Official Document, No. 6. 



PAPERS READ AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF 

 THE STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, HELD 

 AT HARRISBURG, PA., JANUARY 22 AND 23, 

 1902. 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE SANITARIAN. 



Hv Benjamin Lee, M. D., Philadelphia, Pa. 



Mr. Presideot and Members of the State Board of Agriculture of 



Pennsylvania: 



Gentlemen: If the position which I have the honor to hold in re- 

 lation to this Board, and I desire to say that I deem the honor a dis- 

 tinguished one, if, I say, this position is to be something more than 

 merely honorary, it must be made so by furnishing you information 

 on the only subject with which I can claim intimate familiarity, 

 namely; the preservation of your health and that of your families. 



I cannot talk to you about mangel-wurtzels and manures, fan- 

 tails and fertilizers, corn and cucumbers, ruta-bagas a«d rotation of 

 crops, or potatoes and pigs; but I can give you points on health and 

 hygiene. Health, the greatest of all earthly blessings; hygiene, the 

 science and art of securing and prepetuating that blessing. He 

 who spake "as never man spake" said, "They that be whole need not 

 a physician but they that are sick." I suppose that the meaning lie 

 desired to convey was, "They who consider themselves whole, that is 

 in good health, do not feel the need of a physician, but they who 

 know that they are sick." There are many people both in the city 

 and country who think themselves whole but who carry within them 

 the seeds of disease or damaged organs. Tliese people do not appre- 

 ciate their need of a physician, but some day they drop dead of heart 

 disease, or fall in the convulsions of Bright's disease, or are stricken 

 ■with apoplexy as by a bolt from Heaven out of tbe clear sky, or 

 sink to death in galloping consumption. All of these people do need 

 a physician, but they do not know it. They may have some little 

 premonition of impending trouble but they explain it away, and 

 will not allow either to their friends or themselves that there is any- 

 thing sf^rwusly the matter with them. They "are not going to fool 

 . (181) 



