136 SEVENTH REPORT. 



a person infected with one of certain dangerous conmmnicable diseases, 

 is or has been and the place not disinfected, snch person may contract 

 that disease, however mnch care has been devoted to personal hygiene and 

 physical culture. 



TJic most (lanf/crons disaascs arc the coiuwunicahic (liscascs, and no 

 omount of pcysonal hygioie or physical culture is proof against them. 

 Their restriction is a puhlic dnty, t!ie most important dnty that a pnblic 

 officer can perform. Every public officer should know this. And every 

 public officer who does not perform that duty to the utmost of his power 

 and ability may repeat the question asked by Cain, but the answer is, 

 ''Yes; you are your brother's keejier, and if you do not do your utmost 

 that preventable diseases shall be prevented, you are as guilty as Cain." 



Among the many classes of officials whose attention should especially 

 be called to this subject are boards of supervisors who refuse to allow 

 bills for the restriction of typhoid fever, on the pretense that it is not 

 what every sanitarian knows that it is — a dangerous communicable dis- 

 ease. No such official should consent to act without first informing him- 

 self as to what diseases are dangerous and communicable. In Michigan 

 there is no excuse for ignorance on this point, because the law requires 

 that the facts shall be taught in evevj year in every public school in the 

 State. And such facts have been i aught in many of the schools for sev- 

 eral years. 



Nothing can be done for the restriction of any such disease except in 

 accordance with some law. No law can get on the statute book without 

 legislative action. Therefore, members of the Legislature are the offi- 

 cials who, of all others, should be held most responsible for deaths from 

 communicable diseases not restricted. They are elected to represent 

 the people of the State in caring for their highest interests. I know of 

 no higher interest than those of life and health. Yet, at every recent 

 session of the Michigan Legislature bills prepared with great care by 

 sanitarians who have given years of study and observation to the subject 

 of the restriction of the most dangerous diseases, are ignored or pushed 

 aside as if of no consequence, while at the same time bills, of local im- 

 portance only, are passed under suspension of the rules and given im- 

 mediate effect by a vote of two-thirds of all of the legislators. 



In Michigan, public-health administration has had the commendation 

 of the people, and of many outside of Michigan who have known of the 

 work accomplished. Yet, in Michigan, public health legislation has fallen 

 far behind that in other progressive states. Is it not time that members 

 of the Michigan Legislature were chosen for their interest in and pros- 

 pective efforts for the highest interests of the people of the State? Is it 

 not time that members of the Legislature put to themselves the question 

 asked by Cain, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Not that a legislator may 

 be supposed to be familiar with the facts in chemistry, bacteriology, 

 etiology, and the other sanitary sciences, any more than in the science 

 of electricity or any other science, but he may be supposed to accept the 

 facts from experts in those sciences much as he would accei)t established 

 legal principles from an expert in law, or as all intelligent persons accept 

 the dicta of a jeweler as to the facts relating to their watches. 



The State Department Bulletin of Vital Ptatifjtics states that the numbers of deaths in 

 Michigan during the year 1904 from som.e of the dangerous communicaljle diseases, which 



