366 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 584. 



the public health; experiments upon the 

 cost and importance of systems of heating 

 and ventilation; experiments upon the effi- 

 ciency of copper sulphate as an algicide; 

 experiments on the influence of pasteurized 

 milk upon infant mortality— all these, and 

 many more that might be given, testify to 

 the value of the experimental method in 

 sanitation. And yet, in most cases of this 

 kind, we have to say, as Adams said of 

 political experiments, 'these can not be 

 made in a laboratory or determined in a 

 few hours. ' 



There remains, however, one department 

 of sanitation, viz., that of sanitary admin- 

 istration, in which the results of experience 

 are more abundant than those of experi- 

 mentation, results, too, which can not be 

 regarded with either pride or satisfaction. 

 I refer to the constitution and sanitary 

 work of our various state and local boards 

 of health. In some few cases these boards 

 are well constituted, courageous, intelligent 

 and efficient. In a few cases they are even 

 famous for their good work. In some other 

 cases, although themselves incompetent, 

 boards of health have had the good sense, 

 or good fortune, to employ as their agents 

 real experts, and to delegate to these their 

 sanitary work. But experience shows that 

 some state boards, and many local boards, 

 of health, in the United States, are badly 

 constituted, inefficient if not ignorant, and 

 cowardly. The experiment has now been 

 fully tried of appointing to such boards 

 mere place-seekers and incompetents, with 

 the natural results of poor public service 

 and dangerous neglect of the sanitary in- 

 terests of the people. It requires some 

 knowledge, skill, courage and wisdom, to 

 administer the sanitary affairs of a modern 

 community, and few indeed are the Amer- 

 ican cities or towns which have made the 

 experiment of organizing their boards or 

 commissions of health to meet these re- 

 quirements. Too often a hack politician 



or two, a second-rate doctor or two, and 

 one or more vain or place-seeking nobodies 

 — useless but not harmless— make up our 

 local boards of health; and as no stream 

 can rise higher than its source the services 

 of such boards are disgracefully small in 

 quantity and poor in quality. It requires 

 no further use of the experimental method, 

 to predict from such direction or control 

 of sanitary affairs, in further trials, dismal 

 consequences. 



Worst of all,' this foolish and almost 

 criminal experimenting is going on while 

 we have to-day in America opportunities 

 for some of the most interesting sanitary 

 experiments that any scientist could desire. 

 We are establishing model dairies, model 

 municipal water filters, model sewage and 

 garbage disposal-plants. Why can we not 

 also experiment with a few model boards 

 of health, which shall boldly set to work, 

 and themselves make the experiment of try- 

 ing to give to the city or town under their 

 care the best possible sanitary (and I may 

 add hygienic) conditions? Why can we 

 not have more boards constituted, like that 

 of Montclair, N. J., of one or more leading 

 physicians, one or more good civil engi- 

 neers, one or more good lawyers or business 

 men? Why can we not have more boards 

 experimenting upon the control of milk 

 supplies, as are to-day the boards of 

 MontQlair, of New York and of Boston? 

 More boards studying experimentally the 

 conditions required to secure proper heat- 

 ing and ventilation of public halls and 

 public conveyances? More boards experi- 

 menting upon the suppression of the smoke 

 nuisance, the dust nuisance, the noise nuis- 

 ance? It is of comparatively little use 

 to make good laws if no one will enforce 

 or obey them, and improved methods of 

 sanitation (and hygiene) are of small value 

 unless intelligent, courageous and energetic 

 boards of health adopt and enforce them. 



In Massachusetts the district medical ex- 



