WHAT MEDICINE HAS DONE AND IS DOING FOR THE RACE 429 



his reputation in relieving the ills of the body. As a general 

 rule far-reaching medical reforms tend to bring about social 

 reforms and improvement in the material and moral 

 condition of the people; the healthy body favors a healthy 

 state of the mind; the destruction of insanitary and over- 

 crowded slums and the substitution of well-lighted and 

 properly drained tenements, as the result of the Medical 

 Officer of Health's activities, must help the poor to a more 

 happy as well as a more healthy hfe; freedom from epidemics 

 and chronic disabihty enables self-respecting work to be 

 done and thus banishes worry, discontent and starvation. 

 As Medicine became more rational and entered on a scientific 

 stage it gradually freed itself from gross superstitions, 

 behef in the supernatural origin of disease, demoniac posses- 

 sion, and magic; in this way it influenced mankind to take 

 a logical view of natural phenomena. 



Passing from these general ways in which medicine has 

 influenced humanity to its more obvious and special effects: 

 the death rate of England and Wales fell from 20.6 per 1000 

 living in 1868 to 11. 7 in 1928, and the infant mortality rates 

 from 155 to 6^ per 1000 during the same period. Further in 

 1854 the expectation of life at birth for males was 39.9 and 

 for females 41.85 years, whereas in 1922 the corresponding 

 figures were ^^.6 and 59.58 years. Other European countries 

 show changes on the same lines, which in the main must be 

 ascribed to improved conditions of sanitation and the 

 influence of medical science. As was proved in the European 

 War (1914-1918) the practical apphcations of advances in 

 medicine and surgery, sanitary precautions, a pure water 

 supply, and generally in preventive medicine diminished in 

 an unprecedented degree the toll of disease and life exacted 

 by war and pestilence. Medicine has of course greatly 

 influenced veterinary practice and thereby improved the 

 comfort and well-being of mankind. 



Unfortunately the art of healing may lag long behind the 

 scientific milestones; thus Harvey's discovery of the cir- 

 culation of the blood in 1628 was not followed by any 

 modification in practical medicine for many years; for 

 example, transfusion of blood, first performed in the seven- 

 teenth century, did not become a routine practice until thg. 









