July 2, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



school, Professor Rubner, now professor of 

 physiology. On the other hand, many 

 other chairs of hygiene in Europe are held 

 by the bacteriologists as by Kruse in 

 Konigsberg, by Fischer in Kiehl, by Uh- 

 lenhuth in Strassburg, by Kolle in Berne, 

 by Schottelius in Freiburg i. B., and by 

 Neumann in Giessen. At the same time 

 hygiene is taught in Vienna by Shatten- 

 froh and Grassberger who clearly unite 

 the two schools, while in Budapest von 

 Lieberman is associated with von Fodor, 

 and may be said to approach the subject 

 more from the standpoint of the physicist. 

 Despite the great diversity in training 

 of the various hygienists in Germany and 

 Austria, the subjects they teach and study 

 are much the same in the different univer- 

 sities, approached necessarily however from 

 different viewpoints. The fundamental 

 principles of hygiene as applied to vital 

 statistics, heating, lighting, ventilation, 

 clothing, disinfection, sanitation, water and 

 milk supplies, sewage disposal, nutrition 

 and food values are taught to all medical 

 students while special emphasis is laid 

 upon demonstrations which show the mode 

 of transmission of the infectious diseases. 

 Lecture courses in theoretical hygiene are 

 compulsory, laboratory courses in practical 

 hygiene are attended by the majority and 

 all students who are candidates for degrees 

 in medicine must pass a rigid examination 

 in hygiene before graduation. At the same 

 time special courses in hygiene are offered 

 in all the hygienic institutes. They cover 

 a variety of subjects and include such top- 

 ics as school hygiene, mental hygiene, the 

 hygiene of inheritance, nutrition and 

 systematic instruction in the principles of 

 infection and immunity. Finally elemen- 

 tary bacteriology is taught the medical 

 students in many of the hygienic institutes 

 which in a few instances provide facilities 

 for the cities where the universities are lo- 



cated for diagnostic work in connection 

 with the infectious diseases. No matter 

 how seemingly diverse the subjects or how 

 varied the interests of the many workers 

 in the field, hygiene is a distinct scientific 

 entity in central Europe to-day, the object 

 of whose teaching is the demonstration of 

 all the available facts and theories rela- 

 ting to disease in bulk as distinguished 

 from individual cases of disease. 



HYGIENE OK PXJBLIC HEALTH IN GREAT 

 BRITAIN 



During the period which saw the estab- 

 lishment of hygiene on a modern basis in 

 Germany and Austria, the same science was 

 being developed in England under the 

 name "public health." In Great Britain 

 the system of local control of public af- 

 fairs had spread more widely than in any 

 of the continental countries in consequence 

 of which the local authorities were enabled 

 to dictate their own mode of government. 

 Local organizations were formed to con- 

 trol all matters relating to the health of 

 the community and the system of local gov- 

 ernment boards with their peculiar priv- 

 ileges and responsibilities has resulted. 

 This system represents indeed Great Brit- 

 ain's especial contribution to hygiene in 

 the last century and the years 1847 when 

 medical officers of health were first ap- 

 pointed, 1848 when they were required to 

 be qualified medical practitioners (Public 

 Health Act), 1855 when every vestry and 

 district board in London was required to 

 appoint one or more medical officers of 

 health and 1872 when the new Public 

 Health Act forced every sanitary author- 

 ity outside of London to appoint a medical 

 officer of health, formed the especial land- 

 marks in this chronological development. 

 Long before 1847, however, English physi- 

 cians had devoted time, energy and thought 

 to the problems of hygiene and the names 



