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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



I 



3fc 



22 Mites To TUPELO 



LEE COUNTY. 

 TME MODEL HEALTH COUNTY 

 CMEW YOUR FOOD 



B YOU HAVE NO GIZZARD 



"twenty-two miles to Tupelo" 



Congress established a fish hatchery at 

 Tupelo after its Representative in Congress 

 had proved that place to be the center of the 

 universe, on the ground that there the horizon 

 was equidistant everywhere. To-day Lee 

 County, Mississippi, of which Tupelo is the 

 county seat, proclaims that man has no 

 gizzard. 



to fill five rows of graves reaching around 

 the earth. Spreading to Europe, this 

 same epidemic found enough victims to 

 replace every casualty in the World War. 



But this was no isolated calamity. Now 

 cholera, now smallpox, again the plague, 

 now influenza, starting mayhap in the 

 Orient, would follow the caravans to In- 

 dia, then journey with the religious pil- 

 grims to Mecca, and then scatter to the 

 four corners of Europe, overwhelming 

 the Continent as irresistibly as a mighty 

 flood. Millions of graves, millions of 

 pauperized survivors, millions of desolate 

 homes followed every invasion. 



If such results grew out of the wander- 

 ings of a few traders and the journey ings 

 of a few religious pilgrims, what would 

 happen to-day were it not that sanitary 

 science has erected barriers everywhere 

 for our protection? 



To see the death rate of progressive 

 communities reduced to 10 per thousand, 

 in the face of such a vast increase in 



intercommunity and international inter- 

 course; to see the average life Span in 

 America lengthening from 31 to 40 years 

 within Four decades — mainly through the 

 work of the sanitarian — is, to those who 

 reflect, a wonderful earnest of the vic- 

 tories of sanitation that are destined to be 

 won in the years that lie immediately 

 ahead. 



WHERE IGNORANCE REIGNED 



There are many people on the earth 

 who still believe that the snake is the only 

 potent healer ; more who still believe in 

 the "evil eye'' ; those who try to get rid of 

 tuberculosis by swallowing a live frog; 

 those who eat fox lungs to improve their 

 "wind" ; those who essay to cure epilepsy 

 by having the patient wear the unwashed 

 shirt of one who died of that malady; 

 some who recommend the curing of goiter 

 by drawing a live snake nine times across 

 the thyroid glands, and whooping cough 

 by feeding the patient boiled mouse meat. 

 Others believe that by rubbing their jaws 

 where hogs rub theirs they will escape the 

 mumps. 



It is only a few centuries since people 

 contended that the brain was a sponge to 

 keep the heart cool ; since Harvey was 

 denounced for saying the heart was the 

 engine that drives the blood through the 

 body. In the days of our great-grand- 

 fathers, people said smallpox vaccination 

 made girls cow- faced, and caused boys to 

 bellow like bulls. Even within the mem- 

 ory of living men, the use of anesthetics 

 was denounced as the work of the Devil, 

 by otherwise sensible people. 



But to-day, with the number of deaths 

 cut in half wherever the sanitarian holds 

 sway, with the average life lengthened 

 eight or nine years where his advice is 

 lived out, preventive medicine has been 

 vindicated a thousand fold, and the out- 

 look for the future is such as must hearten 

 every thoughtful person and arouse the 

 hope that the grip of the tyrant of con— 

 tagion on the peoples of the earth is des- 

 tined to be broken, and that as the gener- 

 ations come and go the science of eugenics 

 and the science of preventive medicine 

 will work hand in hand for the develop- 

 ment and maintenance of a better race, 

 inspired by nobler ideals and moving on 

 to a richer destiny. 



