaricious charlatans engaged in that line of business take advantage of the unfortunate, ignorant and superstitious sick, and by glowing advertisements make them believe that they have discovered the true elixir of life, and that, by the expenditure of a few dollars, the sick could be restored again to good health and usefulness. Colossal fortunes have been made in this line of business. One of the most palatial residences on Fifth avenue, New York, was built with money made by selling pills. An eight-story granite warehouse on Chestnut street, Philadelphia, was built for the transaction of the patent medicine business with money made in that line of business; so was the marble palace for the owner's private residence, further out on the same street. The amount of business done in this line is enormous, and more than half of the drug stores in the country would close their business if it were not for the profits made on the patent medicines they sell. Some of these nostrums contain powerful poisons, such as arsenic, corrosive sublimate, opium, &c., and an immense amount of harm is done by their indiscriminate use. It has now become to be very generally recognized by the best therapeutists that different persons, and even different conditions of the same person, are very differently susceptible to the action of medicines, and that within certain limits quantities must be adjusted to each individual case. There is a tendency among the most advanced and most intelligent physicians to abandon the most active medicines, except where the indications are most unmistakable, which can only be determined by expert examination. It is the opinion of many close observers that many cases of dyspepsia and nervous disorders are caused by the use of these nostrums. Many of those bitters and tonics contain alcohol and have caused many drunkards; those anodynes and soothing syrups contain opium, and have lulled many a child into brain fever and other brain diseases. There is a law now in force in this State compelling all manufacturers of fertilizers to mark on the packages of their manufactures the ingredients they contain, and the passage of that law has saved the farmers of the State many thousand dollars. The Legislature of this State, now in session in this building, could not do the people of the State a greater service than pass a law compelling all manufacturers of patent medicines to mark on their nostrums the ingredients they contain. While thus marking fertilizers has been a saving of dollars and cents to the farmers, but marking patent medicines in the same way would be a saving of the lives and health of the people. I believe such a law is now in force in England with great beneficial results. I cannot do better than quote part of an address of the late Prof. S. D. Gross, of Philadelphia, delivered to a State Medical Society. In his old age, after many years of successful practice, he says: "The great question of the day is preventive medicine—the hygiene of our persons, our dwellings, our streets-in a word, our surroundings, whatever and wherever they may be, whether in city, town, hamlet or country, and the establishment of efficient town and State Boards of Health, through whose agency we shall be the better able to prevent the origin and fatal effects of what are known as the zymotic diseases, which carry so much woe and sorrow into our families, and often sweep like a hurricane over the earth, destroying millions of human lives in an incredibly short time. The day has arrived when the people must be aroused to a deeper sense of the people's welfare, and suitable measures be adopted for the protection as well as the better development of their physical and intellectual powers. This is the great problem of the day; the question which you, as the repre-. sentatives of the rising generation of physicians, should urge, in season and out of season, upon the attention of your fellow-citizens; the question which, above and beyond all others, should engage your most serious thoughts and elicit your most earnest co-operation." This is not only the opinion of Prof. Gross, but, also, of all the most intelligent physicians as well as the most intelligent non-professionals. But to put this idea into practice we must have some knowledge of the principles involved, which is now generally called sanitary science. But where is such knowledge to be obtained? We cannot expect the physician to go about administering "preventive medicine," for by such means he would decrease his practice, and you know they make their living by doctoring the sick. The doctors should be the most competent to impart information on this subject, but as we cannot expect them under existing circumstances to perform such work, where then can we obtain such information? Several works have lately been issued from the press, and a few journals are now regularly published, from which we can gain much valuable information in this line; and the amount of money needed to procure these publications could not possibly be invested for a better purpose. If it is conceded that a knowledge of the laws of our being, and the laws of society-civil, sanitary and social-are of the utmost importance, then it must also be admitted that instructions on these subjects should be as systematically and thoroughly given as on subjects of less importance. If it should be determined upon to introduce this subject into our schools, it would be necessary to modify, to some extent at least, our scheme of education. It is evident that a subject which should have for its aim to contribute directly to the maintenance of health, the prolongation of life and the development of physical manhood and womanhood, should not be smatteringly taught, but by the most able teachers, of the ripest experience. It is difficult to find many competent teachers to teach this subject properly. As before stated, all sanitary subjects have been almost entirely neglected in our educational establishments; some of the plainest principles of sanitary science are constantly violated in some of our schools and colleges; we very rarely see them amply provided for sufficient ventilation, and the air in them offensive to the olfactories and more so to the lungs. In the construction of the most costly buildings in the United States for educational purposes very little if any provision for ventilation is made, and the air in their crowded rooms is often stifling. Teachers must first be taught. This subject should receive that attention in the normal schools, so that the future teachers may be thoroughly prepared for such work. School superintendents and boards of trustees should see that this subject receives proper attention in their respective school districts; not only by occasional lectures, but by able and faithful teachers, as systematically taught as any other branch of study. It is more healthful in the rural districts than in towns and cities, but it is not nearly as much so as it should and could be made; but it cannot be expected that in this short dissertation much information can be given for the prevention of disease; all I can expect to accomplish is to cause an interest in the importance of the subject under consideration, and cause an incentive to practical self-examination of the subject. Sanitary science, as we understand it now, is of very modern date. No scientific cause for disease could be assigned, and then theologians stepped to the front and said that disease and death in the world were caused by the disobedience of Adam and Eve in Eden. Preaching that doctrine will have very little influence in the prevention of disease at the present day. Robust and vigorous health can only be obtained and maintained by the physiological and sanitary laws to which we are subject, and if we violate these laws we will surely receive the penalties attached to their violation, whether we do it knowingly or ignorantly. It is as true now as when Hosea said, "My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge." Where disease prevails at the present time it is an evidence that there was disobedience not very far in the past. I have higher conceptions of the character of God than to believe that He delights in the torture of His children with pain, and in the "destruction of the innocents," because a man and a woman partook of forbidden fruit six thousand years ago, for we are told that God "does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." He bids us call Him our Father and wishes us to do His will in taking care our bodies, which He has so "fearfully and wonderfully made." |