BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



And finally, in discussing the scientific basis of public 

 health work, it is necessary to remember the intimate 

 relation existing between that activity and what are called 

 the medical sciences. Several of these have been referred to 

 in passing, and it only remains to discuss relationships. 

 The division of all science into subjects is, of course, only a 

 convenience. It is understood that all experimentally 

 verifiable knowledge forms a consistent whole, and that its 

 classification into different disciplines is chiefly an acknowl- 

 edgment of the limitations of thd individual mind. If 

 there were such a thing as a composite human mind, there 

 would be little need of such classifications, for it would 

 be able to follow the electron into the atom, the atom into 

 the molecule, the molecule into protoplasm, the latter 

 into the millions of known forms of life with all the various 

 ramifications of their physiological processes, and the 

 relations of these forms to each other and to their environ- 

 ment, without being conscious of the need for a change of 

 subject on the way. And thus the difference between 

 medical science and practice and public health work is 

 only one of viewpoint and practical convenience. As has 

 been stated, in some countries the medical practitioner is 

 essentially the effective public health agent. He not only 

 treats his patients for the diseases for which they consult 

 him, but also advises them in hygienic living, administers 

 protective inoculations, supervises bedside precautions to 

 prevent the spread of disease, maintains isolation of con- 

 tagious cases, and is otherwise active in carrying out a 

 number of health precautions. In the event of an epidemic 

 he becomes an important factor in control measures. 



In this country, however, the attitude of the practitioner, 

 at least until recently, has been that his public responsi- 

 bilities were largely ended when he had reported cases of 

 communicable disease occurring in his practice to the 

 official health authority. Hence a sharper distinction arises 



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