THE PREVENTION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE. 439 



Physicians have no energy or time to be wasted 

 in doing a favor to the association for the 

 benefit of paper manufacturers which is so 

 firmly established in bureaucracy. But it is 

 indispensable that by simple participation of 

 the attendant physicians, and by reliable 

 coroners' inquests, a correct and speedy notifi- 

 cation and enumeration of the cases of infec- 

 tious diseases be made possible, while the inter- 

 ference of official physicians in private affairs 

 is entirely inadmissible and contrary to our 

 Germanic notions of law. Even legislation 

 must make allowance for the awakening rec- 

 ollection of our own nationality. Those fine 

 times are past when the appointed authorities 

 were able to direct the local physicians to cause 

 the epidemic to cease since it had lasted long 

 enough. 



In spite of this progress the administration 

 is still guided too little by actual conditions. 

 A gratifying change of opinion however, in 

 which we see at work the influence of bacteri- 

 ological discoveries, is already to be noted. 

 That the prevention of infectious disease by 

 combating the cause of the disease is a great 

 social achievement cannot be denied. 



