dren
examined sixty-six needed the services of a doctor, surgeon, or dentist,
and some needed all three.

Forty out of each hundred had badly neglected teeth.

Thirty-eight had enlarged glands of the neck.

Eighteen had enlarged tonsils.

Ten had growths of the nose.

Thirty-one needed glasses.

Six needed more nourishing food.

This meant that more than 52,000 of the number needed some medical care
that they would not have received at home because their parents had
never noticed the need of it. Every one of them could by prompt
attention, a small dentist's bill, a slight operation of the throat or
nose, or the use of glasses, (almost 25,000 needed glasses) be saved
great suffering or inability to work in later life.

As we learn more of disease, and especially of germ diseases, we are
oppressed by the feeling that we are in constant danger, but we must
bear in mind that it is the weak and unfit that are attacked, and that
fitness, while partly inherited, is almost altogether a matter of proper
hygiene. Keeping our bodily defenses in good condition against disease
is as much a matter of necessity and good policy as keeping the defenses
of a city in fighting condition in time of war.

That life may be prolonged and so strengthened that the average height,
weight, and endurance will be increased, admits of no doubt. The same
rule of cultivation runs through all nature. The original or natural
apple was a small, sour, bitter crab. The difference between that and
the finest products of western orchards, is altogether a matter of
cultivation, selection, and proper treatment. In 1710 the average weight
of dressed cattle did not exceed three hundred and seventy pounds. Now
it is not far from one thousand pounds. An equal change could be made in
the human race, but because we believe so fully in personal liberty to
live our lives as we choose, little has actually been done to raise the
human standard.

The care and hygiene of children is receiving universal attention, with
the result of a wonderful reduction in the sickness and death of
children, but as yet comparatively few grown persons apply these lessons
to their own lives, and the rates for older persons remain almost
unchanged.

When individuals have done all that they can, there still remains much
that must be done by the city, the state, and the nation. Boards of
health can do much toward controlling epidemics by placing infected
households under quaranti