BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



which it was so ardently desired to transmit to the 

 public was quite unimpressive, threadbare, and none too 

 solid. 



Nevertheless a great deal of good work has been done, if 

 not in ' 'educating' ' the public, at least in bringing the aims, 

 programs, and needs of health work before it for a sym- 

 pathetic appraisal. Practically every known method of 

 publicity has been used; the poster, the handbill, the 

 lecture, movie and radio, leaflets, pamphlets and booklets 

 without number. Health information has been included in 

 the curriculum of the schools and colleges, even including, 

 to some extent, the medical colleges. 



The opinion may be expressed, however, that something 

 far more radical must happen to American educational 

 methods before the general public is ready to receive the 

 information which the public health profession desires to 

 transmit. It is difficult to visualize this as taking place 

 immediately or within a generation or so, since what is 

 needed is less the acquisition of some of the facts of health 

 and disease as mere disconnected information, than an 

 orientation toward environment which is in accord with 

 the revelations of physical science. It requires no more 

 than a casual familiarity with the product of our schools 

 and colleges to assure one that such an orientation does not 

 at present prevail throughout more than a small proportion 

 of the graduates. However well grounded they may be in 

 those branches which are mysteriously designated the 

 humanities, they are, in general, extremely ignorant of 

 humanity, its relations to other life, to its own racial 

 history, and to the problems of successful living. Although 

 possibly proficient in some major subject of science, it is 

 seldom that they have acquired a well-rounded view of 

 relationships. Since it is manifestly impossible to raise up a 

 generation composed principally or largely of persons well 

 grounded in all branches of science, it may well be won- 



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