324 RURAL MICHIGAN 



and marshes and this pandemic was ascertained and 

 that not in Michigan but far away in the tropics of 

 Cuba and Panama. 



Public provision in relation to health was not 

 organized for many years. Physicians were few and 

 miles apart. The "beat" of Thomas Phillips of 

 Oceana County extended for fifty miles along the 

 Lake Michigan shore, and was covered on foot, when 

 need was. Patients received much more time for 

 less fee than now. In 1873, under the impetus of 

 the State medical society, came the establishment 

 of the State Board of Health, Avith an initial appro- 

 priation of $4,000. Coincidentally, the State in- 

 spectorship of oils was designed to protect the pub- 

 lic against the highly inflammable brands of kerosene 

 then on the market. Shortly the State Board of 

 Health was familiarizing the general public with 

 sanitary principles through the medium of sanitary 

 conventions. No one claims that health and sanita- 

 tion in rural communities are adequately provided 

 for. On September 15, 1920, the Michigan Depart- 

 ment of Health initiated the organization of a bureau 

 of child hygiene and public health nursing, which 

 •contemplated carrying out chiefly a rural program, 

 since the cities were conceived to be well equipped 

 to care for their own needs. As planned, work was 

 to start with the schools, through which access to 

 the homes would be secured. District conferences to 

 consider the problems of the rural public health nurse 

 were scheduled. 



By 1920 projects for the improvement of rural 



