ntly, we have been making examinations of the
employees of whole institutions, large banks and other
industrial concerns in New York City, and we find almost
the same conditions there. Out of 2000 such examinations
among young men and women of an average age of 33, just in
the early prime of life, men and women supposedly picked
because of their especial fitness for work, only 3.14% were
found free of impairment or of habits of living which are
obviously leading to impairment. Of the remaining persons,
96.69% were unaware of impairment; 5.38% of the total
number examined were affected with chronic heart trouble;
13.10% with arteriosclerosis; 25.81% with high or low blood
pressure; 35.65% with sugar, casts or albumen in the urine;
12.77% with combination of both heart and kidney disease;
22.22% with decayed teeth or infected gums; 16.03% with
faulty vision uncorrected.... The fact of greatest import,
however, was that impairment, sufficiently serious to
justify the examiner in referring the examinee to his
family physician for medical treatment, was found in 59% of
the total number of cases, while 37.86% were on the road to
impairment because of the use of "too much alcohol," or
"too much tobacco," constipation, eye-strain, overweight,
diseased mouths, errors of diet, and so forth....

"And what is the cause of this appalling increase, in the
United States, of these and other degenerative diseases? I
believe it can be shown to the satisfaction of any
reasonable person that the increase is largely due to the
neglect of individual hygiene in United States....

"If a man were suddenly afflicted with smallpox or typhoid
fever or any other acute malady, he would lose no time in
getting expert advice and applying every known means to
save his life. But his life may be threatened just as
seriously, though possibly not so imminently, by
arteriosclerosis, heart disease, or Bright's disease, and
he will do nothing to prevent the encroachment of these
diseases until it is too late, but will continue to eat as
he pleases, drink as he pleases, smoke as he pleases, or
overwork, and worry himself into a premature
grave."--("Conservation of Life at Middle Age," Prof.
Irving Fisher, Am. Journal of Public