54 Sanitary Science in the United States: [January, 
While the terrible plague lasted was not thought a time for 
good advice, but for good deeds. Now that the danger is 
over, the time has arrived to avert similar visitations in 
future. Does it appear unreasonable to ask for the most 
skilfully-devised sanitary regulations in localities where 
such a pestilence may germinate ? Recent events have 
elicited a vast deal of discussion as to the origin of these 
epidemics and the modes of combating them. There is 
want of harmony, however, in all points but this : that some 
of the factors which are concerned in originating the disease 
are within human control, and prevention, therefore, is the 
duty of the authorities where the disease germinates. 
Those involved in the consequences of neglecft of these 
duties, however remote their homes, have a right to ask for 
reform. This agitation should not be allowed to die out 
with the pressure of the calamity which aroused it. It 
should be continued until every one of the States has an 
efficient health code. At present the majority have none, 
or very deficient health laws. Massachusetts has strikingly 
shown its general enlightenment by being the first State to 
have an efficient Health Board and a wisely-devised code of 
sanitary legislation. New York and Pennsylvania have 
neither, though strenuous efforts have been made by public- 
spirited individuals to do away with the stigma. In the 
west, Michigan has been distinguished by the excellence of 
its sanitary legislation, and the voluminous and valuable 
publications of its State Health Board. But Arkansas and 
Missouri are sadly deficient, and the case is even worse 
in Iowa, Kentucky, and Indiana. Some attempts to supply 
the most pressing wants have been made in Florida and in 
North and South Carolina, and health laws are not entirely 
wanting in the statute-books of New Hampshire, Maine, 
and Rhode Island. The necessity for educating the people 
in each State before the requisite legislation is secured, will 
require a considerable period to elapse before all the States 
have systems of laws in accordance with modern knowledge. 
In the meantime, in the name of all those good men who 
have perished, and as an acknowledgment of the nation’s 
charity, let the plague-stricken States of the Gulf and the 
Mississippi basin lose not a day in adopting the wisest pre- 
cautions experience and investigation can offer. 
Struggling, as we are in this country, to have the impor- 
tance of sanitary legislation generally recognised, the pro- 
gress made in some dire< 5 tionsds highly encouraging. It is 
probable that no community will take steps to learn what is 
essential to its health before it has suffered from lack of 
