MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 135 



"AM I MY BROTHEirS KEEPER 



HEXRY B. BAKER. 



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Modern sanitary science makes it appropriate that each one of us re- 

 peat the question asked by Cain; also it answers the question in the 

 affirmative. 



Tiie person who spits infected sputum where it is likely to be breathed 

 in by an innocent person whose life is thus endangered, does not kill his 

 brother with a club, but, if it is done knowingly, is morally guilty of con- 

 tributing to the death. 



The person Ayho knowingly permits his infection of typhoid fever to 

 reach a source of drinking water, a milk supply, or in any way to enter 

 the body of an innocent person, must now be classed with Cain. 



Furthermore, there are few, if any, of the diseases that kill our broth- 

 ers and sisters which they, by their own unaided efforts, can avoid or 

 control. Their lives are at our mercy, collectively, that is, at the mercy 

 of the public. Beginning with the disease which causes most deaths in 

 Michigan, pneumonia, there is no way known whereby a human being 

 may with any certainty avoid that disease through his own unaided 

 efforts. There are a few precautions which, under favorable circum- 

 stances, may serve to lessen the danger of contracting the disease; but it 

 may attack any person. The germs of the disease are now so commonly 

 scattered about by careless spitters that no person who goes freely in 

 public places can avoid taking them into nose or throat. Whether or not 

 a person shall contract disease thereby depends upon conditions most 

 of which no person acting alone has power to control. Yet, I believe the 

 disease is preventable by restrictive measures through public health ad- 

 ministration. If that is a fact, and experience in Michigan seems to 

 prove that it is, then .whoever is responsible for the continuance of the 

 disease is morally guilty. If we fail to do our utmost for the full sup- 

 port of the public-health service without the action of which this dis- 

 ease and the other communicable diseases cannot be restricted, we are 

 morally guilty, we may well ask, "Am I my brother's keeper?" 



The old-time belief that by personal hygiene individual health may be 

 maintained is not sustained by the facts of modern sanitary science. 

 True, many minor illnesses may thus be avoided, and something can be 

 done by the individual to guard against contracting the diseases which 

 cause most deaths; but the great truth which should be taught to the 

 people is, that those diseases, if controlled at all, are to be controlled by 

 governments, by reason of wise legislation. 



A prudent person may avoid wetting and chilling the feet, may avoid 

 exposure to cold winds, may avoid eating or drinking injurious articles 

 of food or drink, may practice physical culture, may boil the drinking 

 water, in fact, may, in his own home, fulfill every known law of personal 

 hygiene, and yet if the public water supply contains the germs of typhoid 

 fever, that person may contract typhoid fever and die. If such a person 

 attends a church, a theatre, or even a social party at a residence where 



