Health and Science

Health

The health of Canadians has improved since 1900, although the first antibiotic is still 3 years away from discovery.

Infant mortality rates are decreasing with better sanitation and infant care. The life expectancy of a child born today has nudged up to 60 years.

By now, the deadly Spanish Influenza of 1918-19 is only a terrible memory. It killed almost 60,000 Canadians - about the same number that died in the Great War. There hasn't been an epidemic like it before or since.

If you are young, you are most likely to die of an infection or a communicable disease like diphtheria, typhus or tuberculosis. Still, huge efforts across Canada to reduce the ravages of tuberculosis is having success. Organizations such as the Canadian Tuberculosis Association are founded in every province. Now that people realize that TB is spread by breathing infected air, emphasis is being placed on fresh air and prevention. In many communities, almost 95% of the population undergoes regular x-rays to diagnose the disease. For those suffering from TB, a new treatment involves deliberately collapsing an infected lung to help it heal. There are no drugs that can help.

Syphilis can now be treated with an arsenic-containing compound called Salvarsan. Diabetes has gone from a death sentence to a chronic condition thanks to Canadians Fred Banting and Charles Best.

Ironically, improvements in sanitation have laid the foundation for widespread polio epidemics. As people are no longer routinely exposed to the polio bacterium in drinking water, general levels of immunity are low. Young people in particular are very susceptible to the crippling disease. In 1921, polio struck future American President Franklin Roosevelt. In another 7 years, he will enter the White House bound to a wheel-chair.

The Department of National Health was founded in 1919. Today, every new parent reaches for the Department's Little Blue Books to find answers to questions about child health and welfare.

Science

Quantum physics, Einstein's theory of relativity and Freud's writings are changing the way that people look at the world. Neils Bohr has proposed his theory of the atom. Pavlov's dogs are salivating. Modern science as it is known in the year 2000 begins to come into focus.

Radio is starting to really take off. Blood types and the first hormones have been identified. Substances called vitamins have been isolated in certain food.

Submarines roam the seas. The world now has ultraviolet lights, gas stations, and the first basic plastic, called Bakelite. Doctors dabble with brain surgery, and Thomas Morgan suggests the chromosome theory of heredity.