A NATIONAL BOARD OF HEALTH. 
465 
A NATIONAL BOARD OF HEALTH. 
By F. S. Billings, M.V., of Boston, Mass. 
We have been for a long time at work on a series of papers 
which it is intended to betitle “ The Sick Man and How to Cure 
Him,” or the medical institutions of the United States critically 
considered; the request of a friend, however, to write something 
with reference to a “National Board of Health ” necessitates that 
the material on hand for such a subject be moulded together in 
rather a hasty form, yet we trust we have in the following pages 
touched on subjects enough to at least give others subjects of at¬ 
tack and consideration, for it is only by much interchange of 
thought and experience that we can arrive at results liable to be 
of lasting benefit to the nation. That we need a National Board 
of Health is self-evident, and it will also be self-evident that in so 
short a paper as the following the work of the same, its organiza¬ 
tion, etc., can only be very cursorily treated. For in a National 
Board of Health must be organization, regulation, reformation 
and incentive. No good work can come to pass except as the re¬ 
sult of enduring organized effort. Many of our States are still 
without effective Boards of Health, and in only one—Massachu¬ 
setts—have we anything like legal medical officers ; but even in 
that State their duties are too limited, being that of replacing that 
useless inheritance from England, the Coronor. This is an im¬ 
mense advance, and one which should be followed at the earliest 
possible moment in every other State ; it simplifies and renders 
the work much more effective. Centralized, i. e ., concentrated 
effort, is always better than isolated, sporodic endeavor. To this 
end it is necessary that the whole country becomes subjected to 
one code of hygienic law, suitable to the general needs, while in 
every State, county, town or city, such special laws must be made, 
and one made in general, suitable to the local evils; yet these 
special laws and regulations should always bear a proper relation 
to the general. It is the drafting of the latter which will devolve 
