Preaching Health on the Highways

Preaching Health on the Highways

401 ITEMS OF INTEREST. this is a schem e for obtaining money thru the m ails by m eans of fa lse and fraudulent pretenses, representations and prom i...

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401

ITEMS OF INTEREST. this is a schem e for obtaining money thru the m ails by m eans of fa lse and fraudulent pretenses, representations and prom ises, and therefore recommend that a fraud order be issued against the

nam es appearing in the caption of th is memorandum.” The fraud order w as issued, Dec. 28, 1916.—Journal of T he A m erican M edical A ssociation.

P R E A C H IN G H E A L T H O N T H E H IG H W A Y S . By Ennion G. Williams, M. D-, State Health Commissioner of Virginia.

The sam e know ledge of human nature that prompted pioneer advertisers to util­ ize the street cars long ago led the mak­ ers of farm im plem ents and the venders

Our Virginia Board of H ealth learned its lesson som e years ago from th ese adver­ tisers and from tim e to tim e, h as been placarding the roads and the stores. Our

BEST FARM 3591 KILLED THE IN T H I S C O U N T Y In V irg in ia E v e ry Y e a r

By Consumption, the worst disease from which men suffer in this climate. It is caused by germs carried in spit and it kills because people do not protect them ­ selves against it by keeping their bodies strong. For its Prevention and for its Cure

Fresh Air is Needed! Keep the windows open in your sleeping room and build up your body by

G o o d F o o d a n d E x e r c is e . BE CAREFUL NOT TO SPIT where the germs in it will dry and be carried by the dust into the lungs of other people. F o r F u rth e r Inform ation W rite

THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH, RICHM OND, V IR G IN IA .

Is the one on which the health of the family is best protected. IT HAS a good well, carefully walled, covered with a tight top and supplied with a pump so that no filth can get in it. IT HAS a sanitary privy from which flies and animals cannot carry filth and from which filth cannot be washed into drinking water. IT HAS screens on the windows and doors of d ie house to keep out flies and mosquitoes. IT HAS no standing water in which mosquitoes can breed.

To Make it Tours W rite fo r Full Inform ation to

THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. ®0$n0 8* ORDER Of THE

80AR0 OF n {Ai *h 00 NOt 9CM0VJ 09 Ot'«£E

p o sa o ev orocr or the s tati boaro Of h e a u h - do not rem ove or oeface

of patent m edicines to tack their signs along the roadsides. T hey knew that m en would drive or ride by in a state of m ental idleness and would be certain to read any attractive sign s that m ight be posted conspicuously by the road.

first venture in th is line w as a paste­ board sm all pox warning, sen t thru the m ails to the postm asters in rural Vir­ ginia, w ith the requests that it be posted conspicuously on the store-porches. This w as follow ed by a like warning on ty ­

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TH E JOURNAL OP THE NATIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATION.

phoid fever. In 1912, when the model vital sta tistics law w ent into effect, w e decided to u se the cross roads as w ell as the stores, and accordingly printed many thousand posters on muslin. T h ese were distributed to the local registrars, and they w ere generally tacked up where thousands of Virginians saw them.

It then occurred to us that if tin could be substituted for pasteboard, m ore per­ m anent resu lts could be attained. A c­ cordingly, the publicity agent o f the board designed a series of six posters, covering the rudim ents or farm san ita­ tion and tuberculosis. Each of th ese w as so lettered that the salian t facts

PLEASE POST

SMALLPOX Now Prevails in This County IF YOU D O N ’T W A N T T O H A V E IT, If you want to escape the Danger, Suffer­ ing, Inconvenience and Expense of the Disease

Be Vaccinated YOU AND YOUR FAMILY

If you are properly vaccinated you can­ not have the disease.

There is no other sure way to avoid n. Vaccination properly done is not dangerous

Virginia State Board of Health Early la st spring we had occasion to do som e in ten sive com m unity work against m alaria and, to aid our field men, we is­ sued a pasteboard malaria placard sim i­ lar in general design to those we had used a s warnings against typhoid fever and sm all pox. T hese w ere placed along all th e roads our men traveled. A s one of our investigators had occasion to pass along a road so placarded a few w eeks afterward, h e found that m any of the placards had been torn down and effaced by boys. Much valuable work w as thus undone.

IF YOU WOULD BC HEALTHY AND 5TR0NG KEEP DISEASE GERMS W FROM Y O U R BO D Y

r O N T PUT YOUR FINGERS IN YOUR MOUTH O N T PUT YO UR PE N C IL IN YOUR MOUTH O N T PU T INTO YO UR MOUTH ANYTHING THAT DOES NOT BELONG THERE

W h enev er

y o u cough o r s n e e z e

BOW YOUR HEAD OR PUT A HANDKERCHIEF OVER Y O U R N O S E AND M O U T H

To th e T eacher- Please post this cnrd in »conspicuous place in your school-room «-here ttfe pupils will see and read it. Pic«*» explain to the children » h y those rules a re necessary: tell them how communicable diw ise is spread by g e rm s 'th a t come from the bodies o f others and how it can be prevented if » e keep form s aw ay from ou r mouths and noses I f you can get your pupils to practice these simple rules you will find a sh a ip de­ crease in the amount of sickness and in th e consequent loss o f tim e fi-om school. A very g w d w ay o f enforcing these rules is to have a heading "Personal Hygiene on your daily record and to mark ch'Idren for putting th e ir finger» or pencils in their mouths, fo r careless sneeting and coughing, etc. Very respectfully.

would stand out in large type, easily le g i­ ble at thirty or forty feet. W e had th ese lithographed and reproduced in black on thin sh eet iron painted a lively orange color. Each placard is 9% by 13%. The initial cost of the lithographed p lates w as $45 for the set of six and the co st per thousand thereafter was $22. A s we have already used approxim ately 12,000 of th ese and still have the plates in ex­ cellen t condition, the cost per placard h as thus been only a little more than 2.6 cents. The work w as w ell done at th ese figures by the Richmond branch of the Am erican Can Company.

ITEMS OF INTEREST. A s the placards are heavy, their distri­ bution w as som ething of a problem in it­ self. But w e m et this by having our ho­ tel inspector, who travels in an autom o­ bile, placard th e roads along which he passed and w e shipped fresh supplies to him from place to place along h is route so that he would not overload his car. A little later in the summer, we found two reliable m edical students, who agreed to placard a large number of the main highw ays of th e state for their travel­ ing exp en ses and motor transportation. By giving them th e u se of a sm all tour­ ing car of popular make, w e found the cost of distributing the sign s very low. Thru their efforts and those of thé regu­ lar inspectors, together with the help of a few health officers in isolated districts, we have placarded m ost of the main roads of the Commonwealth and every one of the hundred county seats. The resu lts have been gratifying. Thanks to the m aterial and workman­ ship, tlje placards have remained un­ harmed in the va st m ajority of cases and have attracted m uch attention. One cor­ respondent of the board w ent so far as to state in an unsolicited letter that he attributed the low morbidity from mala­ ria in his district to the attention paid the w arning of th e placards by the peo­ ple; and a legislator has offered to in­ troduce a bill m aking it a m isdem eanor for any person to tear down or deface one of th e placards. Returning autom obilists have often told us of seeing and reading the m essages on the pla­ cards. Taken as a whole, the experience of

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our board justifies us in calling th is ven­ ture to th e atten tion of other health au­ thorities a s another u seful means to that constant publicity upon w hich the san i­ tary education of the people depends. To health authorities who wish to pre-

BEWARE

MOSQUITOES! They Breed in Stagnant or Slowly Running Water and carry from the sick to the healthy the germs of Malaria, or “Chills and Fever?

FIGHT THEM by draining or oiling stagnant water and by screening your house against them. If there is Malaria around, ask your doctor how to take quinine to prevent it. Fo r FREE INFORM ATION A bout M alaria a n d O th er Diseases WRJTE

THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. eoSTtD ST 0TWCR OF IDE STAH H M D OF HEAIIH—00 NOT RCMOtt Of) DEFACE

pare such placards* as those we have been using, we shall be glad to send sam ­ ple sets and to supply any information that m ay be possible.—Am erican Jour­ nal of Public H ealth (T he Journal of the A m erican Public H ealth A ssociation). ♦Pasteboard placards far posting in schools cost $61.92 for 15,000.

N U X A T E D IR O N F O R T H A T T IR E D FE E LIN G . Is there to be a ren aissan ce of the testim onial epoch? T en or fifteen years ago the testim onial industry w as at its height, esp ecially as it is applied to m edic­ inal products. Every “p atent m edicine,” however quackish, w as able to publish

testim on ials from persons w hose posi­ tion, if not their in telligen ce, should have m ade them h esita te to give such endorsem ents. T hose were the days w hen “P eruna” published panegyrics from such notables as Admiral Schley,