ROSA: SCIENTIFIC WORK OF THE GOVERNMENT 357 



Americans are proud. It is a great library, housed in a beautiful 

 building, useful to thousands, enjoyed by hundreds of thousands. 

 The country approves a generous policy toward this activity of 

 the government, devoted as it is to art and education. 



The Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum are 

 national institutions devoted to science, art, and natural history. 

 The Smithsonian Institution has a private endowment, but the 

 greater portion of its funds comes from the government. It 

 carries out scientific researches in the physical and natural sciences 

 and has extremely valuable collections in its museums and art 

 galleries. The government has not done as much in promoting 

 art and collecting works of art as have many other governments, 

 and it is to be hoped that much may be done in the future to 

 compensate for past neglect of these matters. 



THE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE 



16. The Public Health Service is one of the most important 

 of the agencies doing work of research and education. It main- 

 tains supervision over incoming vessels to prevent the introduc- 

 tion of diseases; to prevent the spread of diseases between the 

 states it makes inspections and cooperates with the state depart- 

 ments of health ; statistics of diseases are collected and interpreted, 

 and scientific research is carried out to develop methods of pre- 

 venting the spread of disease. 



The Service has recently formulated a comprehensive health 

 program to be carried out on a nation-wide scale by the active 

 cooperation of federal, state, and local authorities and voluntary 

 organizations. That these needs are urgent is shown by the 

 fact that more than one-third of all men examined under the 

 draft during the war were rejected for physical defects and 

 diseases. The Surgeon General states that in large measure 

 these defects and diseases could have been prevented had proper 

 attention been given to them, especially in childhood. This 

 unsatisfactory condition of the public health shows the need of 

 greater attention on the part of the federal government, and more 

 systematic cooperation between local and national agencies. 



