41 



different from having to explain to your visiting friend why everything 

 is dirty and dusty. 



It would be interesting to know the financial aspects or statistics of 

 this subject, the cost of keeping a city clean and the cost of time lost on 

 account of ill-health and the cost of so-called remedies used in attempting 

 to counteract the evil influence of the dust. There is of course a wide 

 gap between a headache or a cold and i>neumonia or tuberculosis, there 

 are all stages of ill-health between such extremes and between the at- 

 tendant loss of time and money. 



Some of the nostrums are advertised for the cure of specific diseases 

 like tuberculosis or consumption— a disease easily curable as a rule, in its 

 early stages, but not by swallowing a lot of patent medicines. What is 

 not claimed for patent medicines is not worth claiming. That reputable 

 physicians do not prescribe patent medicines needs scarcely be mentioned. 



It is of some interest to know that some of the most widely adver- 

 tised nostrums can be made at a cost of one or two cents per gallon— 

 the container and label of many costing more than the ingredients. There 

 must of necessity be a large margin of piofit or a "medicine" costing a 

 few cents and selling for a dollar could not be advertised so extensively 

 and so persistently. 



In conclusion: As our country becomes more and more densely popu- 

 lated various sanitary problems arise and press for solution. This is 

 especially true of our cities. Houses of brick and stone are displacing 

 those built of wood and thus lessening the danger from tire. The open 

 ditch has given place to the undergrouiid sewer; the mud road to the 

 paved street. Shallow wells disappear before the advent of water works, 

 and the latter themselves are getting a better supply by means of filtra- 

 tion. 



"Water-borne diseases have been reduced to a minimum in man.y cities 

 and epidemics are prevented. The occurrence of many diseases, such as 

 the plague, cholera, typhus, smallpox and the like, have been reduced to 

 a minimum, if not entirely prevented, by proper precautions, based on a 

 proper knowledge of their active cause and its diffusion. 



What about preventing the ravages of ailments and diseases trans- 

 mitted through the agency of the dust? What are we doing to reduce the 

 amount of dust to a minimum? What efforts are we making to have 

 pure air in our public halls, churches, street cars, and In the city gener- 

 ally? 



