THE OUTLOOK OF PUBLIC HEALTH WORK 



that as a public official he is always under the spurs of 

 public Opinion and contemporary criticism. 



It is difficult to think of a branch of physical science 

 which, if it does not have a bearing upon public health 

 work to-day, may not have one to-morrow. Few would 

 have thought, fifty years ago, that the work of an ento- 

 mologist, patiently classifying mosquitoes as a labor of 

 pure science, of an obscure monk observing the results of 

 cross-fertilization of garden flowers, or of many a worker 

 in chemical laboratories, engaged in replacing atoms in 

 molecular chains, would now have commonplace applica- 

 tions in the daily work of health officials everywhere. 

 No one can foresee what new and usefiil applications await 

 future adoption. 



Public health deals primarily with man as Homo sapiens. 

 The diversity of belief and viewpoint which at least the 

 American community presents from the religious, philo- 

 sophical, traditional, and ethical standpoints makes it 

 virtually impossible for the health official to regard his 

 human population as anything more than a collection of 

 more or less intelligent animals. If he were inclined to inject 

 into practice any purely moral considerations of his own, 

 he would soon be attacked from all sides. For example, 

 he had better regard the moral and religious issues of birth 

 control and of venereal disease as none of his business — 

 that is, none of his public business — and stick to what 

 scientific facts are available when it comes to practical 

 application. 



Now Ho?no sapiens is a biological entity, and it follows 

 naturally that the science of greatest import to public 

 health work is biology. Taking everything into considera- 

 tion, it is probably true that biology has thus far contri- 

 buted more to human welfare through public health work 

 than any other science has. We are aware that chemistry 

 has made great claims for recognition in this direction, 



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