The common bacterial infections of the digestive tract and the intoxications arising from them / by C.A. Herter.

  • Christian Archibald Herter
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The common bacterial infections of the digestive tract and the intoxications arising from them / by C.A. Herter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    363/384 page 347
    SOCIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS It is hardly satisfying to conclude this consideration of the infections of the digestive tract without some reference to their sociological bearmgs. The medical practitioner too often is forced to deal exclusively with damage done —damage of an irreparable character. He is unable to grapple with the weighty problem of preventing disease. In modern civilized commimities the task of prevention has fallen into the hands of health boards. Where these have been guided by highly intelhgent and trained men, imselfishly devoted to the public good (as has lately been the case ia New York City), there has resulted a noteworthy diminution in the death rates. Tliis is true of many kinds of disease, but apphes with great distinctness in the case of the mor- tahty of infants from diarrhoeal disorders. The infant mortaUty from such disorders is due mainly to the bac- terial contamination of milk, and some municipal author- ities have lately been able to insist on the systematic re- jection of bad milk. The decline in deaths from summer diarrhoeas is a result of this improved milk sanitation. The health boards have, however, only begun their task. It is certain that the beneficent work of preven- tion will in time grow so efficient as to make the fatal milk infections of infancy comparatively rare, provided something be also done to raise the intelligence of pa- 847
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