MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 345 



SANITARY SCIENCE. 



By De. J. M. McWhaef, Ottawa. 

 Read before the Academy, at Manhattan, November 26, 1903. 



WE shall define sanitary science to be a recognition of the condi- 

 tions of health, and the application of the means necessary to 

 its protection as well as its ijreservation. 



The principles of sanitary science are not modern in origin ; in 

 fact, they are as old as the Mosaic code, and their unerring rewards 

 and penalties have marked the life-history of all nations of the earth ; 

 in scope they are wide enough to embrace all humanity, and just as 

 applicable to communities of to-day as they were to the Jewish race 

 thousands of years ago. We can say, of a truth, that the business of 

 sanitary science begins and ends with man ; its varied relations, its 

 social forces and necessities to human life and human society end in 

 the growth of an improved race, a healthy, useful and happy life. 

 Every influence of food, drink, clothing, exercise, education, soil and 

 climate come within its domain. 



Good health confers on the individual, happiness, dignity, and a 

 thousand advantages in the struggle of life ; it gives to the state 

 wealth, power, and freedom. Public health and true liberty go hand 

 in hand ; they are the companions of orderly habits and pure morals. 

 That man is a benefactor to his race who contributes to the prolonga- 

 tion of human life and the enlargement of human capabilities. To 

 fulfil this assertion, one of the first questions for consideration is 

 health or hygiene in its various relations to society. We are sur- 

 rounded by the elements of disease and dissolution ; our lives are 

 hourly in jeopardy from pernicious and destructive influences ; the 

 food that we eat and the air that we breathe are often laden with 

 agencies to mar or destroy the harmony of our being. The infant in 

 its mother's arms, as well as youth, with its bright hopes and gilded 

 visions of the future, strong and vigorous manhood, with its broad 

 sphere of usefulness and its highly cultured powers, alike pay the 

 penalty of a violation of the laws of nature. 



In the fourteenth century vice and misrule had their greatest sway 

 in Europe. It was then that the fruits of civilization were trampled 

 beneath the feet of the barbarian ; acquisitions that had cost ages of 

 toil and millions of money were lost in a general wreck. 



When ignorance and human degradation were at the lowest ebb, 

 then hygiene was neglected and plagues numerous rested upon the 

 people. Extreme poverty, combined with neglect of the things nee- 



