508 MAN CONTROLS HIS ENVIRONMENT FOR HEALTH 



Are there any laboratories ? If so, describe them. Do the local health officers 

 concur with all the activities shown on the diagram? To what extent? 



Has your locality an efficient board of health? If not, what suggestion 

 can you make for improvement? 



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 the United States Public 

 Health Service has had general supervision over interstate quaran- 

 tine and public health. Its valuable reports and reprints are avail- 

 able for schools and should be used in your project and classwork. 



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 



sanitation 



fooct 

 Supplies 



child 

 hygiene 



laboratories 



divisions' of the 



HEALTH 

 DEPAT5T7v\ENT 



publicity and 

 education. 



vital 

 statistics 



tuberculosis 



communicable 

 diseases 



has a different work 

 to do. Each is in it- 

 self 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 an au- 

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

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

 communicable diseases by means of vaccines and antitoxins. It 

 should have a department of child hygiene and should carry on 

 health campaigns through its department of publicity and educa- 

 tion. Finally, it should publish the vital statistics of the community. 

 The division of communicable diseases. Communicable dis- 

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

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



The health departments of various cities ; counties, or states 

 have a number of divisions. How many are there in your city 

 and state departments of health ? 



