Apeil 23, 1909] 



SCIENCE' 



645 



As akin to what we have said, our 

 thoughts now turn to another group of 

 responsible leaders who are placed in con- 

 trol of bodies of very ignorant laborers. 

 I refer to our civil engineers. Such men 

 have a double responsibility, for it is their 

 duty not only to protect the health of their 

 employees, but they are also bound to guard 

 against the very real danger of contamina- 

 tion reaching some neighboring town's 

 water supply by reason of the laborers 

 camping upon the watershed. Many an 

 epidemic has been traced to that source of 

 pollution. 



The curricula of our engineering schools 

 are not destitute of instruction in sanitary 

 science, but the time devoted to it is dis- 

 tinctly small. 



Let us change the point of view for a 

 moment and ask how much of this kind of 

 information is possessed by our graduate 

 trained nurses. With what confidence 

 could you depend upon their knowledge of 

 the dangers lurking in water or milk and 

 the best way to guard against them ? Are 

 they as posted as they should be upon the 

 longevity of the more common disease 

 germs and do they know why corrosive 

 sublimate is not uniformly a good disin- 

 fectant for tuberculosis sputum? The 

 answer is evident, but the blame is not 

 with them. It lies with those who mapped 

 out their line of training. 



As a final group for our consideration 

 let us turn towards the children in our 

 schools and the students in some of our 

 non-technical colleges. Are they receiving 

 the amount and particularly the kind of 

 sanitary instruction fitted to their future 

 needs as intelligent citizens? Please note 

 that I dwell upon the quality as well as 

 upon the quantity of teaching they receive. 

 If they be taught to clean the outside only 

 of the cup and the platter; if they be so 

 misled as to confound a deodorizer with a 

 disinfectant; if they be induced to believe 



that straining off that which is apparent 

 to the eye will render a polluted water 

 safely potable, then I claim that their little 

 knowledge is a very dangerous thing and 

 distinctly worse than none at all. 



Of all the people in the nation, the ones 

 from whom we expect the greatest returns 

 for our efforts in sanitary instruction are 

 those who are sufficiently young to ap- 

 proach the subject with no previous preju- 

 dices. One of England's greatest sur- 

 geons, now a few years dead, was a strong 

 opponent of the germ theory of pus forma- 

 tion. He expressed himself as willing to 

 dress his patients' wounds with such bac- 

 teria if he could but get enough of them 

 for the purpose. Men so set in their ways 

 do not easily respond to any form of con- 

 version. It is with those who are now 

 young that we must lodge our hope and it 

 is among them that we should push our 

 sanitary propaganda, but let us advance 

 it evenly and by first-class instraetors. 



A word as to what I mean by such terms. 



An immense amount of effort has been 

 expended in the cause of temperance and 

 excellent results have been secured, but let 

 me ask, has any similar crusade been 

 pushed with equal vigor against the spread 

 of other forms of intoxication; that, for 

 instance, produced by the toxin of bacillus 

 typhosus or the still more serious bacillus 

 of tuberculosis? Have you any idea of the 

 relative numbers of victims claimed by al- 

 cohol, typhoid fever and consumption each 

 year? The effects of alcoholism are more 

 dramatic and more disgusting and there- 

 fore more quickly command our attention, 

 but as to the question of annual fatality 

 and suffering produced, it is the least evil 

 of the three. 



Deaths in 



State of New 



York, 1907 



From alcoholism 1,023 



From typhoid fever 1,688 



From consumption 14,406 



