182 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



away either their tiuie or their money on doctors." Too often they 

 adopt a ('Oin|»roniise and do fool away theii- money on <jiia(k medi- 

 cines; while, if they would maiifuliy face the music, and ohiaiu the ad- 

 vice of a conij»et(^wt pliysiciaii when their litst sense of discomfort 

 begins, he could detect Uie liidden source of danger and give them 

 such advice as to the conduct of their daily lives, tln^r food and 

 raiment, their meat and diink, tlieir labor and their rest, their 

 working places and their dwelling places, as would stay the progress 

 of the incipient disease and greatly add to their capacity for work, 

 increase their comfort and prolong their lives. The nmjority of them 

 indeed do not only feel no gratitude to the physician, who informs 

 them that their condition is one which will result, if unchecked, in 

 premature death; they actually feel a certain amount of resent- 

 ment against him for daring to make such an uiipleasant sugges- 

 tion. All this, which as I have already acknowledged has no es- 

 Itecial pertinence to the Agriculturist, more than to the dweller m 

 cities, as a prelude, and to establish a parallel along which we may 

 work to illustrate our second thought, which does have a distinct 

 and special reference to the agriculturist and to the resident of the 

 village and small town. 



During the period since I studied medicine there has grown up a 

 distinct branch of the science known as Preventive Medicine or State 

 Medicine, the object of which is to elevate the standard of health 

 in communities or what is known as "public health.'' Now just in 

 proportion as a community or a certain class of the population con- 

 siders itself whole, it fails to appreciate the need for State Medicine. 

 Inhabitants of large cities have it forced upon them by the condi- 

 tions which always accompany the croAvding of a large number of 

 people into a small space that certain of these conditions endanger 

 the health of all who come within the reach of their influence; that 

 certain regulations must be adopted to control these conditions 

 and that the regulations are of no manner of use unless there is 

 some one whose duty it is to enforce them. The gradual crystalliza- 

 tion of these lines of thought results in what is known as a board 

 of health; and no city which makes the slightest pretensions to intelli- 

 gence and civilization is to day without a health authority, whether 

 under the name of board of health, bureau of health or commissioner 

 of health. But the moment we get out into the country all this is 

 changed. The farmer and villager meet us at once with the asser- 

 tion, made in good faith, '"'we are whole." ''We need no physician. 

 Our region, our village, is famed for healthfulness. What need have 

 we for State Medicine? We have no use for a board of health." 

 Wrathful indignation breaks forth against the unfortunate who ven- 

 tures to make the suggestion that it would be possible by any human 

 device or regulation to prevent one early death or prolong one 



