280 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



essential to ensure the protection of yourselves and families 

 that you should all be sanitarians, but it is, I believe, very 

 necessary for you to know what is dangerous and what is 

 not, to know how these diseases are communicated from the 

 sick to the well, and above all, to know just what part filth 

 and bad drainage plays in propagating and spreading them. 

 Certainly you cannot know these things without some knowl- 

 edofe of the real cause of contagion. If these terrible mala- 

 dies that destroy the lives of such a large number of children 

 every year are ever to be eradicated, as I believe they may 

 be, it will be through the intelligent and hearty co-operation 

 of all the people, and such co-operation will only come 

 through the knowledge of the facts I have tried to explain 

 to-night ; for I repeat, it is only through such knowledge 

 that they will act intelligently. 



We have boards of health in all of the cities and towns of 

 the Commonwealth who have been given great powers by 

 the Legislature, such as are given to no other board or 

 department of the government, for the purpose of preveut- 

 ino; and controllinG: contasrious diseases. But that is not all 

 that is necessary to protect the people in this direction, — no 

 matter how able and energetic such boards may be, or how 

 arbitrary their powers, for if they are to be successful in their 

 efibrts, they must have the hearty and intelligent co-opera- 

 tion of all the people, and more can be done to destroy and 

 prevent contagion by the individual efibrts of those having 

 immediate charge of patients sick with these diseases by 

 careful and considerate work, than any or all of these boards 

 with their great powers. Yes, if sanitary reform is to come 

 at all, it must, like all other reforms, come through the 

 active, energetic and intelligent action of the people them- 

 selves, and if I have said anything to-night that has given 

 you a better understanding of these contagious diseases, and 

 that will lead even one of you to a more careful considera- 

 tion of the safety of your families and neighbors from these 

 diseases, I shall feel that I have done something for my 

 fellow-men, something for my State, and that I have added 

 something to the sum total of human happiness. 



Adjourned to Thursday, December 8. 



