CHAPTER XLV 

 CIVIC BIOLOGY 



Vocabulary 



Pessimism, looking on the "dark side" of things. 



Civic, pertaining to government. 



Prolific, abundant. 



Conservation, saving from waste or damage. 



Addiction, the grip of habit. 



The preceding chapter has dealt mainly with biology as related 

 to the individual, but more important is our duty to the health of 

 the community, state, and nation. 



Out of two and one-half million babies born in the United States 

 every year, one half die before reaching the age of twenty- three 

 years, and 500,000 die before their first birthday. Of the adults, 

 40,000 will have been invalids, 5000 will be in various institutions 

 for mentally or physically unfit, and 100,000 will be inferior to the 

 extent of reducing their value as citizens. 



School examinations in Brooklyn show that 72 per cent of the 

 pupils need some form of medical treatment. If this ratio holds 

 for the United States it would mean 14,000,000 children who are 

 in need of health improvement. These figures are not given to 

 cause any feeling of pessimism or discouragement, but rather to 

 show what great need there is for civic control in all matters per- 

 taining to health, and for the intelligent cooperation of every 

 citizen in these measures. 



Already modern methods of hygiene and sanitation have added 

 fifteen years to the human life. In the Spanish war we lost four- 

 teen men by disease for every one that died of wounds. In the 

 Russo-Japanese war, with modern sanitary precautions in force, 

 the Japanese lost only one by disease for every four killed, a record 

 fifty-six times as good as ours. 



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