Of a similar pernicious and mercenary character was the paper presented by Professor Sedgewick, of Boston, in which he urged the use of infected oysters and diseased meats as human foods. Professor Sedgewick was one of the principal witnesses in the celebrated egg case in New Jersey, where he testified that eggs so decomposed as to produce death when injected into guinea pigs were wholly fit for human food if sufficiently disguised in taste and smell by baking! Oysters, according to Sedgewick, should be classified into good, to be eaten raw by the rich, and bad, to be cooked and eaten by the poor. Meats of diseased animals should also be eaten by the poor, unless so badly diseased as to be physically seen to be unsound.
This is the doctrine of modern hygiene according to its prophets Long and Sedgewick. I cannot subscribe to these doctrines. There is plenty of clean food for both rich and poor. To excuse processes of growing food animals, and manufacturing foods which permit and condone unsanitary methods and introduce active drugs into the finished products, stimulates and encourages reprehensible practices, which all interested in the public health should condemn. Happily the Federal courts, both in New Jersey and Indiana, were unconvinced by such specious arguments, and condemned the very processes which were praised and defended before the world’s congress of sanitarians.
The workers for the conservation of man do not yet fully realize the great importance of the food supply of the country as a means of producing immunity of disease. The well-nourished body is clad in armor and bears an impenetrable shield which enables one to march into the midst of dangers and for the most part escape unscathed. All power and ethical spirit, therefore, to the men who are chosen to administer the food laws, in order that they may realize the importance of their office to the health of the people, and the life and efficiency of our citizens. Let them learn to put a heart and a soul into science.
IMMUNITY OF HEREDITY.
We are all familiar with the common phrase, the foundation principle of eugenics, “He inherited a good constitution.” It is undoubtedly true that we come into the world with widely different vitalities. The true principles of scientific immunity to disease therefore lie imbedded in the human life principles of long past aeons. The ideals of eugenics, as formulated by Francis Galton and elaborated by his nephew, the son of the immortal Darwin, are but irridescent dreams. If man is to be bred scientifically, there must be many selected mothers and a very few high grade fathers. The human race is not yet ready to face the problem in the true light of science and contemplate a race of males of which 75 per cent. are eunuchs. This is kako- instead of eu-genics. As long as the heart is whole, men and women with only one lung will fall in love. For untold centuries to come we must be resigned to human race composed principally of scrubs. But there is one principle of eugenics which can be and ought to be put into practice. It has been done partially in some States, especially in Indiana. It should be generally adopted. The degenerate, the vicious and the imbecile should not be allowed to propagate. These are classes of society that have no right to multiply. Before proceeding further in restricting parenthood let us see that individuals of both sexes, criminally vicious or imbecile, are segregated or rendered impotent. And even here only the typically bad cases are to be treated. It would be too nice a question for the jury if there was a doubt of any kind, even inconsiderable. Among those of average intelligence, education should do the rest. Teach those who are physically diseased the duty of celibacy. Persuade and not force them.
INDUCED IMMUNITY.
Another method of securing immunity in the human organism is by the development of some morbid condition of a nature similar to or identical with the disease to be combatted, so as to produce in the system anti-bodies, specifically adapted to fight the particular disease which has generated them. The principle of immunization by this method rests upon the successful experiments, or rather observations, respecting a given virus. Jenner’s observations in regard to smallpox were purely empirical, and it remained for Pasteur to develop a scientific basis of induced immunization. Serum-therapy is by no means half so important as serum-prophylaxis, and here again comes the importance of education, because there is still a very large and respectable body of our citizens who resent any interference on the part of the State with their rights as regards medical relations. It looks almost like tyranny to force a citizen to subject himself to inoculation of any kind when his own belief in the efficacy of the process is hostile and where he resists enforced immunization. But here again the right of the people asserts itself and thus justifies compulsory vaccination. While education can do much to remove this prejudice, we must expect to always have with us those who conscientiously resent inoculation, and condemn all efforts to prevent disease.
Since, because of lack of care and proper supervision, grave disorders and disease and sometimes death result from the practice of inoculation, the State owes a special duty to its citizens in seeing that all forms of inoculation materials, no matter what their nature may be, are of the purest and best. Of course, the thought presents itself that induced immunization is only a confession of inability to protect the health by isolation of the invading virus. It is something like the pasteurization of milk, which is a mute tribute to insanitary conditions, uncleanly cows, and long keeping; but here it seems that there is no choice left. The impossibility of complete isolation, at least for many years to come, is apparent, and hence the desirability of general immunization becomes obvious. The successful inoculation which has lately been accomplished against typhoid fever is another promise of what the future may bring in the way of immunization by induction. Meanwhile it is the part of wisdom for those who seek the public welfare by the conservation of life to urge both prophylaxis and immunization, in the hope that the infecting centers will become so few and so remote that good nutrition, and all that it implies in a sanitary way, will eventually become a sufficient protection against communicable diseases.
THE SUPERVISION OF DRUGS.
Hand in hand with the supervision of our food supply, we should not forget the control of drugs. I am far from believing that drugs are an efficient remedy for all human ills; in fact, I am convinced that they are not. They are at best only adjuncts, except in those cases where specifics have been discovered, as in the case of quinine and malaria, and the arsenic compounds, which have proven so useful in combating syphilis. But without discussing the efficiency of drugs, I think we will all admit that as long as they are articles of commerce they should be pure and of constant strength. To this end we should support, with all our enthusiasm and ability, the efforts which are made to perfect the pharmacopœia, and to standardize and purify the drugs of commerce.