July 2, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



9 



even the fundamental definition of the sci- 

 ence the development of which has been 

 both sporadic and limited. It is high time 

 indeed that we should have some sort of 

 free discussion of the whole matter partic- 

 ularly as to the best lines for the future 

 growth of the beginnings already made. 

 Certain fundamental facts stand out 

 clearly. The most important of these is 

 that municipal and state authorities have 

 for years recognized the needs of safe- 

 guarding the public health and have estab- 

 lished various institutions for this purpose, 

 especially our city and state departments 

 of health. Thus as far back as 1856 our 

 state boards of health were well organized 

 and held an important conference in Phil- 

 adelphia to deal with the vexing question 

 of yellow fever which appeared at Bay 

 Ridge the previous year. The national 

 government has lagged far behind other 

 countries in public health matters however 

 and a national department of health, so 

 vital to the interests and happiness of 

 every citizen of the United States, has thus 

 far failed of establishment. The abortive 

 attempt made to bring about this much 

 needed reform, in the early eighties, led to 

 the foundation of such a department, which 

 led a precarious existence of only two years. 

 Fortunately the Marine Hospital Service 

 has gradually been able to take up many of 

 the duties of a national department of 

 health and has now become in fact and in 

 name a Public Health Service. 



In our universities and in our medical 

 schools, while hygiene was early recognized 

 as a major subject by many of our leaders 

 in medical education, this feeling was by no 

 means widespread. Nevertheless important 

 beginnings were attempted and in some in- 

 stances splendid results followed. As early 

 as 1865, the year von Pettenkofer became 

 professor of hygiene in Munich, the medical 

 college of the New York Infirmary for 



women and children made hygiene and 

 public sanitation a compulsory part of its 

 curriculum. Even before this the Women's 

 Medical College of Pennsylvania had 

 taught hygiene in association with physiol- 

 ogy. The University of Michigan when its 

 medical department was founded in 1850 

 taught the principles of the sanitary analy- 

 sis of drinking water to its students, in the 

 early seventies lectures on hygiene were 

 given to both medical and literary students 

 by the late Dr. Corydon Ford, and in 1876 

 a course of lectures was given on this sub- 

 ject by the present professor of hygiene 

 there. In 1887 the state legislature made 

 an appropriation for a hygienic laboratory 

 which was formally opened in the session 

 of 1887-88. In Western Reserve, in Cleve- 

 land, state medicine and hygiene were 

 taught as early as 1881 sometimes in asso- 

 ciation with pathology and again in connec- 

 tion with clinical subjects. In Harvard lec- 

 tures on hygiene were given in 1876, and 

 the present department of preventive medi- 

 cine was established later as a department 

 of hygiene with the late Dr. Harrington as 

 director. In 1892 the institute of hygiene 

 of the University of Pennsylvania was es- 

 tablished upon a broad foundation with the 

 gifted Dr. Billings in charge and in this in- 

 stitute we see most clearly the influence of 

 the Munich school of hygiene upon medical 

 thought in America. Foundations of hy- 

 giene were likewise provided for in many 

 other medical schools such as the Univer- 

 sity of California and Cooper Medical 

 School in San Francisco. With the excep- 

 tion of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Har- 

 vard however the hygiene which was taught 

 in America was presented either by prac- 

 tising physicians or by health ofScers whose 

 time was largely occupied by administra- 

 tive duties and who gave brief and in gen- 

 eral unscientific lectures upon public health 

 topics to medical students. The excellent 



