July 3, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



17 



disease, to establish quarantine and ia connection 

 therewith to order whatever is reasonable and 

 necessary for the prevention and suppression of 

 diseases; to close schools, churches, theaters, or any- 

 place of public assemblage, to forbid public gath- 

 erings in order to prevent or stay epidemics; to 

 collect statistics concerning insanity, feeble- 

 mindedness, tuberculosis and other infectious dis- 

 eases; to inspect slaughter-houses and markets 

 of all kinds where food is sold. They shall in- 

 spect at least once each six months and make a 

 sanitary survey of the publicly owned build- 

 ings and institutions within their respective juris- 

 diction and shall keep a report thereon as part 

 of the records of their ofS.ce. They may inspect 

 any school buildings or grounds within their juris- 

 diction as to sanitary conditions and shall have 

 power to close any school when the sanitary condi- 

 tions are such as to endanger or imperil the health 

 or life of the pupils attending the same. They 

 shall include all such sanitary inspections in their 

 monthly reports to the state board of health. 

 They shall at all times be subject to the orders of 

 the state board of health ia the execution of the 

 health laws of this state and may perform any 

 duty where required by the state board of health, 

 or any member of said board acting for the entire 

 board, which might be performed by said board of 

 health or an oflS.cer thereof. 



Further duties of the health commission- 

 ers are defined in the bill, and I have given 

 only enough to show the purpose and scope 

 of its provisions. 



The successful operation of such a law- 

 would require the highest class of sani- 

 tarians. They must possess intelligence, 

 industry and integrity. They must be de- 

 voted to their work, remembering that the 

 Father of Medicine said : 



Where love of mankind is, there also is love of 

 art. 



With these qualifications I believe that 

 such a law might be operated with great 

 benefit to the people. Is the medical pro- 

 fession of this country prepared to do this 

 work? I believe that many of the recent 

 graduates of our best schools are fitted for 

 this highly important function. They may 

 need special training in the courses in pub- 



lic health now being inaugurated. If I mis- 

 take not, our profession will soon have wide 

 opportunity to demonstrate its usefulness 

 in this direction. If the public makes this 

 demand, preventive medicine will have the 

 opportunity to do a patriotic service which 

 has never come to any profession at any 

 time. With proper facilities and helpers, 

 such commissioners might within a few 

 years become acquainted with the condi- 

 tions surrounding every permanent resi- 

 dent within his jurisdiction, and with prop- 

 erly qualified administrators of the law 

 much might be done to abate disease, im- 

 prove health, increase efficiency, eradicate 

 the venereal diseases, stamp out vagrancy, 

 pauperism, prostitution, alcoholism and 

 crime. Crime is a disease due to heredity 

 or environment, one or both. We now per- 

 mit it to breed and multiply in our midst. 

 Its causes must be determined and elimi- 

 nated and its habitations must be discov- 

 ered, disinfected or destroyed. We have 

 heard too much about the rights of the in- 

 dividual ; let us know more about his duties. 

 Too much stress has been laid on the sac- 

 redness of private property and too little on 

 the duty of all to contribute to the welfare 

 of the whole. Preventive medicine has 

 demonstrated in a practical way the force 

 of the biblical statements that no man 

 liveth to himself alone, and that every man 

 is his brother's keeper. Preventive medi- 

 cine is the most potent factor in the socialis- 

 tic movement of the day with which every 

 good man feels himself more or less in 

 sympathy ; besides it is at the same time the 

 most powerful weapon against the anarchy 

 with which some would threaten us. 



If preventive medicine is to bestow on 

 man its richest service, the time must come 

 when every citizen will submit himself to a 

 thorough medical examination once a year 

 or oftener. The benefits which would result 

 from such a service are so evident to medi- 



