keep the human system in the improved condition; he failed to make the rest parallel the constantly increasing amount, kind and character of work. He neglected to reason out that rest must be in direct proportion to the products of body and mind; that just as every branch of life progresses, the conditions, amount and form of rest must progress also instead of regress as it did and still does due to the fact that it has been left in its primitive state-one day in a week. He forgot that just as rest improves the human machine, fatigue will deprove same.

He thus not only thought, created and worked, but he over-worked and over-taxed himself, forgetting that his power of work and creation was the result of adequate rest. He began to defeat himself with the products of his own creation. The resulting improvement in work, the fruits of his rest, were so numerous and heavy that they began to fall prematurely to the ground breaking the branches with them, indeed, to such an extent as to jeopardize the whole tree, aye, the root-the very seed that gave him (man) the first impetus of life, existence, progress.

IV.

Why is it then that for thousands of years we have been working, studying, inventing, keeping our nerves in a constant state of tension-anxiously creating more and more, improving every branch of life and yet not making the least effort toward improving our conditions of rest? Why is it that the ancient form of rest-one day in a week-intended to be just a start in this direction and to improve in proportion to the degree of work and progress of civilization has been so obstinately neglected and is still persisting in its primitive state? Compare the life of the ancient maneasy, free from worry, unmarred by the burdens of civilization, roaming the woods and fields, enjoying the products of nature so abundantly supplied to him in a form ready to be consumed-to the life of the modern man, full of worry, anxiety, staggering under the problems of civilization,

competition, rapid locomotion, machinery, with its dangers, accidents, and the like. Is it not a thousand-fold more complicated and harder? Would it not be logical to presuppose that our rest ought to be proportionately improved to meet and counteract the constantly added strain? Yet the conditions of rest have not improved in the least, it is exactly now what it has been hundreds or thousands of years ago. V.

Realizing, then, that this is an abnormal condition, we must realize that its effects should be equally abnormal. Just as overuse results in hypertrophy and disuse in waste-both abnormal conditions-so the insufficiency of rest extended throughout centuries and generations, must of necessity result in morbid consequences. "Every action is followed by an equal and opposite reaction." This is a law of nature and holds good in the organic as well as in the inorganic realm. Every action whether physical or psychological is performed at the expense of the body tissues or their nutritive principles which, for want of a better understanding of the chemicobiologic principles involved, we call oxidation or burning up. This results in formation of waste products which are removed by the body fluids and diverse channels of elimination. If elimination equals production the system as a whole-the individual

does not appreciate any abnormal sensations. If the eliminative agents, however, cannot remove all intermediary waste products, fatigue or exhaustion results. It really constitutes a warning that the tissues are overloaded with poisonous principles of work and that production of same is to be stopped so as to permit elimination to rid the system of the accumulated poison. If this be done, that is, if the individual rest sufficiently, the various tissues are freed of their undesired principles and the body is then said to have recuperated and becomes ready for work again. If not what results?

VI.

The power of life for accommodation to environments and changes, if not too sud

den or too radical, is enormous, it is almost unlimited. This is one of the wise provisions of nature to insure a continuance of the race. Make a sudden change of temperature of the water in which a fish is living and it will die promptly. Produce this alteration slowly and it will live for a considerable time-it will gradually accustom itself to the unfavorable change and manifest no apparent bad effects. But, remembering the laws of nature, there must, to every action be an equal reaction, effects, then, must be and will be. As the action however is slow, the reaction will be equally slow, but it also will be equally certain.

What happens then to the human race, overworked, overfatigued physically and mentally, overloaded with katabolic products, for centuries and generations not having sufficient rest? The intermediary wastes, toxics, accumulate within the tissues. They, like all mild poisons, irritate slowly, constantly and surely. As this continues, the body must either accommodate itself to the slowly acting poison by appropriate reactions or die. Those with low resistance eventually expire. Those who survive learn to react to the slow irritant. As a result, we have a constant increase of hardened, thickened, unelastic blood vessels, heart diseases, kidney diseases, lowered vitality, diverse environmental hypoplasias,

and, above all, nervous disturbances of all kinds unmistakably growing with the steady increase of brain work and stress of modern life.

Institutions for various diseases are multiplying rapidly, so that in the near future we may expect to find this world an enormous asylum filled with deformed, sick, exhausted, nervous or insane individuals— irrespective of whether confined or at large. VII.

Plainly then, the conclusion is that the world has not been getting sufficient rest for thousands of years; that, as a result, we have disease, either as distinct entities or general morbid tendencies, spread widely and increase constantly; that these have about reached the climax through the fact that the primitive form of rest is still persisting while the stress of life is steadily increasing in intensity; that the above must be remedied by increasing the amount and improving the conditions of rest-this can be best accomplished by wide educational campaign and consequent legislation; that it is the duty of the medical profession, as guardian of public health, in particular, and the scientific world in general, to commence to work on these measures at once so as to check the enormity of the aspect which the complicated problem has assumed already.

I SWEAR by Apollo the physician and Esculapius, and Hygeia, and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation to reckon him who taught me this art equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring in the same footing as my own brothers, and to teach them this art, if they shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture and every other mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath according to the law of medicine, but to none others. I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and

mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to anyone, if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman any means to produce abortion. With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art. Into whatever houses I enter I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and further, from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves. Whatever, in connection with my professional practice, or not in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret. Whilst I continue to keep this Oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the art, respected by all men, in all times. But should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot.

THE average citizen gets all kinds of circulars with every mail-asking him to vote for Jones, to try Brown's tooth powder, to help support a maiden ladies' home for illtreated cats; all these he is likely to throw into the waste basket unread and unappreciated. But should he come upon the same matter in the columns of his morning newspaper, he will assimilate it with due interest and respect; and this is true also of weeklies, magazines and like literature. It is logical, therefore, that the journalist who is willing to disseminate public health information should prove an indispensable ally of the health officer in the maintenance of the communal health. To me is assigned the consideration of how this salutary alliance may be established and improved.

In the first place, everyone will upon reflection agree that the most important of all public work is the preservation of the public health; wherefore news concerning such work should be fully presented and well headlined in the press. Especially will the editor be anxious to have such news correct; and generally one finds it so in the newspapers. The average editor, in fact, gets all the statements in his columns as precise as is humanly possible, if for no other reason than that his esteemed contemporaries would make life infinitely dreary for him, if this were not so. I think that the information offered concerning the public health in most newspapers is safe and sane. In the large cities, I have no doubt, medical men are retained to vise such matter, to the end that it shall be without error. But I imagine all the seven hundred newspapers in this State cannot afford such Olympian luxury, so that from time to time some fairly heavy breaks on medical subjects appear. And I submit that one advantage in a cordial co-operation between the health officer and the newspaper man

would be the elimination of such error; the former could when asked, review the journalist's copy, correct any mistakes natural to the unprofessional mind; on the other hand, the health officer could oftentimes get printed matters of vital importance to the community.

In my experience such an alliance has been altogether wholesome. During my work as a coroner's physician I was nearly every day asked for information by newspaper men. paper men. I was always able to differentiate between matters the public should know, and the strictly private matters which inevitably came within my ken; and I never from first to last had any difficulty in making the journalist grasp the difference, and in getting him to make public only such information as was intended to be such. This was fifteen years ago; and pretty much the only agreeable recollection I have of that work is of my relations with newspaper men.

I would here counsel the medical health officer, in his alliance for the public weal with the newspaper man, either to prepare a rough draft of his observations, or to write a paper-something short and crisp, detailing the medical facts he wishes to impart; leaving to his newspaper confreré the business of transforming it into good newspaper copy. In such presentations the health officer should acquire the knack of translating medical terms into such as can be understood by the man on the street and the woman at the cooking stove-the sort of people for whom the information is intended.

This is a knack not usually to be acquired without some practice; which the health officer should be willing to undertake by reason of the large salaries that are assured them. No layman will know, for example, what is meant by acute anterior poliomyeli

tis; but he will understand what infantile paralysis means. To write that someone died of asthenia de senectute would suggest to the layman that one of the newfangled diseases doctors are always inventing had done the business; it were better to write that it was just old age took off the victim.

And why should not the health officer prepare a weekly letter or article on public health conditions peculiar to his locality. This should make excellent and most interesting copy, which the editor would not doubt welcome cordially. There could certainly be no matter of more vital interest to the community. Here, as in all phases of the communal welfare the Health Department of our State stands ready to furnish whatever scientific material would be needed for incorporation in such articles.

And may I now address especially the newspaper man.

There is one aspect in which the health officer-journalist alliance would be of enormous public benefit; and that is, education regarding the general nature of infection. There should be clear explanation that not all infections are uniformly deadly, nor all transmitted in one way, that whilst some infections are most serious, others are comparatively innocuous. The public here sadly needs discriminative knowledge. There is a vast amount of occasionless, inhuman and indeed pitiable pathophobia or senseless fear of disease abroad; such as one sees from time to time in the savage attitude of people toward the consumptive, who is absolutely harmless, so long as his sputum is properly disposed of. Such ignoble pathophobia makes itself obvious in fanatic objection to dispensaries and hospitals for consumptives, which institutions are absolutely the community's best safeguard against this disease.

No editor indeed could be more beneficently engaged than in the dissemination of right information upon matters concerning the public health. Here, as in life generally, the things that are to be feared are those which are not comprehended; and here, as elsewhere in life, terror almost invariably disappears in the presence of knowledge. The citizen who is made to understand the dangers, the sources and the nature of such diseases as are inimical to the body politic, will come not to fear them, and then he will the more readily

do his part in the rational prophylaxis against them.

And such education is especially essential to the progress of public health work in our American communities, because, under our republican form of government no laws, sanitary or otherwise, can get themselves adequately enforced without the backing of public opinion. We have thus got to create a sound and rational public opinion, for the furtherance of our public health work; and to this end the local health officer and journalist, with the everready help of the State Department of Health, should earnestly address themselves. And such endeavor cannot but potently interest the citizen, immediately he comprehends that it has to do with matters intimately affecting his very life and that of his family, and the preservation of his home.

While on this phase of my subject, I venture to note that both the practicing physician and the health officer are in no slight degree hampered in their work, by reason that many journals (not nearly so many as formerly, however), print advertisements of manifestly misleading and baneful character; it is odd, indeed, that such advertisements have especially been favored by professedly religious journals, which should have the highest regard of all for the truth. Such advertisements have been particularly unfortunate and frequently of fatal effect upon the poor consumptive. A specimen of this kind has been "Kochine," a bogus concoction, in connection with which the name of the great father of preventive medicine was most perniciously exploited. Many remedies, alleged to be alcohol free (which the most of them certainly are not) are advertised as recommended by statesmen and clergymen. In view of the fact that alcoholism is a most potent predisposition to consumption, such advertisements as the following cannot be too strongly reprehended: Blank's Malt Whiskey. (An endorsing clergyman's picture). "Cures coughs, colds, most forms of grippe, consumption, bronchitis, pneumonia, catarrhs, dyspepsia and all kinds of stomach troubles," etc.

Indeed, no greater benefit was ever done both the cause of the public health and sound journalism, than in Samuel Hopkins Adams' divulgence of The Great American Fraud, in which such wickedness is pilloried.

Finally, I want to quote from a paper

by Dr. L. L. Lumsden, of the United States and Public Health and Marine Hospital Service:

"In some instances the attempt may be made to conceal the facts about health conditions in a city for fear that if the conditions become known the business interests will be injured. It is just about as easy for a community to succeed in such

concealment as it is for a man to conceal the fact that he has a broken leg, by making efforts to run. The tactics are bad and the results usually disastrous. It certainly seems more in accordance with sound business principles for a city to know its

health conditions, to improve them, and then to use the improved conditions as a basis for legitimate advertising."

It is thus evident that there can be no more beneficent outcome of an alliance between the health officer and the newspaper man, than the mutual pursuing of an absolutely honest course, whenever a grievous epidemic has unhappily come upon a community. Here no concealment should be countenanced, no matter what pressure may be brought to bear by the local boss or the vested interest; and here the press should hold up the health officer's hands in manner unmistakable by the most obtuse, or the most selfish unit in the body politic.

I AM born without jaws or teeth; but I've got fine muscles, liver and a heart. In each year of my life I produce 1,200,000 eggs; each of my children is 1-120th of an inch in length; so, 2,000,000 little ones can be crowded into a space of one cubic inch.

I am ready for the table in from one to five years after birth. You will never find me in cold parts of the world. I dislike cold. In Ceylon I sometimes grow to a foot in length. One of me there makes a stew, when I am half a foot broad. I am not of much account in England, unless I am imported there from America. It makes me very sad to think of fetching up in the Strand-I, who was discussed by Tiberius and Julius. I have been the cause of much bloodshed. Men fight fierce battles for me all along the American coast, the Italian, and the coasts of Kent and Essex.

If you eat me raw you are not at all likely to regret it, for I am in a raw state very

nutritious and easily digested. As a fry I am inclined to be uninteresting and heavy. So few know how to fry me. I am about the only animate thing that can be eaten with impunity in a raw state. Parasites cannot exist in me as they can in chops and steaks and fruits. I am a pretty good friend to man. And to women. Look at the pearls I've given her. Thackeray has compared me in a raw state to a new baby. Yet I never kept him awake nights.

I'm not half bad in a stew; but as a roast in the shell all the poetry in me comes out. Then I sizzle with emotion, in butter, red pepper and a little sauce. The clam is like the driver of a hansom cab then-not in it with me. The clam! That commonplace fellow! I avoid him as much as possible. I am not a snob, nor yet a cad, but I really must not be expected to fraternize with the clam, nor can I discuss him. The line must be drawn. He's not in the Four Hundred. Well, I am.

Psychology, of which Dr. Hall is so illustrious an exponent, was unknown to the ancients and the mediævalists; but that they had some prescience of symptoms such as now are denoted as psychological is impossible of contradiction. Ovid portrayed admirably the psychism of a lover. Propertius, with wonderful perspicacity, defined "loving as a kind of fearing"; which is

precisely the condition of the modern Hibernian who is "all of a thrimble" when he goes to make love. Men are said to be nervous when about to propose; this is just a euphemism for being afraid-as they well might be in these circumstances. Petrarch said love made him freeze in summer and fry in winter-a sentiment in which all masculinity will bear him out.