PUBLIC HEALTH: ITS PRESENT PROBLEMS 



BY ERNST J. LEDERLE 



[Ernst J. Lederle, Consulting Sanitarian, New York City Department of Health. 

 b. Staten Island, New York, 1865. School of Mines, Columbia University, 

 1886. Ph.B. Ph.D. 1895; D.Sc. 1904. Chemist of New York City Depart- 

 ment of Health, 1888-1903; Commissioner of Health, New York City, 1902- 

 03. Member of American Chemical Society; Society of Chemical Industry; 

 Verein der Deutschen Chemiker; New York Academy of Sciences, etc.] 



IN expressing my thanks for the honor which the organizers of this 

 Congress have done me in the assignment to speak upon the subject 

 of "Public Health: its Present Problems," I find two reasons for 

 so doing. The sense of personal gratification of course enters into 

 my acknowledgment, for it is a pleasure to feel that one's efforts for 

 sanitary reform, however slight in comparison with those of many 

 who will address you, are appreciated beyond the limits of the city 

 where those efforts were put forth. 



It is an inspiration to the worker to find that whatever is of value 

 in his work is eagerly observed, taken up, and adapted to conditions 

 as they are found in other parts of our country. Perhaps the most 

 interesting and valuable recollection I have of my work in the 

 sanitary service of New York City is that, in the course of that 

 work, I was able to gain from my co-workers in other cities fully 

 as many ideas for sanitary betterment as we in New York could 

 give. The effect of such cooperation is to make one realize that 

 sanitary reform work is not local, not even national, but world-wide; 

 and that every worker in its cause may draw at will upon the re- 

 sources of his fellows while he gives them of his own. 



But the personal pleasure I feel in speaking on this topic is sub- 

 ordinated to another consideration. The fact that it should have 

 been assigned to any but a physician seems to me to be of much 

 significance. 



Sanitary science has been, for so much of its brief existence, set 

 forth almost wholly by medical men, that it is still widely regarded 

 as their peculiar province. And properly so; the very nature of his 

 training and occupation makes the intelligent physician find in 

 unsanitary surroundings a predisposing cause of disease; and his 

 work has been and will continue to be so to improve sanitary con- 

 ditions as to minimize and finally to eradicate a great many diseases 

 which still make up a large part of the annual mortality. 



Preventive medicine is the watchword of the new school. It is 

 a sign of the progressiveness of that school that, in all enlightened 

 communities, it has now realized the great scope of the preventive 

 work to be done, and has called into existence a new profession, that 



