p. 16 | Death With Progress

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 1, 1910

Death With Progress

THIS is an age of progress and advancement. Great achievements have been made in every line of science and industry. The child of to-day can build upon the knowledge of the father of yesterday. The progress made in science, in literature, in art, and in general civilization, place the people of this generation far in advance of all their predecessors; and yet it is a question for serious consideration if this advancement is of real advantage after all. In the wake of civilization have followed many unfavorable conditions, unknown to the age of greater simplicity of living. Speaking of this, the British Medical Journal says:— In humanitarian circles it is customary to speak of civilization as a disease, and to compare the noble savage and the effete citizen in a manner greatly to the latter's disadvantage from the point of view of health and constitution. Facts do not lend unqualified support to this kind of idealism, yet it must be confessed that the list of industrial diseases, already formidable, is a constantly growing one, and that every new invention carries attendant evils in its train. Among distinctively modern diseases may be instanced the poisoning produced by the fumes of calcium carbid, or acetylene; the headache, dyspepsia, cardiac failure, and sensory disturbances traceable to the manufacture and use of aniline dyes; the frothing of the blood, known as caisson disease, which follows too rapid decompression in workers at the foundations of bridges; the functional neurosis, known as telegraphists' cramp, resulting from the use of the Morse key, and the numerous affections of the skin, lungs, digestive tract, and eyes, due to irritation by organic or inorganic dusts of industrial origin. Among the last-named special mention may be made of “shoddy fever,” caused by the dust rising from the pulverization of wool containing rags. A modern danger par excellence is that of electrocution by contact with live wires, to which innumerable workers are daily and hourly exposed.