84 JUSTIFICATION OF EXPENDITURE 



those obtained later were wrong. It is often the case, 

 when a disease begins to be seriously considered and its 

 effects on the community observed, that it is discovered 

 to be commoner than was formerly supposed. The 

 example of appendicitis can well be cited. A hundred 

 years ago appendicitis was rarely recognised, though 

 sufferers died of it, while their deaths were returned as 

 due to peritonitis or some other name ; now it is an 

 affection common and fashionable. So it will be with 

 fly-borne disease probably. As soon as organised 

 fly-reduction has become popular and generally carried 

 out as it undoubtedly will be the frequency of fly- 

 borne disease will come to light, and t then people will 

 begin to ask why fly-reduction was not thought of 

 before. 



Sanitation, public health, are concomitants of 

 civilisation. Without entering into the argument of 

 cause and effect, there is no doubt that sanitation and 

 civilisation progress together. One of the most striking 

 differences between a barbarous and a civilised country 

 is that of cleanliness and sanitation. Compare India 

 with England, Calcutta with London. One is dirtier 

 than the other the houses, the streets, the people. 

 Compare Cairo with Boston, or Moscow with Paris. 

 Then compare the death-rates the better the civilisa- 

 tion the healthier the people. Climate per se has little 

 influence. The Panama Canal zone, situated in one of 

 the hottest and worst climates, has been made as healthy 

 as New York. 



Health, then, is a worthy object and worth any 

 reasonable expenditure. Disease is an objectionable 

 thing, inasmuch as it impedes and is contrary to the 

 dictates of civilisation. Fly- borne disease is a loath- 

 some thing, and its existence in a civilised country is 



