402 BIOLOGY AND HUMAN LIFE 



298. Keeping well. iVIuch of the trouble for which we call 

 upon the doctor comes from the neglect of well-known princi- 

 ples of healthy living. There are defects of nutrition, neglect of 

 exercise, overwork, exposure, getting run down, toothaches, and 

 constipation— all matters that can be almost entirely and auto- 

 matically avoided by correct living habits. Most of us, unfor- 

 tunately, have not such habits, and small defects accumulate 

 as time goes on. For these reasons we need a periodic inspection 

 or examination to tell us where the weak spots are, or where de- 

 terioration has set in unawares. In schools the regular exami- 

 nation by the nurse or the visiting physician is a large factor in 

 keeping the young people of a community well. These examina- 

 tions show what the individual needs to look after, and may also 

 help to check a possible epidemic before it gets well started. 



The community activities that seek to make our environment 

 safe— regulation of the air, water, food, and wastes— are often 

 under different departments of administration; but they all 

 have to do with keeping people in health. It is often necessary 

 for two or more departments to cooperate, and at any time the 

 health department may have to assume the direction of affairs 

 in one of the other departments. 



299. Preventing illness. The department of health in most 

 cities and states is concerned chiefly with communicable dis- 

 eases, no matter how they are communicated. For this reason 

 it deals with problems of sanitation : the safety of waters ; the 

 removal of wastes ; factory conditions ; food inspection ; inspec- 

 tion of hotels and restaurants ; transportation ; fly and mosquito 

 extermination ; the care of mothers and infants ; the training of 

 nurses, pharmacists, physicians, and dentists; laboratories of 

 research and diagnosis ; the distribution of vaccines and serums ; 

 the disposal of dead animals ; and many other problems related 

 to the prevention of disease. 



The location of the sources of an epidemic takes special kinds 

 of knowledge and skill that most physicians do not usually ac- 

 quire ; and after the sources are discovered, the activities for pre- 

 venting the spread of the epidemic are of a different kind from 



