6 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1070 



dear to tlie heart of every Anglo-Saxon 

 are scattered over the pages of English 

 medical history. Thus in 1720 Dr. Rich- 

 ard Mead, the physician to St. Thomas 

 Hospital, published his "Short Discourse 

 Concerning Pestilential Contagion, and 

 the Methods to be Used to Prevent It," a 

 book which went through seven editions in 

 its first year of life. In 1764 appeared Dr. 

 John Pringle's work on "Diseases of the 

 Army" which was destined to revolution- 

 ize sanitary conditions in jails and hos- 

 pitals as well as in military camps, while 

 the same service was rendered the navy by 

 Dr. James Lind's publication entitled "On 

 the Means of Preserving the Health of 

 Seamen," soon followed by a series of es- 

 says concerning the health of the Royal 

 Navy, on "Fevers and Infection" and on 

 "Jail Distemper." Dr. Gilbert Blane's 

 "Observations on the Diseases of Seamen" 

 appeared in 1785 and in 1796, when Blane 

 was serving as chief officer of the Naval 

 Medical Board under the admiralty, 

 lemon- juice was added to the diet of the 

 seamen and scurvy ceased to rage. Dr. 

 George Baker, in 1767, elucidated the 

 etiology of "colic and palsy" in Devon- 

 shire and by his demonstration that this 

 was lead poisoning pure and simple first 

 put the study of industrial diseases upon 

 a scientific foundation. More important 

 than any other single discovery, however, 

 and more beneficial from the world-wide 

 campaign it inaugurated against small- 

 pox stands of course Jenner's discovery of 

 cowpox vaccination in 1798. 



In the century from 1738 to 1838 Eng- 

 land saw its great rejuvenation manifest 

 in its acute religious revivals, its political 

 emancipation, the social liberation of its 

 lowest classes and the destruction of class 

 privilege, the extinction of slavery, the 

 improvement of agriculture, the extension 

 of trade and commerce and the organiza- 



tion of its industries on a firm basis. 

 During all this time great movements were 

 usually associated with great men and the 

 names of John and Charles "Wesley, George 

 Whitfield, Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, 

 John Howard and William Wilberforce, 

 will always be held in affectionate rever- 

 ence by those who are alive to the ills of 

 mankind and who love their fellowmen. 

 By 1838 England had been thoroughly 

 purged of many of its ills and when ten 

 years later the first systematic efforts to 

 regulate the sanitary affairs of London be- 

 gan, the government found a population 

 no longer hostile to sanitary reform. Dur- 

 ing most of the subsequent period one fig- 

 ure looms up persistently in public health 

 in the United Kingdom, Sir John Simon, 

 who bears much the same relationship to 

 English hygiene that Pettenkofer does to 

 German, and who was fortunately also 

 spared till close to the end of the last cen- 

 tury. 



As a result of the Public Health Act of 

 1872, it became apparent that the supply 

 of men trained in sanitary science to oc- 

 cupy positions as public health officers was 

 inadequate and the University of Cam- 

 bridge set about the task of remedying the 

 difficulty. For this purpose it established 

 the system of examining qualified medical 

 practitioners in the principles of hygiene 

 and granting diplomas to those who satis- 

 factorily passed the examination. In this 

 work the great hygienist Parkes was the 

 leading spirit. The diploma granted came 

 to be known as the D.P.H. or Diploma of 

 Public Health, the holders of such di- 

 plomas having a distinct advantage over 

 their competitors when they applied for 

 the coveted positions with the various local 

 government boards. The great advantage 

 to any community in having its medical 

 officer of health a trained sanitarian was 

 soon apparent and in 1892 an act was passed 



