growths, whose removal
restored normal conditions. A woman lecturer on children's health heard
described last summer a friend's experience with receding gums: "'Why,
I never heard of that disease.' she said. 'Don't you know you have it
yourself'? I asked. She had never noticed that her gums were growing
away in little points on her front teeth. I touched the uncovered
portion and she winced. That ignorance has meant intense pain and ugly
fillings. If it had gone longer, it might have meant the loss of her
front teeth." A teacher lost a month from nervous prostration; physical
examination would have discovered the eye trouble that deranged the
stomach and produced the nerve-racking shingles which forced him to
take a month's vacation. A journalist lost weeks each year because of
strained ankles; since being told that he had flat foot, and that the
arch of his foot could be strengthened by braces and specially made
shoes, he has not lost a minute. A relief visitor, ardent advocate of
the fresh-air, pure-milk treatment for tuberculosis, had a "little
cough" and an occasional "cold sweat"; medical friends knew this, but
humored her aversion to examination; when too late, she submitted to an
examination and to the treatment which, if taken earlier, would most
certainly have cured her. A mother's sickness cost a wage-earning
daughter nearly $3000; softening of the brain was feared; after six
years of suffering and unnecessary expense, physical examination
disclosed an easily removable cause, and for two years she has
contributed to the family income instead of exhausting it. Untold
suffering is saved many a mother by knowledge of her special physical
need in advance of her baby's birth. Untold suffering might be saved
many a woman in business if she could be told in what respects she was
transgressing Nature's law.

[Illustration: NEW YORK CITY'S TUBERCULOSIS SANATORIUM AT
OTISVILLE IS SENDING HOME APOSTLES OF SEMI-ANNUAL EXAMINATIONS]

[Illustration: BOSTON'S PICTURESQUE DAY CAMP FOR TUBERCULOSIS
PATIENTS IS TEACHING THE NEED FOR A PERIODIC INVENTORY OF
PHYSICAL RESOURCES]

To encourage periodic physical examination is not to encourage morbid
thinking of disease. One reason for our tardiness in recognizing the
need for thorough physical examination is the doctor's tradition of
treating symptoms. After men and women are intelligent enough to demand
an inventory of their physical resources,--a balance s