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County Commission
The Monroe County Commission met on Monday, Jan. 4 with Presiding Commissioner Donald Simpson and Associate Commissioners Mike Whelan and Glenn E. Turner all present.
Ron Purdy, with the Madison Special Road District, called to inquire about the use of the county brush cutters.
Sam Curd, 911 Coordinator, reviewed 911 operations.
The Commission also met with Sheriff Hoffman to discuss operations in the Sheriff’s Department.
The Monroe County Commission also met on Friday, Jan. 8 with Simpson, Whelan and Turner all present.
Phillip Livesay reviewed the Juvenile Office Budget for the 10th Judicial Court.
Skip Wilson and Steve Spegal with MoDOT inquired about GPS mapping of the county roads.
Curd went over weekend 911 operations.
Purdy, with the Madison Special Road District, called to inquire about brush cutting in the Madison Special Road District.
The Commissioners and the County Clerk also worked on the budget.
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Monroe County Court
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The following were recorded as paying fines to the Associate Division Fine Collection Center for Jan. 12.
For speeding: Cynthia M. Cramer, Quincy, Ill.; Carol A. Hall, Paris; Polly A. Jacobs, Columbia; Sherri O. Ragar, Palmyra; Veda D. Smith, Holliday; Ashley M. Talbott, New London. For littering: Donald G. Hagemann, Catawissa. For possessing wildlife illegally: David R. Hardesty, Stoutsville.
Circuit Court
Anthony A. Arnold, Kahoka, speeding 77 mph, $155.50; Tracy A. Vincent, Macon, speeding 64 mph, $200.50; Ralph W. Mettler, Paris, speeding 64 mph, $200; Mylan A. Hutcherson, Clarence, speeding 96 mph, $500 fine and five days in Monroe County Jail; Aaron M. Shatzer, Holliday, possession of under 35 grams of marijuana, $300 fine; Christopher C. Galligan, Madiosn, failed to provide proof of insurance, $50.50, failed to secure child in safety belt, $30.50; Drew M. Bartels, Paris, speeding 91 mph, $360.50, seat belt violation, $10; Spencer S. Woods, Paris, unlawful use of drug paraphernalia, suspended imposition of sentence, placed on two years of private probation and to complete 24 hours of community service work; John E. Shelton, Hannibal, seat belt violation, $10; Carl R. Starks, Madison, minor visibly intoxicated while operating a motor vehicle, $300 fine.
City of Madison
Eric E. Shaw, Madison, dogs running at large, $50.
Civil Court
Green Tree Servicing, LLC vs. James D. Story and Lisa M. Story, judgment for the plaintiff—property—1998 Four Seasons Housing mobile home; Kenneth Whelan vs. Audrey S. Walterscheid, judgment for the plaintiff $2,135.
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Monroe City Police
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Monroe City Police Chief Rick Stone reported the following activity for the past week.
Michael J. Novak was arrested on warrants for bad checks in Ralls and Marion Counties on Jan. 11.
Robert L. Crabtree was arrested on an active felony warrant for failure to obey a judge’s orders on Jan. 11. He was unable to post bond and was taken to the Monroe County Jail.
A purse was reported stolen from an apartment at 620 S. Monroe St. on Jan. 12.
On Jan. 13, police arrested Randolph L. Sparkman on a summons for failure to maintain financial responsibility and a summons was issued for having no operator’s license.
Kayla R. Bichsel was arrested on Jan. 13 on a city warrant for failure to appear. She posted bond and was released.
On Jan. 14, police worked on an accident that occurred in Pace’s parking lot.
On Jan. 14, a city summons was issued to Josh Potterfield.
On Jan. 14, Tod Andrew (not Swinkey Todd) Hays was arrested for burglary and assault at 1024 Park St. He was taken to the Monroe County Jail.
On Jan. 15, Leigh Ann Hays was arrested on a Shelby County warrant for probation violation.
On Jan. 17, police responded to a fight at the Dugout Lounge. On arrival, the fight had broken up and one subject had left and the other did not want to press charges.
Tina R. Mulford was issued a summons for speeding on Jan. 17.
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Patrol warns of scam
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The Missouri State Highway Patrol would like to warn the public about a scam recently reported to officers in the Troop B area. The scam involves text messages received on cellular telephones advising of potential problems with their personal bank account. The message provides a telephone number for the person to call to reactivate the account. When the number is called, the caller is asked to provide their personal banking information. Once banking information is provided, it is suspected that an unauthorized individual has access to your account.
It is important for citizens to know financial institutions never conduct this type of business over the telephone, in an e-mail, or via a text message. The Patrol would like to remind citizens to NEVER provide personal information over the telephone, in text messages, or on the Internet unless you can verify the authenticity of the company or person receiving the information. If you believe you have become a victim of identity theft you should immediately contact your local law enforcement agency.
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Looking back at health care concerns since 1910
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Perhaps with health care reform one of the hottest news items of 2010, it’s time to see how we have progressed in that area over the last 100 years. The current discussion is focused almost exclusively on the high cost of care and treatment for illness and disease. Many of the leading causes of death, as reported by the Center for Disease Control 1910-1998, have been on the Top 10 list since 1910 and will probably remain there for the next century as well.
Heart disease is still the leading cause of death. Pneumonia and influenza, included in a single category, were number two in 1910. They made the list every decade up through 1998 and were ranked number one above heart disease during the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918-1920. Other organic systems susceptible to the wear and tear of daily use, such as the lungs, kidneys, liver, digestive and circulatory systems, have consistently made the top ten, even though the medical terminology used to describe the various conditions may have changed. For instance, senility, number ten in 1910, is no longer acceptable as a catch-all cause because modern diagnostic techniques can determine a more exact condition.
The number three cause of death in 1910, tuberculosis, known in earlier times as consumption, was once thought to be practically eradicated. It dropped from number seven in 1950 to 15 in 1958 after it was discovered two years earlier that the disease responded to the antibiotic streptomycin. In the 1980s tuberculosis cases began to rise worldwide in a drug-resistant form after patients failed to complete the prescribed regimen of treatment. The World Health Organization declared a global health emergency in 1993 and said it expected nearly half a million new cases of the disease to occur annually.
It may be that Dr. John C. Gunn of Knoxville, Tennessee, was right when he wrote in his 1832 book, “Domestic Medicine, or Poor Man’s Friend” in the hours of affliction, pain and sickness: “Thousands are yearly falling in the spring-time of life by the untimely stroke of this most fatal of diseases, consumption, and although medical men have for ages been endeavoring to put a stop to its ravages, I assert without fear of contradiction, that in the last stage of consumption, there is no remedy within the whole circle of medical science, that will cure the disease.”
Dr. Gunn was not entirely correct in his belief that, “Consumption spreads its ravages in the haunts of gaiety, fashion and folly--but in the more humble walks of life where the busy hum of laborious industry is heard, it is seldom known.”
Missouri death certificates issued in Monroe County for 1910 show that 18 out of 205 deaths reported that year were the result of some form of tuberculosis. The disease crossed all age barriers and months of the year. All died at home, presumably under the heart-rending care of family and friends, with an occasional house call from one of the many local doctors. There were no large hospitals within the county equipped to care for the terminally ill.
Those who died from some form of tuberculosis, their age and burial location were as follows: Mary Gannaway Burnett, 57, Paris; Mae Clark, 37, Paris; John Dowell, 48, Hawkins cemetery; Chris Fifer, 54, Phillips cemetery; Louis Gatson, 5, Indian Creek; Ursula A. Gwyn, 74, Holliday; Sarah Della Haley, 36, Long Branch; Schuyler Hayden, 37, Paris; Archie Hunter 23, Paris; Joseph Kirgan, 80, Stoutsville; Eva Lane, 35, Paris; Shirley B. Mason, 20, Madison; Charles A. McKinnie, 72, Holliday; William O’Brien, 22, Indian Creek; Candace Powel, 64, Pleasant Hill; W. H. Ragland, 41, Madison; Earnest Thompson, 39, Phelps Chapel; and Elisabath J. Whilan (Whelan), 60, Indian Creek.
It is not known if these patients had knowledge of Dr. Gunn’s long and involved regime of bleeding, blistering, and a strict and prolonged diet of milk and bread with absolutely no meat, fruit or vegetables that he claimed would cure the patient in the early stages and make them more comfortable in advanced stages of the disease.
While the disease was still in its early stages, Dr. Gunn said it could be identified from other diseases by the patient’s complaint of weakness from the least bodily exertion, hurried breathing, small quickened pulse, a feeling of tightness as if a cord was drawn across the chest, slight dry cough that became more troublesome at night, and a white frothy spittle, or mucus. Sometimes the mucus would be streaked with blood and have a yellow or green color with a fetid smell when thrown on burning coals. Put in water, the mucus would sink to the bottom, unlike other complaints. As the disease advanced the patient experienced chest pain, often was flushed, broke into chills, then copious sweats, and toward the end the “whole countenance assumes a ghastly and cadaverous look, the white part of the eyes having a pearly and unnatural appearance, while the eye itself beams with sparkling animation and luster.” The legs swell, the nails are of a livid or purple color, and the patient “has a restless and disturbed slumber, making a curious noise from the throat, like suffocation.”
American folklore sources say that before the Industrial Revolution tuberculosis may have been regarded as “vampirism” because one infected member of the family drained the life out of the others. Other folk beliefs held that the sufferer was being spirited away nightly to attend fairy revels, or that they were transformed into horses for witches to ride to their nightly meetings and thus wasted away due to lack of sleep.
The causes of consumption, according to Dr. Gunn, are: “exposure to cold and damp air, using tobacco to excess, either by smoking, chewing, or by using it in snuff to clean the teeth, acting as a powerful agent, thereby producing irritation; the use of spirituous liquors to excess; obstructions and inflammations of the lungs; the suppression of natural discharges, particularly the menstrual discharge or courses; scrofula, diseases of the liver and stomach, and unfortunately, receiving a hereditary disposition or taint to this disease from father or mother.”
On March 24, 1882, Dr. Robert Koch identified the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. He received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1905 for his discovery. While a vaccine to immunize people against the disease was developed in 1906, it was not widely used in the United States until after WWII.
In 1832 Dr. Gunn wrote words that would be dear to the hearts of those who believe the cure for cancer may be lost by destroying the rain forest. He said, “I have no doubt the period will arrive, when consumption, this formidable enemy of the human species, will be subdued by some common and simple plant, belonging to the vegetable kingdom which is at this period totally unknown; for I have always been impressed with a decided belief, that our wise and beneficent Creator has placed within the reach of his feeble creature man, herbs and plants for the cure of all diseases but old age, could we but obtain a knowledge of their real uses and intrinsic virtues.”
Next week we will look at the other changes in the leading causes of death in the last century and some of the old time remedies that kept the cost of medical care under control before the days of modern medical health care delivery systems.
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