THE EELATION OF AGRICULTURE TO THE PUBLIC 



HEALTH. 



BY DR. SAMUEL W. ABBOTT, SECRETARY MASSACHUSETTS STATE BOARD 



OP HEALTH. 



In the study of man as a social being nothing is more 

 evident than the fact that his comfort, his happiness, his 

 health, almost his very existence, depend largely on his re- 

 lation to his fellowmen. Robinson Crusoe had his man 

 Friday ; the hermit and the monk are more or less depend- 

 ent on the outer world, notwithstanding any vow they may 

 have made to lead a separate, isolated life. The philosopher 

 Thoreau said, "I never found the companion that was so 

 companionable as solitude. ... It would be better if there 

 were but one inhabitant to a square mile, as where I live." 

 But even Thoreau, after living for two years as a hermit, 

 found it best to return to civilized life again. 



If this is true individually, it is true collectively. The 

 great industrial classes — artisans, mechanics, laborers, 

 teachers, professional men, sailors, fishermen, clerks and 

 farmers — are all interdependent upon each other. 



So, in the human body, every member makes every other 

 member more useful, and each one increases the efficiency 

 of all. The two eyes make the one pair of hands more use- 

 ful than a dozen pair without eyes. Sir Charles Bell, in his 

 " Essay on the human hand," shows that the thumb makes 

 the four fingers more serviceable than a score of fingers 

 without the thumb. " On the length, strength, free lateral 

 motion and perfect mobility of the thumb depends the 

 power of the human hand." 



In the treatment of the subject, "The relation of agri- 

 culture to the public health," I shall deal with the question 

 from different stand-points : first, in a subjective manner, 

 that is to say, the efiect of the occupation of agriculture 



