TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE. 315 



The most glaring of all sanitary errors a quarter of a century 

 ago was ignorance of the danger that lurks in an impure water 

 supply, and the early efforts of most of the boards was directed to 

 the protection of inland waters from pollution, and to inducing 

 people in the older sections of the country whose ancient wells 

 proved incomparable disease-breeders, to provide themselves with 

 "piped" i. e., protected water wherever obtainable from an un- 

 contaminated source. The legislative appropriations of money 

 made it possible for the frontier and coast States to put in force 

 eJBficient quarantine against those incursions of infectious disease 

 that every now and again will strive to enter, in the person of the 

 irrepressible immigrant. The newer, far western States have been 

 the stamping-ground of quacks of every type, and the place where 

 men with credentials bought from some "diploma mill" have 

 passed as physicians, and where others, honest enough, have estab- 

 lished themselves as doctors after acquiring so little of medical 

 knowledge that an eastern man would not trust them with the 

 care of a favorite cat. All those States have made a uniform push 

 for registration of physicians, and in those where there are med- 

 ical colleges, for a longer and more thorough course of medical 

 education. The early boards had to make headway against preju- 

 dice and vested abuses, but they labored to enlighten and educate 

 the people, and they reached a turn of the tide at about the end 

 of the first decade, so that those that have been formed since were 

 able at once to set about positive measures for good, and did not 

 have to waste strength on combating obstacles. The history of 

 the health boards supplies a beautiful example of the evolution 

 of a sustaining public opinion certainly " at the top " among the 

 educated. 



To the query, " What obstacles did it encounter ? " there 

 comes up one uniform chorus of groans over the apathy, indiffer- 

 ence, and ignorance of the populace, and in some cases hostility 

 from the medical profession itself, of whom better things might 

 have been expected. If they tremble lest the world shall educate 

 and sanitate itself into such perfect health that there will be no 

 demand for their services, they can dismiss their foolish fears, 

 for the more intelligent a man becomes in the structure of this 

 "harp of a thousand strings," and the delicate adjustments on 

 which its harmony depends, the less willing will he be to trust to 

 an ignoramus when it gets out of tune. A long history might be 

 made up of actual instances where greed of money has attempted 



M. Lewis, M. D. ; North Dakota, F. H. De Vaux, M. D. ; Ohio, C. 0. Probst, M. D. ; Okla- 

 homa, J. 0. Overton, M. D. ; Pennsylvania, Benjamin Lee, M. I). ; Tennessee, J. Berrien 

 Lindsley, M. D. ; Washington, G. S. Armstrong, M. D. ; West Virginia, N. D. Baker; Wis- 

 consin, U. 0. B. Wingate, M. D. 



