University of Southern Mississippi - Southerner Yearbook (Hattiesburg, MS)

Page 30 text:

Gluptain nf the Beath iirigahr H E RE are probably few diseases whose symp- toms are more generally recognized than pneumonia. The stabbing pain in the chest, the cough, the blood-colored expectorations, the rapid breathing, all stamp it as a disease of the lungs. Our most universally accepted term for it, pneumonia, is merely the Greek equivalent for lung fever. Our deadliest enemies are lung diseasesg to- gether they count for one-third of all the deaths that occur in a community. Ever since accurate statistics have been kept, pneumonia has been the second heav- est cause of death, the first being tuberculosis. About ten years ago it was noticed that the second competitor in the race of death was overtaking its leader, and this ghastly rivalry continued until aboutthree years ago when pneumonia forged ahead. LUCILLE HATTEN Harrison County For a long time this disease was believed to be caused from exposure to cold or a wetting. There were two reasons for this: one, that the disease is most common in winter time, and the other that it most frequently begins with a chill. The cause of this dreadful disease is a tiny inoffensive looking little organism of an oval shape which has come to be called pneumococcus or lung germ. It nearly fills the prophesy of the Scripture that A man's foes shall be they of his own house- hold, for it has as its favorite home the human mouth. We can hardly believe that some of them may be found in the saliva of every human beingg there they stay watch- ing for the least opportunity to seize their victim. These germs may be scattered by expectoration for, if kept moist in saliva and not exposed to sunlight, they will live as long as two weeks. If exposed to sunlight, they die within an hour. We find, then, that this germ grows only in dark damp places. This explains the fact that pneumonia is largely an occupational disease. Since these things are true, is it any wonder that the man who works in the mines all day without the needed fresh air and sunshine, or the woman who lives in the slums with perhaps twenty others in the room and ceaselessly bends over the sewing machine or Wash tub for hours at the time should contract a severe case of pneumonia? When once this disease has a foot-hold, its course is short, sharp and decisive. For this reason exceeding care must be taken to prevent it. The principal factors in this disease are those which tend to build up the vigor of the body and its power of resistance. It is further evident that just as No chain is stronger than its weakest link, so, in the broad sense, no community is stronger than its weakest group of individuals. We know, too, that the germs, however numerous, are powerless for harm except to people who are below par. No other disease is so eager to seize the weaklings. In the bright sunny home the pneumococcus will find no abiding place. They cannot live Where there are sunlight and fresh airg hygienic conditions reduce the risk of infection. Pneumonia is one of our most serious and most fatal diseases, yet it is one about whose cause, spread, and cure the general public is showing increased inteiligence and interest every day. lt is only a question of time until it can be completely under our control. Let us all do our part in smiting this great Captain of the Death Brigade. LU CILLE HATTEN. 19

Page 29 text:

Nvrrnfiity fur larnprr Erating Zliarilitirz HE proper heating of the school room is one of the most important problems to be solved by the rural school. Time and progress have brought about a great change in the way the build- ings are heated. In the days of our fore fathers, the school house was heated by a big fire-place that extended across the whole end of the building. This old fashioned fire-place served its purpose for that day. This fire-place gave plenty of ventilation, a thing as important and necessary as heat, but it did not give a uniform degree of heat to the entire room. In order that a school room be in condition for a student to do his best work, the heat must be evenly distributed. One child must not be freezing while the other is baking. T. J. GUY Noxubee County There are several modern up-to-date Ways of heating that give satisfactory re- sults. In many of our city and consolidated schools, the buildings are heated by fur- naces, hot water, or steam. All these save the first are good where people are able to have such an equipment. Our rural schools, however, have not developed to that degree of efficiency as yet. Unless one of these systems of heating is installed, at least a properly jacketed stove is required. N o unjacketed stove should be tolerated in any school. These jackets keep the room evenly heated. The jacketed stove should have a direct fresh air inlet about twelve inches square, opening through the wall of the school house into the jacket against the middle or hottest part of the stove. The exit for foul air should be an opening at least sixteen inches square on the wall near the floor, on the side of the room where the stove is located. In using a stove one should keep a pan of water on it in order to preserve the humidity of the atmosphere. In order to know how to regulate the temperature of the room, it is necessary to have a good thermometer in a convenient place so that the teacher or child helper may see when the room is too warm or too cool. The temperature should not be allowed to go to either extreme, the correct temperature being about sixty-eight degrees. If a teacher will pay attention to the thermometer, this uniform degree may be easily kept. The school room should always have plenty of fresy air, a thing as necessary as plenty of heat. T. J. GUY. 18

Page 31 text:

Alrnhnl. Qlrimv sinh Hnuvrtg N 1909 an international conference on alcoholism was held in England to which most of the nations of the world sent scientific men as delegates. Comparing the results of investigations made in all parts of the world, and finding that these results agreed, the medical leaders drew up a report defining the nature of alcohol as follows: Exact laboratory, clinical and pathological research has demonstrated that alcohol is a dehydrating, protoplasmic poison, and its use as abeverage is degenerating and destruc- tive to the human organism. Its effects upon the cells and tissues of the body are depressive, narcotic, and anaesthetic. Therefore, its use should be re- stricted in the same way as the use of other poison- ous drugs. Alcohol is the direct cause of more crime than all other forces combined. According to modern views, criminality implies, to some extent, defective mentality. Alcohol impairs the highest mental faculty, and at the same time it stimulates various lower propensities and passions. As an agent therefore which influences the passions and lowers the moral standards, it makes for the commission of crime. Emperor William II of Germany said: I can assure you that during the twenty-two years of my reign, I have made the observation that the greater number of criminal cases submitted to me for adjudication, up to nine-tenths, are traceable to the consequences of alcohol. A lord chief justice of England said: If sifted, nine-tenths of the crime of England and Wales could be traced to drink. Dr. T. D. Crothers, superintendent of Walnut Lodge Hospital, in Hartford, Conn., said: All authorities agree that from seventy-five to ninety per cent of all criminality implies to the use of alcohol. But the effect of alcohol does not stop with the users themselves. Scientists having investigated the effect of alcoholic parents upon their children have made the following statement: Of children born to alcoholic parents eighty-three per cent are abnormal. That is, one out of every five will be hopelessly insane: one out of every three will be hysterical or epileptic, and more than two-thirds will be degenerate. The same scientists having investigated thousands of cases, have made the following state- ment: Of children born to parents who are total abstainers, eighty-nine per cent will be normal, while only eleven per cent will be abnormal. Is alcohol a source of poverty? Answers to questions sent lately to every alms- house in the United States show that fifty-one per cent of inmates of almshouses became paupers through drink. It is estimated that the paupers of England cost the nation 350,000,000 annually, as a result of alcoholic drinking. The United States pays over S2,000,000,000 annually to provide for the added crime, pauperism, idiocy, and insanity produced by alcohol. The teachers of Mississippi should help educate the youth of our state on the ef- fects of alcohol upon the human body. Hon. Richmond P. Hobson said: Not a class or grade should be allowed to pass without educational instructions in the facts of alcohol. ' ' GROVER HOOKER. GROVER HOOKER Union County 20