462 



NA TURE 



\Oct. 8, 1874 



after referring to Franklin's aphorism, " Public health 

 is public wealth," pointed out that taking the smallest part 

 of the money saving, it is obvious that money judiciously 

 spent in sanitary improvement is not unproductive taxa- 

 tion, but capital bearing abundant interest ; and he then 

 gave an idea of the present sanitary chaos. " In England, 

 at the present time, there is a casual agglomeration of 

 1,500 separate sanitary authorities, without system or co- 

 hesion. Their areas of administration are diverse in the 

 extreme, being neither bounded by counties, parishes, 

 nor natural watersheds; and their duties are divided with- 

 out meaning between authorities in the same district. 

 They have been lately put under medical officers of health 

 without preparation or qualifications for their duties, some 

 well paid and devoting their time to this important work, 

 others having little more than nominal payment, and 

 giving little more than nominal time to their important 

 duties. Notwithstanding this too sudden and unprepared 

 universal appointment of medical officers, yet in the ad- 

 ministration of the Health Acts there has been recently 

 manifested a disposition to ' distrust the doctors,' and to 

 work the Acts, at least at head-quarters, by lawyers and 

 other persons not connected with the medical profession. 

 This is the old error of making common sense the fetish 

 for worship, which Archbishop Whately and others have 

 %o effectively condemned. Even the most fervent wor- 

 shipper of common sense as opposed to technical training 

 never relies on it in important emergencies of his life. 

 He goes to the lawyer to make his will or to convey pro- 

 perty ; he consults the parson on religious doubts when 

 on the sick bed, and he does not spurn the doctor to cure 

 him of his grievous aihnent. But it is well known that 

 the Local Government Board are afraid of the doctors in 

 the administration of Health Acts. Who beside them 

 possess the knowledge ? 1 can testify, from an experience 

 of thirty years in sanitary work— and impartially, because 

 I am not in the medical profession — that there is not a 

 class of men in the country who labour so zealously for 

 the prevention of disease as the doctors, though their 

 training hitherto has been cure, not prevention. Cer- 

 tainly their private interests have never been allowed 

 to stand in the way of their efforts to uproot dis- 

 ease, although their living depends upon its existence. 

 This unselfishness in the application of their science to 

 prevention has always been to me a source of high admi- 

 ration. Why, then, is there this vulgar distrust of the 

 doctors in the administration of our Health Acts .' Ex- 

 tend this prejudice against technical knowledge, and how 

 absurd it would be. Would you improve the progress of 

 telegraphy in this country by suppressing electricians, or 

 the law and justice of the country by putting down law- 

 yers 't Would the Secretary at War promote the conduct 

 of war by suspecting soldiers, or the First Lord of the 

 Admiralty the efficiency of fleets by distrusting sailors.' 

 Would our railroads and harbours be better governed if 

 engineers were held at a discount ? But this is actually 

 the state of things at the Local Government Board — the 

 Health Ministry of the country. The Privy Council 

 handed over to that Board Dr. Simon and his associates, 

 with a wealth of medical experience in public hygiene. 

 Ever since, that wealth has been locked away from'public 

 use. Certain I am that their experience could not have 

 guided the Board in the utter confusion of organisation in 

 regard to medical officers of health. They have been 

 appointed without any system. Some have a small paiish 

 to attend to, others have a thousand square miles. The 

 last are appointed for combined districts, but are managed 

 by uncombined authorities, and have neither assistants 

 to aid them nor power to tnforce their decisions. The 

 officers of health are without any definite rule for obtain- 

 ing available knowledge of prevailing sickness, even when 

 it is treated at the public expense within their own dis- 

 tricts ; and they are not, universally at least, informed of 

 the deaths as they occur. The medical officers of health 



have been appointed without any examination on their 

 knowledge of .State medicine, and in the majority of cases 

 they do not possess this knowledge. I am perfectly cer- 

 tain that this utter confusion could not have resulted had 

 the Local Government Board consulted the experienced 

 State medical officers belonging to them. This distrust 

 of the doctors in higher administration is simply a general 

 mistrust of science. And the time has now arrived when 

 science must be trusted in government. Science is enter- 

 ing into the higher education of the country, and the pre- 

 judice against it among legislators, who were educated in 

 classical universities, will 'in time be removed. For the 

 progress of a country depends upon the progress of science, 

 and thewelfareof anationis secured by the most intelligent 

 application of science to its manufactures and to its govern- 

 ment. The health of the country — and that governs the 

 productive power of its people — depends as much upon the 

 application of medical science as the working of a machine 

 depends upon a good application of mechanical laws. To 

 trust the whole administration of Health Acts to Poor-law 

 inspectors and lawyers is an amazing example of unbelief 

 in the first principles of the laws of health. The well- 

 being of the people depends upon physical causes, which, 

 when intelligently understood, mean physical science, and 

 the trained physician is the natural and most intelligent 

 agent for extending its knowledge and application to the 

 prevention of disease. What we want in the future is 

 not new law. but more efficient administration of existing 

 law. To heap up new sanitary law on the decaying mass 

 of undigested sanitary law, which already forms a dismal 

 agglomeration, is like the practice of our ancestors, who 

 thought that a few clean rushes thrown upon the corrupt 

 mass of foul rushes on the fioor sufficed for sanitary pur- 

 poses. What we want is superior organisation and effi- 

 cient administration of existing law. But, in our happy- 

 go-lucky style of government, are we likely to get it } I 

 doubt whether it will be wise to continue the Local 

 Government as a separate department of the State. Its 

 functions in reality appertain to the Home Office, which, 

 when properly organised, should divide itself into two 

 great departments, the one dealing with police and justice, 

 the other with the physical interests of the people. One 

 Secretary of State might have the supreme responsibility, 

 but each of the divisions should be scientifically adminis- 

 tered. It would be as absurd to put a :nan trained in 

 physical science at the head of the branch of police and 

 justice, as it is to put a man merely trained in law in 

 charge of the physical interests of the people. It is an 

 exploded fallacy that only lawyers are good men of busi- 

 ness, and that scientific men are not. Is my friend Sir 

 John Lubbock a worse banker because he is an eminent 

 man of science ? Is Mr. -Spottiswoode a worse printer 

 because he has distinguished himself as a physicist .'' Is 

 Mr. Warren De la Rue a worse stationer because he is 

 equally conspicuous as an astronomer and as a chemist .' 

 The Local Government of the country, in as far as it relates 

 to the physical interests of the people, will remain an 

 example of arrested development, unless science receives 

 a recognised position in its administration." 



In the Education Section there was nothing to call for 

 notice in the address, but Mr. C. S. Parker drew atten- 

 tion to the Report of the Lfniversities Inquiry Committee, 

 and an interesting discussion followed. 



The revenues of Oxford and Cambridge were reported 

 by the Royal Commission appointed on the advice of 

 Mr. Gladstone to be for the University, Colleges, and Halls 

 of Oxford, 414,000/., or, including prospective mcrease in 

 the next fifteen years, 538,000/. ; and for the University 

 and Colleges of Cambridge, 340,000/, or, including pro- 

 spective increase, 380,000/ Making certain deductions 

 from these totals, the net income was for Oxford 350,000/, 

 and for Cambridge 300,000/ ; or, deducting again what 

 was levied by taxation from their own members, the net 

 endowments for O.'vford and Cambridge Universities re- 



