20 Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute 



persons who have not hesitated to advertise themselves by publishing 

 most foolish and fanciful methods of preserving or regaining health. 

 But to my mind more harm has been done through the misdirected 

 efforts of propagandists whose zeal is greater than their knowledge, and 

 who in their effort to get something across to the public which in their 

 eyes seems good are guilty of much virtuous lying. Personal hygiene to 

 most persons means something dreadfully bromidic about brushing the 

 teeth, or daily baths, or else it implies some one or other of the many 

 novelties in health panaceas which like bad pennies keep constantly 

 turning up when something better is needed. 



In reality personal hygiene is a subject of the greatest importance 

 which has been much neglected and which calls for scientific study of 

 the most exact kind. Preventive Medicine and Sanitation have suc- 

 ceeded in adding a number of years to the average life. The expectation 

 of life at birth has been increased during the last fifty years by 1 years 

 years or more, largely through control of the infectious diseases of early 

 life. But most of us would place an equal or higher value upon the kind 

 of knowledge that would enable us to avoid those disabling defects and 

 illnesses that bring about chronic invalidism or impair our physical 

 efficiency, without killing us outright. The information that we have 

 at present is derived in part from the accumulated experience of life, 

 the results of a long series of experiments on the trial and error principle, 

 and in part from mere obiter dicta of eminent physicians which are not 

 based on sound scientific evidence and have therefore a very doubtful 

 value. Science has knowledge and methods which if applied intelligently 

 should add something of real importance to our inherited traditions in 

 regard to the rules of living. An instance in point is found in modern 

 work upon the vitamines. The study of a pathological condition, the 

 oriental disease of Beri-beri, furnished certain ideas in regard to diet 

 which have been extended by investigations in various directions until 

 finally there has emerged the important truth that three, perhaps more, 

 mysterious substances, grouped under the term vitamines are essential 

 constituents of our food. A few years ago we felt that Science had 

 uncovered all the facts necessary for the rational control of diet. The 

 composition of the foods in proteins, fats, carbohydrates and salts and 

 the energy value of these constituents in calories seemed to comprise all 

 of the essential data for such calculations. But we know now that this 

 was a hasty conclusion. In laboratories all over the world inquiries are 

 being pushed rapidly in regard to the number, character and occurrence 

 of the vitamines and this new knowledge will make itself felt, indeed 

 has already made itself felt in the dieting of both the well and the sick. 

 Discoveries of this kind bearing upon the daily conduct of life may arise 



