308 IMPROVEMENT OF MAN'S ENVIRONMENT 



all manure was disinfected. Thus the breeding of flies was checked. 

 The campaign of education was continued during the summer by- 

 means of moving pictures, nurses, boy scouts, and school children 

 who became interested. At the end of the summer it was found 

 that there had been a considerable decrease in the number of cases 

 of fly-carried diseases and a still greater decrease in the total days 

 of sickness (especially of children) in the screened and sanitary 

 block. If such a small experiment shows results like this, then 

 what might a general clean-up of an entire city show? 



Public Hygiene. — Although it is absolutely necessary for each 

 individual to obey the laws of health in order to keep well, it has 

 become necessary also, especially in large cities, to have a depart- 

 ment or board of health to exercise general supervision over the 

 health of the people living in the community. In addition to such 

 a body in cities, supervision over the health of citizens is also 

 exercised by state boards of health. Since 1912 we have had super- 

 vision over interstate quarantine and public health in general, 

 exercised by the United States Public Health Service. Its valuable 

 reports and reprints are available for schools and should be used 

 in your project and class work. 



The Functions of a City Board of Health. — The administration 

 of the board of health of a city includes a number of divisions, 

 each one of which has a different work to do. Each is in itself 

 important, and, working together, the entire machine provides 

 ways and means for making a great city a safe and sanitary place in 

 which to live. A local health board, according to the authority, 

 Dr. C. E. A. Winslow, should supervise the food supplies and sani- 

 tation of a city. It should from its laboratories take care of the 

 communicable diseases, especially of tuberculosis. It should have 

 a department of child hygiene and should carry on health cam- 

 paigns through its department of publicity and education. Fi- 

 nally, it should publish the vital statistics of the community. 



The Division of Communicable Diseases. — Communicable 

 diseases are chiefly spread through personal contact. It is the duty 

 of a government to prevent a person having such a disease from 

 spreading it broadcast among his neighbors. This is done by the 

 board of health, by the quarantine or the isolation of the person 

 having the disease. No one save the doctor and the nurse should 



