396 KEPORT— 1891. 



To discover the direction in which future advancement Hes 

 it becomes us to weigh the spirit of the age, and also to see 

 clearly that sanitary science must submit itself to that spirit, 

 and heartily co-operate with it. We are all prone to regard 

 our pet science as something distinct from the ordinary run of 

 knowledge, and to get ourselves to believe that in order that it 

 may reach the community means of a special nature are neces- 

 sary. This is specially the case with a science which has a 

 popular aspect, and admits of being brought into active opera- 

 tion by a public enactment. Legislative authority is eagerly 

 grasped at as the way out of many difficulties. In this the 

 fact is apt to be forgotten that a just conception of this very 

 spirit of the times makes it clear that legislation is not only 

 required, but the higher sanction of popular conviction has to 

 be secured as well. I hold that blank ignorance and its at- 

 tendant inertia is the dead-wall that withstands all sanitary 

 progress — ignorance, too, that envelopes legislators, Boards of 

 Health, and people alike. 



The spirit of the times is the diffusion of knowledge among 

 the people, and the birth, through this agency, of social and 

 political advancement. The communities of this Southern 

 Hemisphere are self-controlling, and no unimportant feature of 

 their national character is their readiness to resent what they 

 regard as an interference with the rights of the individual. The 

 people refuse to be governed by autocratic boards and bureaux, 

 and it seems to me they will continue to assume the same atti- 

 tude unless they come to possess the knowledge that is needful 

 to secure their acquiescence. It is perfectly plain to those who 

 know anything of the working of our political institutions that 

 legislators will only go a very limited length in the direction of 

 compulsion, so long as the people generally are unprepared to 

 see intelligently its necessity. 



As sanitary reformers, it therefore behoves us to catch the 

 trend of the popular movement, and work directly on its lines. 

 "We must move forward on those lines which open out the pro- 

 spect of final success — that is, we must go with the rising tide 

 of public education, and gi-aft the practical side of our science 

 upon it. 



"We must educate our masters" is the watchword of 

 to-day. Political power is in the hands of the people, and all 

 legislative advance is the expression of their will. If, then, as 

 the phrase goes, the government of the country be "by and for " 

 the people, no proposition is clearer than this : that all social 

 progress that has its root in legislative enactment, such as 

 sanitation, must be preceded by the enlightenment of the people. 

 Any enactment will fail to possess efficiency unless the educa- 

 tion of the public mind on the subject reaches a proper 

 standard. 



