14 Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute 



rural to the urban type, to convert a dilute solution of humanity into 

 a concentrated solution. The change is accomplished always by an 

 increase in the comforts and conveniences of living, but at the same time 

 it tends to magnify the dangers to life from disease and accident. Disease 

 spreads more rapidly the closer the contact between man and man, and 

 the rate of nriortality in spite of the most improved modes of sanitation 

 is greater in the cities than in the country districts. So also our new 

 rapid means of locomotion are accompanied by fearful losses of life 

 from accidents. The omnipresent automobile is slaying its thousands 

 annually; at such a rate in fact that if not checked it bids fair to become 

 one of the major causes of mortality. We can not well escape such 

 consequences, we must learn to provide against them by wise laws and 

 especially by increasing our knowledge of the order of nature. Under 

 present conditions apparently our margin of safety is uncomfortably 

 small. As soon as circumstances arise that interfere with the stability of 

 government or put any unusual stress upon the customs of civilization 

 the equilibrium that we have succeeded in establishing is seriously 

 disturbed, pestilence and famine raise their ugly heads like weeds in a 

 garden. We all know that such a condition is upon us now. As an 

 aftermath of the great war there has developed a wide spread dis- 

 organization of society, and immediately the old hostile forces of nature 

 spring into action and threaten the well being of mankind. It becomes 

 necessary to organize ofificial and volunteer agencies of all kinds to stem 

 the rising tide of suffering and disease. 



Earnest spirits the world over have hoped that human intelligence 

 may devise some plan whereby wars may be prevented or controlled 

 to some large degree, not alone for the direct saving in life that would be 

 effected, but for the sake of protecting human society from the frightful 

 strains occasioned by wars which endanger the stability of the whole 

 structure. 



Those who have attempted to set into action a League of Nations to 

 prevent wars among men have not overlooked the fact that mankind 

 as a whole is constantly at war with nature, and that in the one case as 

 in the other it is desirable to pool our knowledge and intelligence so as 

 to discover the most effective means of promoting the common good. By 

 organization and co-operation we may utilize our combined resources to 

 offset the advantages that arise for nature out of the increasing com- 

 plexities of civilization. It is a wise provision of the covenant that it 

 arranges for the establishment of an International Health Organization. 

 It is to be assumed that an organization of this character together with 

 the great unofficial international health agencies, such as the League of 

 Red Cross Societies will not be hampered in their work by selfish national- 



