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

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Uhr Brutal Qllinir nf the Nnrmal Qlnllrgr H E Mississippi Normal College inline with the spirit of the times, organized this session a Dental Clinic. The Forrest County Dental Society consists of four dentists who are giving their assistance free of charge to the Normal College physician to assist her in giving the Diploma Hygiene Class demonstra- RENA HUGHES Wgbster County tions in oral hygiene. One of the dentists comes to the college once every two Weeks, and examines the teeth of the children of the Practice School and of the Arnold Line School, a near by rural school, where extension work is being done in hygiene by the Normal College physician. He makes the examinations before the Diploma Hygiene Class, and gives the children a practical and interesting talk on cause, the prevention, and the results of decay in the teeth. The dentists ap- proach the children by different means every time they talk. In one talk, the dentist illustrated the effects of a decayed tooth on the sound teeth next to it by a big sound apple and an apple that had been bruised and was decayed. Such object lessons make his talks much more interesting to the children. With the apples before them, they understand a great deal better what he is saying about the teeth and can see the reason for this decay in the teeth. The members of the Diploma Hygiene Class make engagements and chaperone these children to the dentist's office, Where the repair Work is done and the teeth cleaned: and a tooth brush is given to each child. The generous co-operation of the Forrest County Dental Society in giving their service free of charge to this educational and philanthropic Work will bring great re- sults. We student teachers in training at the Normal College get not only valuable in- formation but practical experience in this important branch of health Work so sadly neglected in rural communities. RENA HUGHES. 21

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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

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Illighiing fllilaluriu NLY during the last few years have we realiz- ed that we must fight the mosquito in order to rid our land of malaria. The more efficient the battlefwe wage, the greater the profit, for each victory means a saving of time, labor, and doctor's bills. The mosquito is the only means that the ma- larial parasites have of getting from one person to another. From this we see that if all the mosquitoes were killed there would be no more malaria. Since this seems impossible in this warm country, we must prevent the mosquito from securing and carrying the parasites. Preventive work can be done in two ways- Smith COUHW The first is to kill or hinder the growth of the mos- quito. To do this, all boxes, cans, trash piles, brush, bushes, weeds and grass, which serve as sheltering places for the mosquito during the heat of the day, must be destroyed. W. E. JOHNSON Second, all the breeding places, such as rain barrels, cans, cisterns, reservoirs, stagnant pools,'lakes, ponds and marshes must be drained. Those places that cannot be drained should be oiled. Enough oil to put every two weeks a thin coat on the surface of the water will not cost much and it more than pays for itself when we consider how many malarial carriers it kills by preventingthe little wiggle-tails from getting air. Those placffs that can be neither oiled nor drained should have fish put in them. The fish will eat arvae. A third method in the extermination of malaria is that of screening our doors and windows. Any medium sized home can be screened for less than S40 and the screen will at the same time serve a second purpose, that of keeping out the most dangerous of all man's enemies, the house fly. Since the mosquito must first be infected before infecting others, it would not be necessary to prevent malaria if we should prevent this infection. The waysin which this can be done are: First, keep the malarial patient in a screened house: second, see that the patient is absolutely free from malarial organisms. After a person has become infected with malarial parasites, the following treat- ment has been recommended by the Hygiene Department of the Mississippi Normal College: Free purgation in the beginning is neccessary to make the after treatment more effective. Quinine given in 5-grain doses, every 2 hours until 20 grains have been taken-best results are obtained when the quinine is given throughout the night, and the effect of the quinine is not so uncomfortable. It is said that the organisms are weaker in the dark and therefore respond more readily to the poisonous effects of quinine. The quinine treatment should be continued a much longer time than is usually done, at least thirty grains a week for a period of six weeks. If every person affected with ma- laria would persist in taking quinine for the required length of time, Mississippi would soon have to import this disease from other states. It may seem that fighting malaria is not a very proiitable business to those con- cernedg but when we realize that our state lost over 33,000,000 due to malariain the year 1915, as shown by statistics, each one should strive to do his partin the prevention work. As a result there will be a conservation of great economic values to our state. W. E. JOHNSON. 22