To Our Readers: SOCIAL AND SEX HYGIENE. The passing of the Utah Law for the Compulsory Notification of venereal disease is calling forth favorable comment from different sections of our common country. One of our foremost writers compares it with the "Indiana Plan" for the effective sterilization of the unfit, and says: "Now comes the 'Utah Plan' for the reporting of venereal disease," and adds, "Utah may be proud of her law, she may stop the contamination of the nuptial couch and it is up to the profession to educate both themselves and the public." We are pleased to announce that Dr. G. Henri Bogart of Brookville, Indiana, has arranged to contribute a series of original papers on the disastrous results of professional and social silence in relation to Sexual Disease. Among these papers will be found: Nuptial Contamination. The Crime of Love. Dr. Winslow Anderson, President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, San Francisco, has consented to contribute a resume of the efforts made and the results obtained by different nations in the suppression or control of the evil. He writes, "Prostitution is a moral disease depending upon ignorance-poverty and want. Only a small proportion depends upon moral degeneration-passion and lust. Mothers and fathers should be instructed that they may teach their children." Papers on the Regulation of Marriage to cut down the ratio of hereditary, communicable and venereal disease, as also of insanity, will be presented by well known Psychologists and Medical Scientists. It will be remembered that our Utah Bill requiring a Certificate of Health prior to the issue of a marriage license, as introduced in the Legislature, having gotten well on its way, was held up at the last moment and allowed to die of neglect and inanition during the expiring moments of a tired-out Legislature, which in its hurry to adjourn voted down everything likely to call forth discussion. The question is. one that will not down. We intend to keep it alive, and see that the Legislature of 1913 faces and deals with the problem. MEDICAL NOTES AND ITEMS THE PESKY FLY. The time is now near at hand when the "first summer boarders" Madam Fly and her children, will arrive, and the approaching advent of this pest should be a signal for the use of every means of defense possible. The time has gone by when the fly may be complacently considered as a nuisance to be borne with as much patience as possible. When we consider that average total bacteria contained on a series of 414 flies was about one million and a quarter and that these flies leave a trail on our food, on kitchen utensils, on the nipple of the baby's bottle, and in almost every other conceivable place, we must recognize the fly as a positive danger. The fly problem is not such a difficult one as it is generally considered to be, when its solution is approached from a common-sence standpoint. Let it be borne in mind that the female lays her eggs in stable manure, in decaying vegetables and animal refuse, and any form of filth available. These eggs soon hatch out into maggots, which, after feeding for a few days pass into the pupal stage and emerge as full fledged flies. The interval between the laying of the eggs and the appearance of the winged insect is about ten days. Now if these breeding places are removed every week or at least within ten days, the eggs and young are both destroyed and the successive crops are prevented. In the absence of removal, covering with earth or sprinkling with chloride of lime or copper sulphate, is the next in effectiveness. The presence of human fecal matter is, of course, the most dangerous of all, on account of the prevalence of typhoid and its undoubted distribution by fiies. Such a breeding place is most easily removed or sterilized and such methods should be insisted upon. Screening of doors and windows and covering or washing of fruit and other articles of food are of prime importance but the war should be waged on the primary causes. The common house-fly has become such a well-recognized carrier of infection that its destruction should interest not only health officers and boards of health, but progressive physicians wherever located.-Vermont Medical.. "normal" man, who is engrossed in the desperate struggle for existence. The percentage of children born out of wedlock by feeble-minded women is more than twice as great as the number born to normal women who are unmarried. His data shows, says Sinclair, that whereas the average number of children in a normal family is four, the average number of children in a degenerate family is seven. All of these feeble-minded who are peopling the world at an abnormal rate are classed by this Scotch penal expert as among the "unfit.' There is a large and constantly increasing number of the unfit, and the influence of such persons is distinctly hurtful to the community, he says, leading to the production of undesirable human stock and to large public expense. He urges legislation for the care and control of the unfit, in their own interest and in the interest of the race. Those among the unfit who are noncriminal and who are physically capable probably can be dealt with suitably in farm and labor colonies, suggests Sinclair. As to epileptics, who are increasing fast under the nervous strain of modern industrial life, they should be subject to public registration, inasmuch as the marriage of all epileptic leads to epileptic or strongly neurotic offspring. Sinclair indorses the view of Sir Lauder Brunton that intestinal toxaemia is responsible for the "always-tired" workman. DIVORCE AND DESERTION RESULTS. Superintendents of reform schools and orphanages practically agree that an increasing number of children is coming to them on account of desertion and divorce. Out of 7,575 children in 34 reform schools "twenty-nine and sixtenths per cent," says Charles A. Ellwood in The Survey, "came from families in which there had been divorce or desertion. Out of the same number of children thirty-five and three-onehundredths per cent came from families in which either farther or mother or both were dead." The records of four juvenile courts and of 76 institutions for dependent children show almost as surprising results. "The significant thing seems to be that desertion and divorce are a large enough force in the community to bring pressure to bear upon orphan asylums to break their rules and receive children from families broken by desertion and divorce as well as from families mutilated by death. It is surprising that the number of children who become socially maladjusted from desertion and divorce, is almost as great as the number who become so from the death of one or both parents." A. American Society of Sociology; Edl., 270. Atropine; Wm. F. Waugh, 90. Aural Complications; F. E. Wallace, 5. B. Baptisin; H. H. Redfield, 179. Blindness, Prevention of; Frederick Stauf- Books, 23, 62, 112, 155, 197, 236, 275, 324, Bryonin; H. H. Redfield, 179. C. Cancer as Known Today; Isaac Levin, 532, Cancer of Uterus, Treatment of Inoperab e; Chicago's Report on the Social Evil, 460. Chylous scites and Chylothorax; C. B. Van Coca-Cola Case; Edl., 479. College of Pharmacy and Practical Science Colorado State Medical Society; Edl., 145, Compulsory Notification of Venereal Dis- Flatulence; Edl., 231. Foreign Journals; W. H. Crisp, 20, 60, 109, G. Glycosuria, Non-Diabetic; S. Ringolsky, 391. H. Hexamethylenamin; Edl., 105. How Some Oriental Countries Dispose of 1. In Memoriam; Edl. (Hawkins), 146. Intestinal Infections in Infants and Chil- J. Jenner, Life of; Walter Hasler, 203. L. Leucorrhea, Significance of; Augustin H. Lichen Planus; A. L. Stubbs, 41. M. Man Who Dared; John Milo Maxwell, 161, Measles a Menace to Public Health, 461. Medical Board Report; Edl., 330. Medical Doings of the 18th General Assem- Medical Education and Legislation; D. C. Medical Legislation; Edl., 240. Medical Notes and Items, 39, 81, 126, 168, 208, 251, 297, 338, 419, 498. Medical Profession Must Change Its Tac- Medical School Constitutional Amendment; Medical Science in the New Legislature; Medico-Legal; E. S. McKee, 432. Nervous Symptoms of Arteriosclerosis and Nitrous Oxide and Oxygen-General Anes- Notification of Venereal Diseases; Edl., 412. Obstetrical Cases at Mercy Hospital, Usual Obstetrical Complications; E. Stuver, 348. Oral Hygiene weather, 296. E. C. Fair- Otitis Media, Chronic, and its Treatment Owen Bill for the Establishment of a Fed- P. Panama Canal and Medical Freedom Leagu- Penetrating Wounds of the Eyeball; L. W. Percussion of the Kidneys; Edl., 400. Pernicious Anemia, Degenerative Changes Personals, 17, 38, 56, 84, 107, 128, 150, 170, Phlegmasia Alba Dolens, Etiology of; Eu- Physicians and Surgeons; Edl., 269. Plea for the Stricter Enforcement of Quar- Police Power in the Light of Constitutional Poliomyelitis, New Facts About; Edl. (H. Pregnancy with Unruptured Hymen and Vaginal Atresia; Agnes M. Ditson, 343. Race Problem, My Views of; G. Frank Lyd- Race Question in America and Criminal So- Recent Utah Legislation Affecting Physi- Rectum, Anatomy of and the Saccules of Horner; M. H. Sears, 103. Repair of Fractures; George F. Roehrig, Report of a Few Odd Things Found at Op- Report of Two Very Rare Cases; Miller E. Surgical Treatment; G. L. Monson, 350. Waugh, 206. Wm. Roentgen Ray, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Save the Babies; Edl. (E. H. S.), 26. Some Passing Practices and Better Meth- Some Problems Before the Medical Profes- Spinal Needle, A New; Carl G. Parsons, 258. State Association Journals; Edl., 414. Budge, 493. E. S. Treat- Necessity for Early Surgeon versus Medical Physician; J. M. Syphilis, Is it a Contagious Disease? Fred- Syphilis, Serum Reaction for, with Report To the Women of Utah; Edl., 414. Buchtel, 256. Twenty Years After; Edl., 399. Typhoid Fever, A Mild Case; R. J. Smith, Typhoid, Prevention of; Walter T. Hasler, U. Urotropin, A Correction, 150. Use of Rubberized Open Meshed Netting as Utah's Relations to the Medical Associa- V. Vaccinations, Some Conclusions from 30,- Vaccine Therapy and Immunity; Wm. C. K. Varicocele of the Spermatic Cord; Aime W. Warning to Patriots and Physicians; Edl., Water, Bacteriology of; Edl., 147. What's the Matter with Western Medical Whooping Cough; Edl., 241; Russell J. |