900 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 598. 



politicians, ministers and ladies of note 

 continue to allow their photographs over 

 signed testimonials to be published, telling 

 their fellow-citizens how much better they 

 have felt after taking Peruna, Warner's 

 Safe Cure and the various nervines and 

 tonics, when they find that most of these 

 preparations depend upon alcohol for the 

 stimulating effects which they describe? 

 The success of most patent medicines de- 

 pends upon the fact that they contain 

 drugs and stimulants which create a crav- 

 ing and must be repeated. Once get the 

 public conscience awakened and we shall 

 have a demand that every patent remedy, 

 before being sold, shall have its exact com- 

 ponent parts printed upon its label, and its 

 claims to cure verified by scientific investi- 

 gation. The action of the post-office de- 

 partment in denying the use of the mail 

 service to some of the worst offenders 

 against common decency is to be com- 

 mended. 



PUBLIC HEATH LEGISLATION. 



One of the few misfortunes of the indi- 

 vidual freedom afforded by a republican 

 form of government is that it enables the 

 most ignorant man through prejudice to 

 interfere with and delay needed legislation, 

 with the result that, by the time the law 

 can be passed, the immediate object to be 

 obtained has disappeared. 



In Germany compulsory vaccination has 

 practically caused small-pox to disappear 

 from the army and country, a person prop- 

 erly protected being immune. In the 

 state of Minnesota inability to enforce vac- 

 cination in the late small-pox epidemic per- 

 mitted from a few sources, 27,876 persons 

 to become infected with this disorder; all 

 due to a small but vociferous band of anti- 

 vaccination agitators. 



Contagious disease in any place is not a 

 matter of local or state interest alone, as 

 the ease and freedom of transportation 



render local control impracticable and 

 properly place it in the hands of the gen- 

 eral government. 



The keenness with which the American 

 people are watching the affaii-s at Panama 

 argues well for the future. The communi- 

 cation of Dr. C. A. L. Reed awakened pub- 

 lic interest. His portrayal of red tape and 

 obstruction to sanitation in the Canal Zone 

 has resulted in obtaining for that most 

 able army medical officer, Colonel Gorgas, 

 power to carry out the necessary reforms 

 and has made the Canal Zone the most 

 sanitary place in Latin America. 



Compare our record in the Spanish 

 American War with that of the Japanese 

 in the war with Russia. We had fourteen 

 deaths from disease to one from wounds 

 and more than 95 per cent, due to disre- 

 gard of the simplest problems in sanitation, 

 therefore, unnecessary and avoidable. In 

 the Japanese a.rmy there were four deaths 

 from wounds to one from disease, a differ- 

 ence of fifty-six to one. This was not due 

 to the fact that the Japanese had superior 

 knowledge, but that their medical officers 

 were thoroughly organized and in sanitary 

 matters were supreme. The knowledge 

 which they used was obtained in western 

 institutions and was the product of the 

 occidental, not the oriental civilization. 



The army and navy medical departments 

 have worked intelligently against over- 

 whelming odds. Their individual mem- 

 bers have international reputations honestly 

 achieved. Their schools for the special 

 training of their men are in the highest 

 degree efficient and deserving of every 

 praise; but the departments have been so 

 small as to be unable to act even as nuclei 

 about which in time of war competent 

 forces could be gathered and the militia 

 of our country enter into conflict fearfully 

 handicapped. The indications, however, 

 are that these matters will now be rectified, 

 and if so it will guarantee to the patriotic 



