PUBLIC HEALTH 
547 
one can plant trees, make gardens, and protect and feed the 
birds ; and so every one may be a conservationist. 
Review the following: sections 66, 95, 96, 97, 100, 101, 
317, 318, 319, 322, 323. 
417. Public Health. — While we are conserving wild life 
and planning that the next generation may have a world 
rich in objects of natural beauty, there is danger that we may 
forget our own health. We owe it to the world to keep in 
good health. When we are ill we are not preparing for 
work, and we are not producing anything of value. We are 
taking the time of physicians, nurses, and friends, and pre¬ 
venting them from doing other work that would make the 
world a better place to live in. 
When we are ill it is generally because some one has been 
careless. It may not be our own carelessness, but gen¬ 
erally some one is at fault. For violating nature’s laws we 
generally pay the price — sometimes at once, sometimes 
later. It is our business to know these laws and then to 
obey them. We are coming to think of public health as 
something that may be bought. For example, water sup¬ 
plies may be protected and purified, if we install the proper 
equipment. This costs money, but pure water will make a 
community healthier, and it is worth money to a community 
to have all its people well, for they can work and add to the 
value of property. 
Certain diseases may be prevented if vaccines and anti¬ 
toxins are prepared and used at the proper time. The 
making of these vaccines costs money, but they may be 
purchased. So we are right when we say that public health 
is purchasable, provided we know what to purchase and 
how to use what we purchase intelligently. So we find 
various states with departments of health that are trying 
to improve the health of the people and lower the death rate. 
It really pays the state in money if it can lower the death 
rate. 
