Human Physiology. 

 CHAPTER V. 



THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE. 



Sanitary Legislation Testimony of Dr. Playfair Status of the Medical 

 Profession Case of the Murdered Convicts Sanitary Education 

 Effects of Disinfectants Quinine Vaccination Sanitary Inspection. 



PREVENTION is better than cure, and the more advanced 

 countries in the world are doing something in the way of 

 sanitary education and legislation. 



The prevention of disease is comprised in securing to every 

 individual the conditions of health, and protecting him from 

 the causes of disease. Sanitary legislation may give light and 

 comfortable shelter, by compelling the construction of proper 

 dwellings; pure air, by general cleanliness and ventilation; 

 pure food, by intelligent and honest inspection, and prevention 

 of frauds and adulterations ; pure water ; and other health con- 

 ditions by suitable hours for work, fair wages, public recrea- 

 tions, baths and wash-houses, and the diffusion of a general 

 knowledge of the laws of health. 



Dr. Playfair, one of the most enlightened of physicians and 

 legislators, has said: 



" Just as in war, while 20 per cent, of its victims perish on 

 the field or die of wounds, 80 per cent, die of diseases which 

 follow a camp life, so in peaceful occupations, the preventable 

 deaths by violence are small in comparison with the preventable 

 deaths which follow as infringements of sanitary laws. They 

 are as definite and inexorable as any law in physics. You go 

 to the top of a precipice and topple over it, and the law of 

 gravitation most surely pulls you down with increasing swift- 

 ness, till it dashes you to pieces on the ground. You brought 

 yourself under the law of gravitation, and never dreamt that it 



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