STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. 
293 
that it is not to this day known, or concluded on among physicians 
nor to be done either, how the action is managed by nature or for 
what use it is.” Sir George Ent was a University graduate, a Fel¬ 
low of the T?oyal Society and a leader among the scientists of his 
day. The question of ventilation was thus authoritatively placed 
bevond the realm of in vestigration. 
The knowledge which the Egyptians possessed had probably 
come to them from a much earlier time, by intercourse with the 
highly civilized Ethiopian nation, inhabiting Arabia Felix and the 
coast. The Greeks and Romans certainly possessed such informa¬ 
tion, seeing that the early temples of Esculapias were Sanitaria 
rather than medical schools and that Hippocrates wrote the earliest 
hj^gienic treatise now extant, treating of “Airs, Waters and 
Places.” Means of disinfection were used at Athens during a 
plague; the agency of fire, which is only now beginning to be again 
recognized, having been used by Acron of Crotona, with great ad¬ 
vantage to the city. 
Ancient Rome appreciated sanitary art and appointed officers to 
superintend the construction and management of buildings, public 
and private, to secure salubrity and safety. The Mosaic ceremon¬ 
ial laws, which had their origin in the enlightenment of the court 
and priesthood of Egypt, were found upon correct information as 
to human requirements; and Moses regulated the food, purifica¬ 
tions, ablutions and other necessary details towards the mainten¬ 
ance of the health of the Jews, who are at this time the most health¬ 
ful and best preserved of all the races on earth. The Greeks cared 
as much for the physical as for the intellectual supremacy of the 
people; and in their cities, public baths were provided for the poor 
as well as the rich. The Romans imitated this feature of Greek 
civilization, and, also, following the example of that nation, Anton¬ 
inus Pius initiated the appointment of medical officers, in Roman 
towns and cities, to preserve the general health. Health institutions 
now existent in Germany and Italy find their origin in the days of 
Antoninus. The buildings constructed for public baths contain pro¬ 
vision for ventilation as well as for heating, which soon after the 
influx of barbarism fell entirely into disuse. How completely the 
scientific acquirements of the ancient world had been lost, can be 
seen dimly in the records of the dark ages, which may be said to 
have covered the whole earth, seeing that India, once a focus of 
