SCIENCE 



Friday, August 26, 1921 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: 



Whose Business is the Public Health: Pro- 

 fessor Frederick P. Gat 159 



The Aboriginal Population of California: 

 Professor A. L. Kroebek 162 



The Centenary of the Birth of Hermann von 

 Helmholtz: Dr. T. C. Mendenhall 163 



Scientific Events: 

 Deaths of German Men of Science; Prog- 

 ress in the Work of Mapping the United 

 States; The Tongass National Forest; The 

 Eoosevelt Wild Life Memorial 165 



Scientific Notes and News 167 



University and Educational News 1 69 



Discussion and Correspondence: 



The Temple Hill Mastodon: Sherman C. 

 Bishop. A More Phenomenal Shoot: W. F. 

 Pkoutt. a Phytophthora Parasitic on 

 Peony: Dr. H. W. Thurston, Jr., and C. 

 E. Orton 170 



Fair Weather Predictions 171 



Special Articles: 



The Duhoscq Type of Colorimeter for the 

 Demonstration of Differences in Surface 

 Tension: Dr. Frederick S. Hammett. 

 Variation of Individual Pigs in Economy of 

 Gain : Dr. E. Eoberts 172 



The American Chemical Society: Dr. Charles 

 L. Parsons 174 



MS3. intended for 'publication and booka, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrieon-oa- 

 Hudaon, N. Y. 



WHOSE BUSINESS IS THE 

 PUBLIC HEALTH?^ 



The larger the field of usefulness of any sci- 

 ence or art, the more obvious its applications, 

 the greater is its danger of exploitation. Just as 

 real estate and insurance attract the business 

 incompetent so does public health attract the 

 intellectual "piker." All things to all men, 

 dripping with statistical odds and ends, full 

 of startling though often uncontrolled results, 

 stamped with the hall-mark of altruism, public 

 health draws the well-meaning and self-seek- 

 ing alike. Even when based on the greatest 

 accuracy that science affords it often becomes 

 essentially inaccurate through the medium of 

 its interpreters and its employment. 



In this large forest of accuracies and inac- 

 curacies, of scientific principles and their ap- 

 plication, it would seem that one should coun- 

 sel simplification rather than elaboration — and 

 yet my idea is that we have not thought of 

 public health in a large enough way — we have 

 indeed failed to see the woods for the trees. 

 What then is public health? 



Let us recall, to begin with, that " health " 

 means a normal condition not only of body 

 but of mind and morals as well. We may 

 stretch our definition a little further and fol- 

 lowing Henderson demand that " health " in- 

 clude not only a normal individual but a nor- 

 mal environment. The business of public 

 health then consists in the detection, correc- 

 tion and prevention of the maladjustments of 

 human life, individual and collective. The 

 forces of public health are engaged in war 

 against " The Kingdom of Evil." Some of 

 you may recall the service that Southard ren- 

 dered social workers in offering them an or- 

 derly classification of their labors. The analy- 



1 Address read in a Symposium on Science and 

 the Public Health before the Pacific Division of 

 the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, Aug. 4, 1921. 



