PROBLEM 5. How to Achieve Better Health for All 



365 



Fig. 319 ^ dentist is check- 

 tJig this boy's teeth. An in- 

 fected tooth may often have 

 consequences more serious 

 than a toothache. Why? 

 (hygeia) 



Fig. 320 This patient is be- 

 ing tested to discover the 

 cause of her allergy. ]Vhat 

 might be in the many bot- 

 tles in the background? The 

 doctor can later judge froni 

 the appearance of the skin 

 to which substance she is 

 allergic, (parke, davis and 



CO.) 



parts of the country. People may be al- 

 lergic to the pollen of many plants. In 

 the early spring it is usually the pollen 

 of blooming trees, especially oak, elm, 

 maple, birch, or hickory. In midsummer 

 it is the pollen of grasses, such as tim- 

 othy, red top, and others. 



Foods cause allergies, and dust is fre- 

 quently a cause. Other causes are feath- 

 ers, fur of animals, and almost any sub- 

 stance which can be blown about in 

 minute particles. By scratching small 

 amounts of the suspected substance into 



the skin and watching the spot, doctors 

 may succeed in discovering the cause of 

 the allergy. Sometimes a doctor may in- 

 ject the substance in increasing doses to 

 help cure the trouble. Drugs also have 

 been developed recently to relieve the 

 symptoms of some allergies. 



Tobacco and health. Professor Ray- 

 mond Pearl of Johns Hopkins University 

 some years ago gathered figures on the 

 length of hfe of hundreds of heavy smok- 

 ers, about an equal number of nonsmok- 

 ers, and a somewhat larger number of 



