28o 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is necessary. Valuable and trustworthy in- 

 formation upon hygienic topics such as can 

 be followed with confidence to beneficent 

 results has been but slowly acquired, and is 

 yet far from perfect ; but enough has been 

 accumulated to work a sanitary revolution 

 in society if reduced to general application. 

 Of course, in matters of personal hygiene 

 everything depends upon individual knowl- 

 edge, and the disposition to use it ; but the 

 efficiency of measures for the promotion of 

 public health is hardly less dependent upon 

 popular intelligence. Needful sanitary laws 

 may be passed, but the essential thing, after 

 all, is that they shall be faithfully and vig- 

 orously carried out and not remain dead let- 

 ters in the statute-book. This must depend 

 upon the degree to which the people are in- 

 structed in hygienic subjects and are alive 

 to the care of health. Hygiene has grown 

 in recent years into an important branch of 

 study, with a copious literature of mono- 

 graphs and manuals. Cyclopaedias have 

 been attempted, but they have hitherto been 

 hastily compiled and are altogether inade- 

 quate for their purposes. We can, however, 

 no longer complain of the want of a com- 

 prehensive and authoritative treatise upon 

 this many-sided subject. The work before 

 us covers the full ground, is thoroughly di- 

 gested, and constitutes of itself a tolerably 

 complete hygienic library. 



This elaborate work seems to have had 

 the follo'iv'ing origin : In reproducing Ziems- 

 sen's " Cyclopfedia of Practical Medicine" 

 from the German, the editors and publishers 

 found that the first volume, relating to the 

 subject of public health, had been prepared 

 so entirely from the German standpoint, 

 and took cognizance of a state of things so 

 materially different from that which exists 

 in this country, that it was considered ad- 

 visable to omit it in the American edition. 

 But as the subject was of fundamental im- 

 portance, it was felt that this omission must 

 be repaired, by taking up the subject with 

 special reference to the different climates, 

 conditions of soil, habitations, modes of life, 

 and laws of the United States. lu this way 

 the deficiency of Ziemssen's " Cyclopfedia " 

 would be amply repaired, so that its sub- 

 scribers might possess the work in its com- 

 pleteness, while the hygienic volumes would 

 be of interest to physicians generally, and 



also to the educated classes, who are acquir- 

 ing a growing interest in the subject. 



The introduction by Dr. John S. Billings, 

 besides prefatory explanations, treats of the 

 causes of disease and the jurisprudence of 

 hygiene. After considering the various 

 definitions of hygiene, and showing how its 

 meaning may be so extended as to sweep in 

 immense tracts of human knowledge, Dr. 

 Billings says : " The hygiene of which this 

 volume is to treat has not so broad a scope 

 as that just hinted at, since the intention 

 has been to produce a practical treatise 

 fimited to a consideration of the most usual 

 preventable causes of disease in civilized 

 countries, and more especially in the United 

 States, and of the surest and most economi- 

 cal means of diminishing or destroying these 

 causes." 



The following remarks are still further 

 illustrative of the ideas involved in the 

 scheme of this work : " To what extent the 

 prevention of disease, the prolongation of 

 life, and the improvement of the physical 

 and mental powers in man may be carried, 

 we do not know ; but no doubt the tendency 

 of those who write and speak most on this 

 subject is to exaggerate the possibilities of 

 improvement ; since it does not seem prob- 

 able that the conditions of perfect personal 

 and public health are attainable, except in 

 rare and isolated cases, and for compara- 

 tively short periods of time ; yet ' that the 

 average length of human life may be very 

 much extended, and its physical power 

 greatly augmented ; that in every year with- 

 in this Commonwealth thousands of lives 

 are lost which might have been saved; 

 that tens of thousands of cases of sickness 

 occur which might have been prevented; 

 that a vast amount of unnecessarily impaired 

 health and physical debility exists among 

 those not confined by sickness ; that these 

 preventable evils require an enormous ex- 

 penditure and loss of money, and impose 

 upon the people unnumbered and immeasu- 

 rable calamities, pecuniary, social, physical, 

 mental, and moral, which might be avoided ; 

 and that means exist within our reach for 

 their mitigation or removal ; and that 

 measures for prevention will effect more 

 than remedies for the cure of disease ' — will 

 probably be admitted by every one who has 

 carefully studied the subject and made him- 



