292 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tically as well as theoretically, and that this neglect is a dark spot on 

 our civilization, which has to be removed by this generation This 

 conviction begins just now to lay hold of ever- widening circles of 

 society, and a certain sympathy is stirring for the interests of public 

 health, much more than formerly. The weather seems suitable for 

 ploughing fields which have remained untouched, and for sowing 

 good seeds where a rank vegetation has been growing. 



"When a current, a general motion of men's minds, sets in toward 

 some definite goal, then it becomes the duty of all those who are 

 their leaders to choose the proper routes with earnestness and con- 

 scientiousness. If a good intention in behalf of some object is 

 wrongly directed, it soon turns against the object itself; all those 

 who allowed themselves to become interested therein turn away 

 discouraged as soon as they believe that their good intention has been 

 wasted to no purjDose, and hence those unlimited reactions and re- 

 bounds in public opinion. I believe that I am under a moral obliga- 

 tion to speak out in this place. I do it here, perhaps, more confi- 

 dently than anywhere else, because I feel that here I am understood. 

 I feel it, through the very fact that I have been requested to give 

 my lectures before this audience. The request came to me from the 

 Committee of the Albert Society, from its exalted Lady President. 

 The existence of the Albert Society, its organization, its functions, 

 its efficiency, and its authority, are ample proofs that the value of 

 hygiene is understood here. 



In this place I must also acknowledge that the Saxon Govern- 

 ment was the first in Germany to establish a Central Board of Public 

 Health ; it has also included the teaching of hygiene in the teaching 

 of military medical science. Such arrangements appear to me to be 

 types of the two directions which must now be taken and followed 

 out : on the one hand, investigation, observation, and experiment ; 

 on the other, systematic personal teaching. These are the only two 

 ways which lead to the goal. 



You have been enabled to see, from that single subject I have 

 treated, how much remains to be done and created ; everything is 

 still insufficient and incomplete, and has to be developed and deter- 

 mined. Think of the great chapters air, clothing, dwelling, ven- 

 tilation, heating, lighting, building-places, and soil their relation to 

 air and water, and their influence on the course of disease ; epidemics, 

 and protection against them ; drinking-w^afer, and its distribution 

 among the population ; alimentations and articles of food ; the main- 

 taining of diSerent classes of men under different circumstances ; 

 dietaries; public baths; gymnastics; collection and removal of ex- 

 crementitious matters and refuse from households and trades ; drain- 

 age ; disinfection ; inspection of dead bodies and their interment ; 

 unhealthy trades and manufactories, schools, barracks, asylums, hos- 

 pitals and nursing, prisons, health statistics, etc. 



