64 National Health. 



minor cause. We have typhoid fever, smallpox, and diphtheria. 

 Are all these produced by drunkenness ? We want some 

 means to do away with these diseases. What are these means ? 

 As a prevention from disease I do not think that even the most 

 perfect water system would accomplish all that is desired. Is 

 there nothing in nature by which she may rid herself of all the 

 contaminations that may occur ? I think there is, that there is 

 a fundamental force, an all pervading force which nature herself 

 uses in most important instances, and that force, I hold, is 

 electricity. I speak not as an enthusiast, for at the present 

 time in Havre electricity has been adopted as a purifying agent, 

 and has purified sewers that were seething with pestilence. 



Mr. P. C. Cowan — I think Mr. Scott takes a very pessimistic 

 view of his subject. His ideas seem those of the Old Testa- 

 ment, and he appears to forget altogether those of the New 

 Testament, which are later, quite as different and quite as 

 authoritative. I must confess to disappointment that the paper 

 is so abstractly theoretical, and so very impracticable, except 

 towards the end. Note carefully, he attempts to take into 

 account not only the bodily but also the intellectual health. T 

 do not doubt his ability, but I do not understand how he 

 obtains an exact numerical value, such as the 25 per cent, 

 average of national health he assigns to these islands, as it 

 appears quite beyond human powers to measure spiritual and 

 intellectual health. It is possible to make progress by taking 

 as a guide the usual statistics of health, but, in my opinion, 

 quite impossible to make any progress in the improvement of 

 public health by the use of such fanciful measurements as Mr. 

 Scott proposes. Evidently any town, however high its death 

 rate, might claim to have the highest value of national health 

 on Mr, Scott's scale, if there were enough self-conceit in the 

 community, as it might easily be asserted, and who could prove 

 otherwise, " O, though we are dying by scores by all kinds ot 

 disease, we make up for and over-balance that by our ability 

 and fine qualities of mind and soul," To a certain extent I 

 agree with Mr, Scott that there should be punishment for 



