THE DAY'S WORK IN RELATION TO HEALTH 409 



The dentist has to rely upon someone with a keen color sense 

 to match artificial teeth, upon various supplies whose value de- 

 pends upon the skill and accuracy of chemists, and upon very 

 accurate workmanship on the part of his helpers. The oculist 

 must rely upon skilled workers in glass and metal, and upon 

 physicists. The orthopedist must rely upon skilled workers in 

 leather, wood, metal, cloth, and rubber. The various special- 

 ties have to be reenforced by many kinds of mechanical, chemi- 

 cal, biological, or other technical skill. 



Since the supply of drugs comes chiefly from large factories, 

 workers of all degrees of skill are employed in its production — 

 foresters, electricians, engineers, shovel men, physiologists, 

 package-wrappers. There is very little difference between the 

 character of work done by advertisers, designers, and salesmen 

 who handle specialties needed by physicians and dentists, and 

 that done by workers who handle merchandise for the general 

 public. 



305. Specialties indirectly related to health. The administra- 

 tion of many municipal and state agencies requires the coopera- 

 tion of technical experts, some of them specialists in health 

 problems. A city's water supply, for example, needs constant 

 inspection. Supervising markets and milk supplies includes ex- 

 amining cattle and dairies and stables, sampling and testing 

 milk and other foods, inspecting bottling stations and con- 

 tainers, by specialists who understand the relation of various 

 conditions to health. Most of the work in these departments is 

 done by men and women who cannot ordinarily be considered 

 health workers in any sense. Yet their work, which is quite as 

 necessary as that of the specialists, must be valued in relation 

 to the main purpose, that is, health. A negligent watchman who 

 is set to patrol the watershed, a negligent bottle-washer in a 

 dairy or in a vaccine laboratory, a negligent clerk in a board-of- 

 health office may, through a comparatively slight error or over- 

 sight, give rise to very serious disturbances in people's health. 

 If these do their work well, the rest of us are so much the more 

 secure. 



