HEALTH AS A NATIONAL DUTY 



War is no longer a conflict of armies but a struggle be- 

 tween nations. Behind the gallant bat- n „ 

 talions in the field there must be other , ... . J^ 



battalions in the munition factories and on _ T J t « . . 

 . . . , j. „ National Cnsis 



the farms whose devotion is equally essen- 

 tial to national victory. Success demands the coordinated 

 individual efficiency of the whole people; and individual 

 efficiency rests upon health. 



As the United States enters upon a great war for liberty, 

 for justice and for humanity, there arises in all of us a new 

 sense of common responsibility, a new determination to 

 reach the highest level of effectiveness. There is no place 

 any more for carelessness, for meddling, for self-indulgence. 

 There is no place for preventable disease. 



Health is to-day, as never before, a national duty — 

 health not merely in the sense of freedom „ . , - 

 from acute sickness, but in the sense of full Vff * . 

 abounding vigor and vitality and power. 

 The maintenance of such vigor and vitality depends on 

 simple principles of hygiene and sanitation. It has been 

 truly said that "within natural limitations, a community 

 can determine its own death rate." It is equally true that 

 "within natural limitations, an individual can determine his 

 own physical efficiency." 



It is in the belief that thousands of men and women in 

 training camps and in munition factories, on farms and in 

 homes, are determined in this hour of trial to give their best 

 to their country that this Handbook of Health and Efficiency 

 has been prepared by the American Museum of Natural 

 History and dedicated to an awakened and a reborn America. 



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