A textbook of military hygiene and sanitation / by Frank R. Keefer.

  • Keefer, Frank R., 1865-
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A textbook of military hygiene and sanitation / by Frank R. Keefer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    exercise, it secures a sufficient assimilation of suitable food and a free elimination of wastes, without overstrain of any of the organs; thus are the diseases of the first class guarded against. However, it is especially in preventing those of the second class, among which are the so-called camp diseases, that military hygiene is most efficacious. For the production of infectious diseases two factors are neces- sary : the germs must be absorbed in the body through the digestive or respiratory tracts, or by inoculation through the skin; and, being absorbed, they must find a suitable soil in which to grow and breed, that is to say, the body must be in a susceptible or receptive state. The hygienist, therefore, should have a sufficient knowledge of bac- teriology, but the description and reactions of the pathogenic micro- organisms are of less consequence to him than their mode of trans- mission and introduction into the human body. Thus we know how yellow fever is conveyed, and this knowledge has enabled us to stamp it out from Cuba and other places, although the causal micro- organism has never been seen. On the other hand, we know the bacillus of leprosy, but on account of our ignorance of the manner in which it effects an entrance into the body, under natural conditions, very little has as yet been accomplished for the prevention of that terrible disease. As a country develops its material resources under the favorable conditions of peace and acquires wealth, its hygiene, as a rule, pro- gresses correspondingly; the people eat better food, are better clothed and sheltered and make more frequent use of the bath, while the cities and State construct public works of sanitation. The result has been a remarkable fall in the death rate of all civilized countries during the past quarter of a century, as shown by the following figures from the reports of the Census Office; In the United Kingdom (England, Scotland and Ireland) the yearly mortality per i.ooo inhabitants, which was about 22 in 1870, has diminished steadily until the present time, being 18.2 in 1900 and 15.5 in 1905. This means that, since 1870, for each t.ooo in- habitants there is a saving of 6.5 lives, or. for a population of 40.000.000, of 260.000 lives a year. In England and \\'ales. the rate for 19TO was only 13.5. In Erance the mortality fell from 26 in 1820 to 21.5 in 1900 and 19.6 in 1905; in Germany, from 26.8 in 1850 to 22.2 in 1900 and