46 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 



closer and more rigid adherence to the laws of public 

 health. Many of these physicians, having had their first 

 experience in executive positions and in preventive medi- 

 cine, will be reluctant to return to the humdrum of private 

 practice, and out of their ranks we should be able to obtain 

 the full-time medical health officers essential to the proper 

 safe-guarding of every community. 



In addition to these medical officers who will come back 

 to us from the war, there has also come the great army of 

 soldiers in line who will create a new sentiment in regard 

 to public health control. These young men who enlisted in 

 service from every city and village, and from all walks of 

 life, had imi3ressed upon them in a way that they will not 

 forget, not only the advantage of keeping physically fit, 

 but the obligation to maintain the highest degree of health 

 as citizens and soldiers. They have seen examples of ef- 

 fective disease prevention. They have seen the price that 

 must be paid in the ravages of communicable disease. They 

 have had impressed upon them the necessity and the reason 

 for ready and cheerful submission to sanitary rules and 

 regulations. 



The nation has never had before so many young and pro- 

 gressive men active in the affairs of their own community, 

 trained to the necessity of public health supervision as we 

 have today, and the nation has never had so many men 

 capable of leadersliip in the field of preventive medicine. 

 These forces have come to us from the war, and their intel- 

 ligent utilization will bring such benefit to the state that 

 our war-time casualties and losses will sink into relative 

 insignificance as compared with the saving of human life 

 which the war tlius indirectly will make possible. 



The sentiment created b}' the war has caused the people 

 of Illinois to be ready for progressive legislation for the 

 conservation of health which in all likelihood will be 

 introduced in the present session of the General Assembly. 

 One bill which is attracting wide attention is that requir- 

 ing a full time medical health officer in each community in 

 the state. I am satisfied that the introduction of this 

 measure will find the General Assembly and the people at 

 large thoroughly responsive to it, and that within the next 

 few years there will be established in Illinois a public 

 health organization whose incentive and whose personnel 

 have been for the most part, the contribution of war-time 

 conditions and war-time sentiment. 



