1864. | Sanatory Science. 163 
X. SANATORY SCIENCE. 
Ir we were asked to state what it is that more especially characterizes 
the scientific Practitioner of Medicine of our own day, we should state 
it to be the strong desire whereby he is actuated to investigate the 
conditions which lead to the production of disease, the laws that re- 
gulate its propagation, and the means by which its exciting causes may 
be diminished or altogether destroyed. The modern physician does 
not waste his energies or burn the midnight lamp in anxious strivings 
after the philosopher’s stone, in vain researches for some subtle elixir 
or fragrant balsam, with a few drops of which he might hope to charm 
away disease, to renew the life’s blood, and impart to the frail and 
tottering form of age the vigour and elasticity of youth. Neither does 
he now rely in his treatment of disease on complicated formule, which 
like the once celebrated Mithridate of the ancients, consisted of some 
two score ingredients; nor on nauseous and disgusting remedies, which, 
like the oriental Bezoar stones, or the Album Graecum, were invested 
with a reputed efficacy proportioned to the repulsiveness of their 
origin. All this is now changed. A striving after simplicity is the 
order of the day. The sutliciency of the natural processes of re- 
covery, when aided by a few appropriate remedies, is more widely 
recognized. The necessity of ensuring an abundant supply of fresh 
air, of practising social and personal cleanliness, of procuring a mo- 
derate yet sufficient quantity of food, and of guarding by precautionary 
measures against the special risks attendant on the pursuit of certain 
occupations, is now loudly proclaimed. 
The importance of paying due attention to all such wise and simple 
sanatory regulations, is not only at the present time acceded to by the 
medical profession and the more intelligent of the general public, but 
has at length been fully recognized by the Legislature. The admir- 
able reports which, in obedience to the Public Health Act for 1858, 
have now for a series of years been annually submitted to the Privy 
Council by their medical officer, Mr. Simon, have contributed in no 
small degree to the distribution of sound information on many of the 
causes that lead to the production of diseases, and on the means 
which ought to be taken to mitigate or prevent them. Of the many 
reports which have proveeded from his pen, there is none, we think, 
exceeding in general interest the one published in the autumn of the 
past year.* It embraces careful inquiries into the efficacy of the pre- 
sent system of public vaccination, and particulars as to the supply and 
distribution of vaccine lymph; into the diseases which may result from 
the pursuit of some industrial occupations ; into the influences probably 
exerted by the distress in the cotton-manufacturing districts in the 
production and spread of typhus and other starvation diseases ; on the 
effect produced on the human body by the consumption of the milk or 
flesh of diseased animals, and on the best steps for lessening the pre- 
valence of disease amongst our domestic animals. As these subjects 
* Fifth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council. London, 1863. 
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