344 



Constant Care Is Needed for Health unit vi 



Fig. 304 Many cities dispose of their sewage hi plants like this {Durham, North 

 Carolina). IVhy do not the health officials let sewage flow i?ito streajns or into the 

 ocean? 



of health is called sanitation. Health laws 

 in regard to quarantine, insect control, 

 the disposal of sewage, the treatment of 

 drinking water, and the handling of food 

 sold to the public must be made and en- 

 forced. Each state has its health depart- 

 ment, and each city or town has an ac- 

 tive medical officer or board of health 

 for this purpose. Still further protection 

 is given all of us by the U.S. Public 

 Health Service with the Surgeon Gen- 

 eral at its head. No doubt you can think 

 of a good many duties of a board of 

 health. Could your class divide itself into 

 committees and assign to each commit- 

 tee the preparation of a report on one or 

 more functions of the board of health of 

 your community? See Exercise i. 



Safeguarding the water supply. Some 

 germs, such as those causing typhoid 

 fever, cholera, and dysentery, are taken 

 into the body with food or drink; they 



multiply in the digestive tract and leave 

 the body with the solid wastes. Mixed 

 with particles of decaying matter, the 

 typhoid germ can live in water for 

 weeks or even months. This is unusual, 

 for most disease bacteria die soon after 

 leaving the tissues and fluids of the ani- 

 mal's body. Though they are not spore- 

 formers, typhoid germs may survive 

 even the freezing of water. It is impor- 

 tant, therefore, that sewage be carefully 

 disposed of so that the germs cannot en- 

 ter streams or wells or get into food 

 supplies. Water or food that contains dis- 

 ease germs is said to be polluted (pol- 

 loot'ed). 



There are two ways in which a com- 

 munity must protect itself against the 

 water-borne diseases. First it must dis- 

 pose of its sewage either by allowing it 

 to flow into large bodies of water where 

 it does not pollute the drinking water, or 



