RURAL HEALTH PHYSICAL 191 



disease unchecked or improperly cared for, and this is a fact 

 which should be more generally appreciated. In connection with 

 the hospitals there should be provided dispensaries from which 

 medicines may be distributed to the poor, who would not other- 

 wise procure them, at cost or even in some cases free. Ultimately 

 we may also hope for public physicians, though such does not 

 seem to be immediately realizable. If the other health agencies 

 here described are effective, there should be less need for the 

 physician, and perhaps the fact that his services come high may in 

 some degree help to reenforce the value of the counsels of the 

 visiting nurse. 



Already I have mentioned medical inspection of schools as 

 one of the distinctive health needs of the rural community. Its 

 value is now too generally recognized to require argument by way 

 of reinforcement. To supplement it, however, there should be 

 provided a carefully planned and well executed educational pro- 

 gram for the improvement of rural health. Of primary im- 

 portance in this program is the instruction of school children in 

 the essential facts of sanitation and personal hygiene. In 

 many of the better rural schools much has already been accom- 

 plished in this direction. There are now some good text books 

 on the subject which teach in a practical and intelligible way the 

 most necessary facts regarding health. Perhaps the weakest spot 

 in the scheme is the teacher who usually has studied ancient 

 languages or some equally esoteric subject to the neglect of such 

 practical matters as hygiene. As a consequence she has not the 

 experience and background to give her teaching the requisite 

 reality. It is here therefore that occasional lectures by the visit- 

 ing nurse can be most effective. There is a very pressing need 

 that we revise the course of study in the rural as well as in the 

 urban schools until they inform us about the lives of our own 

 times and people rather than about the lives and languages of 

 peoples who lived a long while ago and whom we shall never see. 

 It is indeed a poor culture which does not teach one how to live 

 well in his own day and world. 



The teaching of health and hygiene in the schools will reach 

 the young people, whom after all it is most important to reach. 

 But we must not neglect the older people of the community, for 

 their attitudes of encouragement or discouragement will affect 



