THE OUTLOOK OF PUBLIC HEALTH WORK 



represents the beginnings of public health work. In the 

 absence of more than the meagerest knowledge of the 

 nature or laws of disease, these efforts were seldom very 

 effectual, never perhaps economical, and at times possibly 

 even deleterious. At the present time, in instances where our 

 knowledge is scanty, our efforts must be characterized by 

 similar shortcomings. 



Health is life without disease. Recently propagandists 

 have attempted to distinguish a condition of positive 

 health in which the possessor is not only not sick, but is 

 super-healthy. It is only a question of where we draw the 

 line. A condition of maximum ability to perform useful 

 functions combined with adaptation to and enjoyment of 

 environment, is certainly one of health, and anything less 

 than this is, in a sense, disease. 



Public health work is collective effort to secure a condi- 

 tion of health for all citizens of the area in which it is 

 undertaken. Judged by the progress which public health 

 work has made since its modern inception, it is one of the 

 most rapidly advancing and profitable of human activities. 

 The very fact that it has been highly successful in certain 

 directions has removed the evidence of its achievements 

 from the observation of the average person. Those of our 

 citizens who are without a historical background do not 

 realize that but for the public health work which has been 

 accomplished they might, at the present time, be going 

 through epidemics of Asiatic cholera, bubonic plague, or 

 yellow fever. These and similar conquests which are 

 really revolutionary in their scope are what cheer the 

 workers in this field to renewed effort, and justify the 

 support which the public none too generously gives to 

 the continuation and expansion of the work. 



A distinction must be made between personal hygiene 

 and public health work. There are many persons who 

 appear to think that if they individually carry out an 



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