NOV 15 1 



THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



OCTOBER, 1913 



IMMIGRATION AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH 



By De. ALFRED C. REED 



XEW YORK CITY 



I. The Nature of Public Health 



THE age has happily passed when patriotism is measured in terms of 

 human life sacrificed, and weighed in the balance of territorial or 

 financial advantage. War has its heroes and mighty men who, fighting 

 for man or cause, regardless of victory are accounted great. But the 

 heroes and mighty men of peace who, for man and man's cause, fight the 

 more terrible foes of ignorance, disease and public wrong, are coming to 

 be accounted infinitely greater. No soldier opposing foreign foe was a 

 truer patriot or died more nobly than did Dr. Thomas B. McClintic 

 who, with no panoply of militarism, quietly and unfalteringly with his 

 own life helped pay the price of the conquest of Rocky Mountain 

 spotted fever last summer in the Bitter Root Valley of Montana. 



Truly it is sweet to die for one's country. But even in the battles of 

 peace the need of this sacrifice is rare. Greater is the need and grander 

 the opportunity to live for one's country, and wage war against the 

 powers of ignorance, indifference, disease and degeneracy. And this is 

 the essence of the newer patriotism, which in no way removes or lessens 

 the ancient duty of defending the land and honor of one's country, but 

 at once idealizes and transcends that duty. If this be true, it follows 

 that the man who is awake to his civic responsibility and who appreciates 

 the honor of his American heritage will be in hearty sympathy with all 

 agencies engaged in this distinctly modern line of endeavor. He will 

 take part in, and aid to his utmost ability, those influences making for a 

 cleaner and better America, because he realizes that this is not only his 

 opportunity but his patriotic duty. 



It appears therefore that the subject of the public health must not 



vol. Lxxxni.— 22. 



