200 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. VoL.XXVin. No. 71). 



nineteenth century we miist put that per- 

 haps unconscious one Avhich began, we are 

 told, exactly a century ago, and which is 

 known as the temperance movement. Under 

 whatever form, and however fanatical or 

 foolish, or at times even harmful, he may 

 have been, the temperance or prohibitionist 

 agitator has always urged the salvation of 

 the body as well as the soul ; the conserva- 

 tion of family life threatened with ruin by 

 drunkenness ; the social significance and the 

 economic importance of temperance, and 

 even abstinence, as regards alcohol. 



I make this acknowledgment with special 

 pleasure, because on another occasion, and 

 because of the fanatical and harmful sub- 

 jection of public school education in physi- 

 ology to the so-called "scientific temper- 

 ance" propaganda, I have publicly and 

 severely criticized and even castigated that 

 form of the movement. Of that criticism 

 I have absolutely nothing to retract ; but I 

 here gladly give high honor to the authors 

 and promoters of the temperance move- 

 ment in its broader features, for having 

 done the age a great service by urging its 

 attention to the welfare of the body, and 

 insisting that the salvation of the body 

 from drunkenness and the horrible sequelae 

 of alcoholism is not only possible, but also 

 worth while. The use of alcoholic liquors, 

 oddly enough, had already served sanitary 

 science well, much earlier, since lead poison- 

 ing appears to have been first detected by 

 a physician. Sir George Baker, among 

 drinkers of Devonshire cider — the cider 

 mills of Devonshire in the eighteenth cen- 

 tury having had lead connections, easily 

 soluble in the acids of apple juice. 



Of contemporary response nothing has 

 equalled, or even approached in breadth 

 and significance, the anti-tuberculosis move- 

 ment. Begun by laymen — as were also the 

 earliest boards of health— this movement 

 has become especially important because of 

 the cooperation in the campaign, on an 



equal footing, of medical men and laymen. 

 In this anti-tuberculosis movement the 

 medical profession has for the first time, 

 as far as I know, thrown off the ancient 

 mantle of professional excliisiveness in 

 dealing with a medical problem, and in- 

 vited the public to share with themselves 

 all of their professional knowledge— and 

 ignorance. This step seems to me of ex- 

 treme importance and sure to prove of 

 lasting honor to the profession. The clergy 

 long since led the way and shared their 

 knowledge and their aspirations with the 

 people; the medical profession has now 

 taken the same democratic and inevitable 

 step, and it only remains for teachers and 

 practitioners of the law to follow suit. 

 Perhaps when they have done this our legis- 

 latures will be improved and our cities 

 better governed. For better or worse, Am- 

 erica has embraced democracy, and in a 

 democracy any professionalism that smacks 

 of aristocracy or ' unnecessary secrecy, is 

 out of place. 



Official recognition of the call to public 

 health began in the nineteenth century with 

 the factory acts, the health of towns' com- 

 mission, and the organization of state and 

 local boards of health. State medicine has 

 powerfully responded to the call in Eng- 

 land and of late in Germany, but in our 

 own land more slowly. The national board 

 of health of the United States had an hon- 

 orable if brief existence about a quarter of 

 a century ago. The state board of health 

 of Massachusetts, reorganized upon a thor- 

 oughly modern plan in 1886, has won great 

 and deserved distinction, and still main- 

 tains its leadership among all our state 

 boards. Michigan and Connecticut, and es- 

 pecially Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania, 

 and very lately Virginia, have followed 

 after. In Massachusetts, and to some ex- 

 tent in the other states, investigation has 

 been added to administration as a state 

 function, and with the happiest results. 



