: Euthenics the science of controllable environment A plea for better living conditions as a first step toward higher human efficiency by Richards Ellen H Ellen Henrietta - Euthenics

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Men ignore Nature's laws in their personal lives. They crave a larger measure of goodness and happiness, and yet in their choice of dwelling places, in their building of houses to live in, in their selection of food and drink, in their clothing of their bodies, in their choice of occupations and amusements, in their methods and habits of work, they disregard natural laws and impose upon themselves conditions that make their ideals of goodness and happiness impossible of attainment.

And is it, I ask, an unworthy ambition for man to set before himself to understand those eternal laws upon which his happiness, his prosperity, his very life depend? Is he to be blamed and anathematized for endeavoring to fulfill the divine injunction: "Fear God and keep His commandments, for that is the whole duty of man"? Before he can keep them, surely he must first ascertain what they are.

In my judgment, the situation is hopeful. To realize that our problems are chiefly those of environment which we in increasing measure control, to realize that, no matter how bad the environment of this generation, the next is not injured provided that it be given favorable conditions, is surely to have an optimistic view.

Such facts as the following, showing the increase in health, or rather the decrease in disease, go to prove what may be done.

Since 1882, tuberculosis has decreased forty-nine per cent; typhoid, thirty-nine per cent. Statistics in regard to heart disease and other troubles under personal control, however, show increase--kidney disease, 131 per cent; heart disease, fifty-seven per cent; apoplexy, eighty-four per cent. This means that infectious and contagious diseases, of which the State has taken cognizance and to the suppression of which it has applied known laws of science, have been brought under control, and their existence today is due only to the carelessness or the ignorance of individuals.

On the other hand, such results of improper personal living as do not come under legal control--diseases of the heart, kidneys, and general degeneration, matters of personal hygiene--have so enormously increased as in themselves to show the attitude of mind of the great mass of the people, "Let us eat and drink and be merry, what if we do die tomorrow!"

Probably not more than twenty-five per cent in any community are doing a full day's work such as they would be capable of doing if they were in perfect health. This adds to the length of the school course, to the cost of production in all directions, to increased taxation, and decreases interest in daily life.

Dr. George M. Gould estimated that sickness and death in the United States cost ,000,000,000 annually, of which at least one-third is regarded as preventable.

From all sides comes testimony to the decrease in personal efficiency of workers of all degrees. Medical science has prolonged life, hospitals and visiting nurses have made sickness less distressful, but have also in many cases prolonged the time and increased the cost. Sanitary science aims to prevent the beginnings of sickness, and so to eliminate much of the expense.

The discovery that the mosquito is the carrying agent for the yellow fever germ has saved more lives annually than were lost in the Cuban War. In the yellow fever epidemic of 1872, the loss to the country was not less than 0,000,000 in gold.

"The cost of medical attendance, medicine and nursing, etc., is conjectured by Dr. Biggs in New York to be from .50 each per day for the consumptive poor to a greater amount for other diseases and classes. Applying this to the 3,000,000 years of illness annually experienced, we have ,500,000,000 as the minimum annual cost of this kind.

"The statistics of the Commissioner of Labor show that the expenditure for illness and death amounts to twenty-seven dollars per family per annum. This is for workingmen's families only. But even this figure, if applied to the 17,000,000 families of the United States, would make the total bill caring for illness and death 0,000,000. The true cost may well be more than twice this sum. Certainly the estimate is more than safe, and is only one-third of the sum obtained by using Dr. Biggs's estimate. The sum of the costs of illness, including loss of wages and cost of care, is thus 0,000,000 plus 0,000,000 equals 0,000,000.... At least three-quarters of the costs are preventable."

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