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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 827 



eral public as to the sources of danger, and 

 the importance of protecting the commu- 

 nity from the carelessness of the ignorant 

 few. The results of scientific research are 

 of no great consequence without that pub- 

 lic sentiment which insures the application 

 of these results for the benefit and the pro- 

 tection of all. In spite of the fact that 

 science has long since determined the cause 

 and the means of preventing the spread of 

 the bubonic plague, it still rages in India 

 simply because the great masses of the 

 people of that country choose to regulate 

 their personal habits in matters of cleanli- 

 ness and sanitation according to the rules 

 of the Brahmanistic religion rather than in 

 accordance with the results of modern sci- 

 ence. Ten thousand people in Chicago are 

 to-day suffering from tuberculosis, pauper- 

 izing that city, as Commissioner Evans de- 

 clares, to the extent of more than $20,000,- 

 000 a year, not so much because science has 

 failed to suggest means of improvement as 

 because of the ignorance of those afflicted 

 and the lack of sufficient public sentiment 

 to enable the authorities to compel prop- 

 erty owners to provide the proper sanitary 

 conditions. 



What is needed most in the public health 

 movement is an intelligent appreciation on 

 the part of the leading citizens of our vari- 

 ous communities of the necessity of suitable 

 legislation and the proper enforcement of 

 sanitary conditions. Montreal's recent ex- 

 perience with a smallpox epidemic illus- 

 trates the sad consequence from ill advice 

 at a critical time. Due largely to the in- 

 fluence of a physician who had gone wrong 

 scientifically a general sentiment against 

 vaccination had developed and when a 

 Pullman porter carried the disease to that 

 city a general epidemic resulted, causing 

 the death within ten months of 3,164 per- 

 sons, most of whom were children under 

 ten years of age. Contrast with this record 



that of Chicago for last year. Here in a 

 city with ten times the total population of 

 Montreal and with every opportunity for 

 importing the disease through its great 

 avenues of passenger traffic and its tran- 

 sient population, under the influence of 

 public pressure better conditions prevailed. 

 Thirty thousand deaths occurred last year 

 in Chicago, but not a single death from 

 smallpox, although numerous instances oc- 

 curred where people coming to the city 

 brought the disease with them. 



Chicago, by the way, presents a good 

 illustration of what a thoroughly scientific 

 and efficient leadership can accomplish in 

 protecting a community from unhealthful 

 conditions. In 1891 that city had the 

 largest death rate from typhoid fever of 

 any city in the civilized world. To-day 

 with its better facilities for the disposal of 

 sewage, better inspection and protection of 

 its water and food supplies, it is com- 

 parable in this regard with any other large 

 center of population in this or any other 

 country. In fact, Chicago now has the 

 lowest death rate of any American city of 

 more than 350,000 inhabitants. It is no 

 small problem to undertake the inspection 

 of the food supplies of a great city. For 

 example, the milk supply of Chicago comes 

 from four states and not unfrequently it is 

 shipped a distance of more than fifty miles. 

 It takes more than 240,000 gallons of milk 

 a day to supply the city and this supply is 

 produced upon 12,000 different farms and 

 by more than 120,000 different cows. Yet 

 in this great metropolis, the city ordinances 

 provide for a careful inspection of the vari- 

 ous food supplies; for example, no meat 

 may now be offered for sale in the local 

 markets of that city until it has received 

 the stamp of approval of a city or govern- 

 ment inspector. The advance made by 

 Chicago within the last few years is due in 

 a very large measure to the untiring 



