THE WORK OF BOARDS OF HEALTH 237 



health associations deserve special credit for good work in arousing the 

 public to the need of better public health work. 



At the same time it is regrettable that arguments have been made 

 and movements have been initiated in the name of public health which 

 have had no foundation in fact or scientific principle. The cause of 

 public health has always been a favorite theme alike for the charlatan 

 and the statesman. 



By the remarkable advance in that composite body of knowledge 

 known as sanitary science much of the quackery of fraud and the dece])- 

 tions of ignorance are being dispelled from public health work, and we 

 may confidently look forward to the time when persons who have had 

 adequate training and experience in this direction will be looked upon 

 as the proper sanitary teachers. 



In the campaign of sanitary education which is going on it is a 

 deplorable fact that the universities and colleges of the United States 

 are singularly backward. With a few notable exceptions, there is 

 scarcely a school for higher education in the United States where a 

 competent knowledge of hygiene can be obtained. In spite of the fact 

 that man} of the largest and most prominent universities have had 

 severe experiences with typhoid they have been exceedingly slow in 

 providing proper facilities for the teaching of hygiene. One of the 

 greatest needs of to-day is the want of competent teaching for health 

 officers, physicians, engineers and others, who may wish to obtain a com- 

 plete and practical knowledge of their profession. In the absence of 

 suitable facilities for the education of health officers the United States 

 is decidedly behind European countries. 



In the management of communicable diseases the principles of iso- 

 lation, disinfection and vaccination, have been referred to. It remains 

 to mention the help that may be afforded by the establishment of labora- 

 tories for the diagnosis of suspected cases of communicable diseases. 

 Laboratories where examinations may be made of sputum, blood, urine, 

 stools and other pathological specimens, are one of the newest develop- 

 ments in public health work, but they have been in operation sufficiently 

 long to make them seem indispensable. By their means early and 

 obscure cases of tuberculosis, typhoid fever, diphtheria and other too 

 common preventable diseases may be discovered, and with a precision 

 and promptness generally impossible in private medical practise. Along 

 with pathological work of municipal public health laboratories facilities 

 are often provided for the analysis of water, milk, food and drugs. 

 Any citizen may send specimens to these laboratories for examination, 

 and is entitled to a report without charge. 



Every board of health should have the benefit of laboratory assist- 

 ance of this kind. Municipal boards in large cities can afford to 

 maintain them, but for the small city and village other provision must 



