34 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



SYPHILIS AND GONORRHEA. 



Hygiene has been permitted to extinguish cholera and yellow 

 fever, and by the grace of private benefaction it will soon banish 

 hookworm disease, which now incapacitates 2;00o,ooo people. 

 And may God hasten the business men to permit hygiene to banish 

 those twin leprosies, syphilis and gonorrhea, which are important 

 factors in the causation of insanity, crime and pauperism, and 

 which so fearfully wreck the lives of so many innocent women 

 and children, as well as wrecking the lives of the guilty. Syphilis 

 and gonorrhea are responsible for the existence of a large pro- 

 portion of defectives of various kinds which fill our institutions. 

 Let hygiene drive these plagues away, and Illinois, instead of 

 building more insane hospitals, could donate one or two now 

 existent to educational use of some kind 



SAVING VITALITY. 



Strength, endurance and fatigue are the three great elements to 

 be considered in conserving life. The measure of strength is the 

 force a muscle can exert once ; the measure of endurance is the 

 number of times it can repeat an exertion. Fatigue is caused by 

 fatigue poisons, which must be removed from the body during 

 rest, principally during sleep. 



Anything, therefore, which reduces strength and lessens endur- 

 ance and prevents removal of fatigue is inimical to vitality 

 conservation. 



SCIENCE OF LIVING. 



The science of living begins at the mouth. Barring the taking 

 of drugs, as a man eats and digests his foods, so he is. Owing to 

 drug-taking and errors in human feeding, disease is latent in 

 man at all times. Only a few, escape sickness and pain aad die 

 natural deaths. This is not as nature would have it. Josh Bill- 

 ings, recovering from heart trouble caused by tobacco, said : 

 "Nature made us all right ; we make fools of ourselves." Other 

 drugs which are of almost universal use, and which affect heart, 

 nerves or efficient elimination, are coffee, tea, spices, cocaine, 

 morphine, chloral and alcohol. All of these are drugs, and all 

 are poisons, and all more or less disturb the vital functions, 

 reducing vitality and efficiency. 



Any departure from unstimulated nutrition works harm. Stim- 

 ulated nutrition is unnatural, and perforce is opposed to strength. 



