MEDICI^'E AXD PUBLIC HEALTH SINCE 

 THE WAE 



C. St. Claie Drake, Dieector State Department of 

 Public Heaeth 



The request of Toiir Secretary that I discuss the effect 

 of the war on medical and sanitary science and the re- 

 sponsibilities and opportunities of medical and sanitary 

 science under conditions follow-ing the war, is a large 

 order and one which I hardly feel qualified to fill. The 

 knowledge I have of the development of military surgery, 

 of the brilliant advances in plastic surgery, of the investi- 

 gations that have been made of the physical conditions and 

 injuries pectiliar to this war, comes to me at second or 

 third hand and in no more authoritative form than it has 

 come to the other members of this Association in the popu- 

 lar and technical periodicals. If what I have to say con- 

 tains anything which is original or authoritative, it must 

 consist of a discussion of the advances which the war has 

 brought abotit in the field of preventive medicine and of 

 sanitary science. It is to be regretted that the breadth and 

 scope of this program made it impossible to include a 

 physician or surgeon who cotdd review briefly actual war- 

 time accomplishments in the field of medicine and surgery. 

 For. we are led to believe that the medical history of this 

 war, when it is written, will be a tremendous contribution 

 to the medical and surgical literature of the world. How- 

 ever, there is enough to be said on the progress of pre- 

 ventive medicine and public health to more than occtipy 

 the time which is assigned to me today. 



The immediate effect of our entering the world-war was 

 the realization that our man-power is quite as important, 

 if not more important, than our monetary wealth and in- 

 dustrial power, and further that the strength of our man- 

 power is determined, in the last analysis, by the individual 



* Presented before the Illinois Academy of Science, Jacksoaville. Blinois. Mardi 21-22 



