TEE WORK OF BOARDS OF HEALTH 233 



THE WORK OF BOARDS OF HEALTH^ 



By Dr. GEORGE A. SOPER 



NEW YORK CITY 



THP] spirit of the laws by which matters of public health are admin- 

 istered rests upon the theory which underlies all forms of gov- 

 ernment, that is, that the state has the power to compel the ignorant, 

 the selfish, the careless and the vicious to so regulate their lives and 

 property that they shall not be a source of danger to others. It is an 

 expression of the idea that the interests of no man can exceed the in- 

 terests of his fellows. The welfare of the many is the supreme law. 



Extraordinary powers have from early times been vested in the 

 authorities charged with administering sanitary laws. The highest 

 courts have declared that the administration of public health laws is 

 fundamentally important and entitled to the support of the police 

 power of the state. Public health authorities are in effect police officers 

 charged with a special jurisdiction over the conditions which cause, 

 aggravate or predispose to disease. In the exercise of their remarkable 

 powers health authorities may restrain persons from contact with others, 

 they may enter upon and even destroy private property and may exer- 

 cise supervisory jurisdiction over trades and occupations. 



Many years ago, the almost autocratic power enjoyed by health 

 authorities was much more necessary than it is at present, for the highly 

 contagious diseases have, through the operation of health laws, better 

 personal and household hygiene and municipal sanitary works, been 

 relegated to a comparatively unimportant place as a cause of death. 

 Epidemics of high mortality and vast extent rarely take place in civil- 

 ized countries to-day, and the need of a prompt, decisive exercise of 

 great authority in this direction is consequently less often necessary 

 than formerly. 



At the same time, a new class of duties is growing upon health 

 authorities. Some of these duties are plainly within the proper func- 

 tions of health boards, while others appear to be less so. Among the 

 obviously proper duties referred to are vaccination, the manufacture 

 and distribution of antitoxin, the control of methods of sewage disposal 

 and the sanitary management of milk and water supplies. Of less 

 obvious appropriateness is the regulation by boards of health of such 

 matters as the discharge of excessive quantities of smoke into the 

 atmosphere of cities, the suppression of street noises, the hygienic care 



* Paper read before a joint meeting of the National Municipal League and 

 the American Civic Association at Pittsburg, Pa., November 16, 1908. 



