506 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 877 



they are cared for, but also act as district 

 nurses to give advice concerning care of 

 infants and general hygienic conditions. 

 The greatest drawback to medical inspec- 

 tion has been lack of sufScient funds to 

 employ enough specially trained men and 

 women at full time to do the work thor- 

 oughly. Open-air schools for weak chil- 

 dren and special schools for defectives are 

 a natural outgrowth of medical supervision 

 of school children. Chicago is to be con- 

 gratulated on the splendid start she has 

 made along these lines. 



While we can depend on proper medical 

 inspection in the schools and school and 

 district nursing for a great improvement 

 in personal hygiene and in the popular in- 

 telligence concerning medicine and hy- 

 giene, the care of the public health will de- 

 pend in no small degree on efficient officers 

 of public health. At the present time these 

 are rare in the United States. 



A vast amount of preventable disease ex- 

 ists for which there is no intelligent excuse. 

 There should be practically no typhoid 

 fever, but thousands die from it yearly. 

 Smallpox should be rare, but in the mid- 

 dle west it is quite common. Most of the 

 contagious diseases could be greatly re- 

 duced by more efficient boards of health. 

 The milk supply, in most cities, especially 

 those of moderate size, is far too little in- 

 telligently supervised. Fortunately, con- 

 ditions are changing and within the pres- 

 ent generation there should be such a de- 

 mand for well-trained officers of public 

 health that it will be difficult to keep up 

 the supply. Our medical schools will rec- 

 ognize that the training of public health 

 officers is a duty equally important with 

 that of training practitioners of medicine. 

 At Wisconsin, next year, we are to begin 

 a course in public health and we hope 

 within a short time to find a real demand 

 for such a course. The splendid public 

 health work done by our government in 



Cuba, the Canal Zone and Manila shows 

 what Americans should soon be doing at 

 home. We need a national health bureau 

 and we need in each state and in each dis- 

 trict and municipality in each state thor- 

 oughly competent health officers. You 

 young men about to graduate must do your 

 best to promote this movement. 



Efficient sanitation depends above all 

 else on public education. In tuberculosis 

 splendid progress has already been made 

 along these lines, but much more remains 

 to be done in the general field. The medi- 

 cal profession should do far more than it 

 has done to educate the public. Sanitary 

 laws will be efficient in a democracy just 

 in proportion to the general intelligence 

 abou-t hygienic matters, and no more. 



Medical advance depends, on the one 

 hand, on scientific research, on the other 

 on public education along hygienic lines. 

 Every citizen should be inspired with love 

 of personal and public hygiene as were the 

 Greeks. Every physician should be deeply 

 grounded in physiologic medicine and 

 provided with proper facilities for using 

 it practically. Every officer of public 

 health should know thoroughly the contri- 

 butions of etiologic medicine. All efforts 

 should be made to promote these most 

 fundamental needs of society. While most 

 of you who are graduating to-day will be- 

 come private practitioners, most of you 

 will be in a position directly or indirectly 

 to promote scientific medicine, public edu- 

 cation and public sanitation. You have 

 had as students at Chicago University and 

 at Rush splendid examples before you in 

 your faculty. With such examples none of 

 you can fail to play well your part in help- 

 ing in the organization of society along 

 more hygienic lines and in the reorganiza- 

 tion of medical practise to better fit the 

 needs of modern society. 



C. R. Bardeen 



Univebsitt of Wisconsin 



