WHAT MEDICINE HAS DONE AND IS DOING FOR THE RACE '4^^ 



tion of adults should be available in order to give timely 

 warning of the tendency to disease and to detect the early 

 evidence of insidious disorders of which there may not be any 

 conscious suspicion, such as high blood pressure, kidney or 

 nervous affections. Comparatively few consult their medical 

 attendants in the same way that they visit their dentists in 

 order to anticipate trouble. But that this is worth while has 

 been shown by the action of some American Life Insurance 

 Companies in offering their pohcy-holders periodical medical 

 examinations by the Life Extension Institute; the results 

 have shown that it is a good business proposition, for there 

 was a substantially lower death rate among those who 

 availed themselves of the offer as compared with the policy- 

 holders who did not. If this step is economically sound from 

 the statistical point of view, it is surely worth consideration 

 by the individual. 



Preventive Physiological Tests. A recent example of the 

 application of physiology and psychology to practical life is 

 seen in the examination of candidates for aviation work, and 

 periodically of pilots to see if they are fit to continue or 

 need rest. The tests evolved during the European War proved 

 of great value in deciding questions which an ordinary 

 medical examination cannot do with such certainty. The 

 human machine has to adapt itself to the changing conditions 

 of temperature and oxygen tension depending on rapid 

 alterations of altitude; and to estimate the capacity of the 

 individual in these respects and to determine the state of the 

 nervous system and the sense organs special methods of 

 testing are necessary. By these tests loss of life and disabling 

 crashes were diminished. 



Preventive Bacteriology. The comparatively new knowledge 

 that otherwise normal people may carry in their bodies the 

 germs of disease, such as typhoid fever, pneumonia, diph- 

 theria, and cerebrospinal fever, *and thus unconsciously give 

 the disease to others, explains the apparently spontaneous 

 outbreaks of disease. The detection of these "carriers" by 

 bacteriological means supplies the obvious way of preventing 

 disease, namely isolation of the carrier. 



Preventive Surgery. Examples of the preventive influence 

 of internal medicine are mentioned elsewhere in this chapter. 



