Head of Public Health Service Urges War against Syphilis Source

Head of Public Health Service Urges War against Syphilis Source: The Science News-Letter, Vol. 32, No. 852 (Aug. 7, 1937), p. 84 Published by: Society for Science & the Public Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3913236 Accessed: 29/11/2009 14:46 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sciserv. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Society for Science & the Public is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Science News-Letter. http://www.jstor.org
84 S C I E N C E NEWs LETTER, fr August 7, 1937 are the meteors, commonly called "shoot- ing stars," which appear during most of the month of August, but particular- ly about the night of August I. An average of a dozen or so meteors can be seen hourly on any dark, clear night during the latter half of the year. More are seen after midnight than be- fore. This is because the meteors, small bits of cosmic dust, generally no larger than grains of sand, are moving through space more or less at random. After mid- night we are on the advancing side of the earth, and meet those coming toward us head-on, as well as overtaking the slower moving ones. But in the evening hours, when we are on the receding side of the earth, only those moving more rapidly, and in our direction, catch up. On the night of August i i, if one watches the northeastern sky, one or more a minute will probably be seen. And instead of flitting across the sky in all directions, these will seem to ra- diate from one particular place, the con- stellation of Perseus. The August meteors are therefore called the "Perseids." Ac- tually this is an illusion, the same one that makes the tracks of a railroad con- verge in the distance, for the meteors are moving in parallel paths around the sun in a great elliptical orbit. Every Au- gust the earth crosses this orbit, and the meteors are seen in profusion. As they follow the same path as Tuttle's comet, last seen in I862, they are believed to be the comet's debris. In many years the moon is nearly full about August ii, and its glare hides the fainter perseids. This month on the best date it is several days before the first quarter, so it sets before midnight, and the early morning sky is quite dark. For meteor photography a fast lens is essential. It should be of F. 6.3 or bet- ter, and fast films should also be used. Low in the northeast, soon after mid- night, the brilliant star Capella will ap- pear, and Perseus is the constellation just above and to the right. Place the camera on a tripod, or some film sup- port, and point it to this region. Then open the shutter, and give a long expos- ure of I5 minutes, or even longer. Dur- ing this time the turning of the earth makes the stars move, so they will photo- graph as parallel streaks, but the met- eors will be moving in other directions, and they can easily be distinguished. When other exposures are given the camera's position can be changed, so as to keep it pointed to the same region of the sky. If one has another fast camera, it might also be used, pointing it to the part of the sky above, or to the side, of that included in the first. Such photographs may have some value to astronomers. The time of each exposure should be noted, and this in- formation, together with the original films, which are better for the purpose than prints, sent to Dr. Charles P. Olivier, of the University of Pennsyl- vania, at the Flower Observatory, Upper Darby, Pa. In Canada they may be sent to Dr. Peter M. Millman, Dunlap Ob- servatory, Richmond Hill, Ontario. They will also be glad to know the number of meteors seen during half hourly periods. Science News Letter, August 7, 1937 PUBLIC HEALTH Head 0f Public Health Service Urges War Against Syphilis IN a fighting declaration of renewed warfare against the great but pre- ventable plague of syphilis, Surgeon General Thomas H. Parran of the U. S. Public Health Service, in a new book, "Shadow on the Land" (Reynal and Hitchcock), calls upon physicians and laymen alike to insist upon putting into effect a platform of action: i. Locate syphilis. 2. Obtain public funds which assure adequate treatment of all infected per- sons. 3. Educate the private physician and the general public. This disease affects one out of every ten adults of the nation. It is a hundred times more prevalent than infantile pa- ralysis and twice as common as tuber- culosis. Dr. Parran calls it the greatest public health problem. Giving figures and naming cities and persons, Dr. Parran discusses official ac- tion being taken to combat syphilis. Chicago and St. Louis are not rated highly in their handling of clinics, al- though Dr. Parran praises the control program of Chicago now getting under way. In Houston, Dr. Parran quotes a local opinion that dairy cattle are given better care than syphilis patients. But Dallas, with newspapers leading, has de- veloped an excellent clinic and control program. New York has done more than any other city in the past two years. Washington, D. C. has a "distressing" record in health protection and Dr. Par- ran lays the blame largely on lack of financial support from Congress. Wiping out congenital syphilis is the first thing to do completely, Dr. Parran writes. This is a job that will not require a generation. With good treat- ment begun before the fifth month of pregnancy there is only one chance in eleven that the syphilitic mother will not bear a healthy child. Prostitution is condemned by Dr. Par- ran as one of the major methods of spreading syphilis and he calls it "the single greatest social handicap to com- plete eradication of America's No. I killer." Fear of disease alone will not control syphilis, he observes, and ideally, we should teach our boys and girls to prefer sex morality. Praises Newspapers Dr. Parran acknowledges the coopera- tion of the press in bringing the syphilis problem to the attention of the American people. He also urged further reporting of the conditions in particular cities. "During the past year a great number of American newspapers and magazines honestly have tried to be helpful in the program to educate people about the facts of syphilis control," Dr. Parran writes. "Some of the best feature writers in the country have been doing articles for their papers about how Columbus brought syphilis to Europe in 1493 and Wassermann devised a blood test to find it in 1907. They give a few national figures on prevalence and sometimes they review what Scandinavia and Great Britain have done. That's all. "And that's fine! Everybody needs to know a little about the background of this problem. I've tried to sketch a few of those essential facts in preceding chapters. But we need spotlights as well as background for the great contempo- rary tragedy. The news story begins where these stories stop. I should like to see some of the crack reporters get down to brass tacks regarding how much syphilis we actually have, month by month and year by year in these states and cities. Where does it come from? How much of it is stopped at the source? Are all cases treated? Is treatment good? Is it considerate? If not, who's respon- sible ? " Science News Letter, August 7, 1937