612 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 799 



example to be aggressively followed by state 

 and municipal health boards. IneflScieney 

 ■was not implied. 



The object of this article is not to criticize 

 these contributors or the Committee of One 

 Hundred, but rather to point out that, far 

 from being a matter of indifference, the na- 

 tional health is a matter of the gravest con- 

 cern. 



For what purpose is the health work now 

 being carried on in the following federal de- 

 partments ? 



First: The Bureau of Chemistry. The 

 work of this bureau (involving an annual ex- 

 penditure of approximately $750,000), partic- 

 ularly in the enforcement of the food and 

 drugs act, is too well known to need descrip- 

 tion here. Even the babies have not been 

 forgotten; the composition and digestibility 

 of baby foods have been studied; a more de- 

 tailed and thorough study of the subject has 

 been planned and will probably be in progress 

 in the near future. Considerable work is be- 

 ing done upon " soothing syrups " manufac- 

 tured and sold in violation of the food and 

 drugs act. 



Second: The Hygienic Laboratory of the 

 Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. 

 This laboratory has made investigations along 

 several lines. Certain parasitic diseases in 

 man (e. g., hook-worm disease) have been 

 studied; milk and its relation to the public 

 health has been a subject of both extensive 

 and intensive research. Investigations of the 

 dissemination of tuberculosis and typhoid 

 fever through interstate traffic are in progress. 

 The Marine Hospital Service maintains the 

 federal quarantine (appropriation — $400,000 

 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1909). 

 For the same year congress appropriated 

 $700,000 to be used by the Public Health and 

 Marine Hospital Service " in case of threat- 

 ened or actual epidemic of cholera, typhus 

 fever ... in aid of state and local boards 

 ... in preventing and suppressing the spread 

 of same. . . ." 



Third: The investigations on the food and 

 nutrition of man now being carried on 

 through the Office of Experiment Stations. 



Likewise, of undoubted value is the work of 

 the Surgeon General of the United States 

 Army. The work done by that office in point- 

 ing out the relation between the mosquito and 

 the spread of yellow fever is obviously of vital 

 importance. 



Fourth: The Bureau of Animal Industry. 

 In this bureau the federal health work is be- 

 ing carried on through several of its divisions. 

 The Meat Inspection Division (for which 

 congress appropriates $3,000,000 per year) in- 

 spects the inter-state traffic in meat, thus 

 assuring the country a clean meat supply. 

 Hook worm in man was first suspected 

 through the work that has been done with 

 this parasite in animals. 



To certain criticisms of the federal inspec- 

 tion a very interesting reply by the Bureau 

 of Animal Industry is to be found in the 

 Twenty-third Annual Report of that bureau 

 for 1906, page 443, et seq. 



The Dairy Division is making every effort 

 to cleanse and purify and improve the milk 

 and dairy products of the country. The 

 proper construction, care and ventilation of 

 the barn, as well as improved methods of ma- 

 king cheese, are subjects of investigation. 

 For the inspection of butter-renovating fac- 

 tories $10,000 are expended annually. For 

 investigations on methods of improving the 

 quality and quantity of dairy products, $30,- 

 000 are expended annually. 



If the amount of money expended by the 

 federal government through these several 

 bureaus (considerably over $4,000,000 per 

 annum) may be taken as a correct measure of 

 the interest taken in their work, it follows 

 that the national health is a matter of some- 

 thing more than incidental interest to the 

 federal authorities. The above-mentioned 

 amounts, however, do not by any means repre- 

 sent the total amount expended through chan- 

 nels making for the national health. If the 

 eating of certain abnormal varieties of com 

 in certain localities induces seriously dis- 

 eased conditions in the people eating it, is the 

 expenditure in studying the biology of the 

 com any less useful than that in studying the 

 disease in man? 



