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and young men who have “robust health’ and are abie to continue their 
education uniiterruptedly are “the survival of the fittest.” They can 
follow their profession in the heart of a city under the most unsanitary 
environment—and since they do not react they fail to understand the com- 
mon ill health of their patients; they are apt to refer to some indi- 
viduals as “imaginary ill.’ That may explain why the sick often go else- 
where and why faith and mind cures flourish. Now in regard to the lat- 
ter it may be said that many individuals when they adopt some mind or 
faith cure change their habits, perhaps leading the simple life and re- 
maining away from crowds. With this change comes about improvement 
in health. 
The common doctor treats the conunon ill health and the common dis- 
eases of the common people, a fact pointed out by the Father of Medicine 
2,500 years ago. It is rather anomalous that scientific physicians today 
should so largely be interested in well-defined diseases to the neglect of 
common everyday ill heaith. Every now and then we see a newspaper 
item under such a heading as “Conquering Disease.” Newspaper reporters 
at times become enthusiastic and predict the conquering of all disease— 
but the Jess a man knows about the subject the more enthusiastically he 
nay write. Be that as it may, we know that under present-day sanita- 
tion well-detined infective diseases are becoming less and less common 
every year. We need oniy think of what the introduction of pure water 
means to a city in such diseases as Asiatic cholera and typhoid fever. 
But although specific, epidemic, diseases are decreasing, common ill health 
is increasing, in spite of more and better doctors and better medicines— 
medicines that palliate but do not cure. 
Now unfortunately there is no institution devoted to the study of com- 
mon ill health, especially ill health dependent upon bad air conditions. 
The very common things of life are neglected—a fact which critics of the 
medical profession pointed out long ago. Until the people themselves take 
hold of the subject we need not expect much change. 
Today we hear much regarding the role of well-equipped hospitals in 
city life. Many have an idea that the number of hospitals and their 
equipmeut are an index of a city’s progress. The same individuals likely 
estimate a city’s pregress by the size of the smoke cloud overhanging it. 
As a matter of fact the opposite is true. A sanitary and well managed 
city has comparatively little use for hospitals, barring of course accident 
