State board of health. 
263 
costly as sickness,” neither is there anything which so much con¬ 
tributes either to the happiness or to the wealth of a state, as the 
health of its citizens. That “public health is public wealth has 
become a part of the inner consciousness of the people.” It is not 
a hasty or unconsidered statement that we make when we assert 
that the pecuniary loss to a state from preventable sickness.^ annu¬ 
ally exceeds its entire cost of government; yet to build an argu¬ 
ment in favor of an organization of this character, upon the cost of 
preventable sickness in money., is to build it upon the lowest and 
most unworthy ground. -If by its investigations into the causes of 
disease, and its timely words of advice or of warning, it shall be 
able to save the life of a single citizen, then might a state consider 
itself repaid for the cost of its Health Board, and humanity might 
well demand this at its hands. Victories over disease are grand 
victories, and in the language of Dr. Baker, to those “ who shall 
call forth and so marshal facts and generalize the scattered forces 
of knowledge as to lead to victory over any one of the causes of 
disease w^hich now annually destroy our citizens by hundreds or by 
thousands, humanity may well accord a higher praise than to the 
most successful of warlike generals.” 
To enlighten the people concerning such causes; to instruct 
them that they may escape sickness and death from preventable 
diseases; to teach them “ a better knowledge and observance of 
hygienic laws,” is the legitimate work of a State Board of Health, 
and is included in the comprehensive term “ State Medicine,” 
w’hich, with Dr. Bowditch, we understand to be “special function 
of state authority by which it is bound to take care of the public 
health, to investigate the causes of epidemic and of other diseases, 
in order that each citizen may not only have as long a life as nature 
would give him, but likewise as healthy a life as possible.” Cer¬ 
tainly “ these objects rank among the most important matters dis¬ 
cussed by the humanest hearts,” and none “ can be nobler or more 
deserving the attention of learned men, of philanthropists, or of 
statesmen.” 
“The primary object of public medicine,” says Dr. Farr, “ is to 
prevent disease; but it also surrounds the sick with conditions most 
favorable to recovery, and diminishes the death-roll of the people.” 
And the same eminent authority, recognizing the difficulties that 
environ this labor, says: “ Supposing every condition favorable 
