186 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



war against bad health or bad morals requires much more thought 

 and constancy of purpose for its planning than most people are 

 willing to give. For these reasons it may be worth while to set 

 forth here a few suggestions for a program which may be of some 

 value both for acquainting the people of the rural community 

 with the hidden menace to their health and for enabling them to 

 overcome these dangers by eradicating their causes. Good health 

 is one of the primary conditions of a strong and progressive civil- 

 ization. Where it is lacking most of the other human ills flourish 

 also. Where it is present there is energy and will for the most 

 difficult tasks of society. 



The country is behind the city in both the matter of informa- 

 tion regarding sanitary conditions and in the application of the 

 methods of sanitation. This is true in spite of the fact that the 

 country has some decided hygienic and sanitary advantages in 

 the way of an abundance of sunlight and fresh air and, for a 

 large portion of the year, of fresh food in greater quantities than 

 the city can afford. There is also an abundance cf physical 

 exercise in the country, but unfortunately of such a one-sided 

 character that it does not develop the body harmoniously, but 

 tends in many cases to strain and to impair certain tissues and 

 organs. These are largely natural advantages. For the most 

 part the disadvantages of the country in a sanitary way are the 

 result of man's own negligence rather than inherent in the nature 

 of the country itself. In the country as yet there is almost every- 

 where less sanitary inspection, and there is consequently less 

 sanitary control over such matters as the drainage of mosquito- 

 breeding swamps, the disposal and destruction of noxious refuse 

 and dead animals, the inspection of the water supply and the 

 milk supply, and less control of diseased and poisonous animals, 

 such as the dog infected with rabies and dangerous snakes. This 

 lack of sanitary inspection and control is not alone due to 

 ignorance, but is also in large part traceable to the economic 

 costs of carrying out such programs of sanitation, and perhaps 

 equally as often to the lack of proper social and economic ma- 

 chinery or organization for getting it done. 



The country is also less well supplied with many of the san- 

 itary and health aids which are coming to be relatively so plenti- 

 ful in the cities, such as good physicians within reasonable calling 



