An address on the position of the state in respect to modern bacteriological research : delivered before a General Meeting of the XIth International Medical Congress, held in Rome, 1894 / by V. Babes ; abstracted and translated by F. Parkes Weber.

  • Babeș, Victor, 1854-1926.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address on the position of the state in respect to modern bacteriological research : delivered before a General Meeting of the XIth International Medical Congress, held in Rome, 1894 / by V. Babes ; abstracted and translated by F. Parkes Weber. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    TO MODERN BACTERIOLOGICAL RESEARCH. Delivered before a General Meeting of the Xlth International Medical Congress, held in Rome, 1894. By V. BABES, M.D., Professor of Experimental Pathology and Bacteriology in the University of Bucharest. [Abstracted and Translated by F. Pabkes Weber, M.D.] The health of the community is under the care of the Department for Internal Administration of the State; and inasmuch as health is essential to the happiness of the indi- vidual and the development of human energy, it appears, for most important economic reasons, to have a first claim on the Government. Those learned in such matters are, however, of opinion that, in spite of its immense importance, of all the different departments of internal administration, that of hygiene has remained the least developed in Europe. I will at first attempt to throw light on this sad circumstance, affecting as it does the most valuable of human possessions— one that gives value to other possessions—and then I will search for means to obtain for sanitation its proper position amongst State institutions. I.—Historical Survey. The care, of public health does not necessarily advance hand in hand with education ; a lively and practical public spirit and a great vitality in the people cause a place to be yielded to the demands of State sanitation. The oldest civi- lised peoples regarded it as a public duty to protect the health of the individuals. With a view to this, the laws of Sparta, of the ancient Egyptians, and of the Israelites had more hold than modern legislation on the life of individuals. Still, their rules were not founded on any sure basis, but rested entirely on old traditions and experiences, which the spirit of the period clothed in religious or political dress. In the laws of these old nations matters were regulated, which, according to our modern feelings are now left to the care of the individual, and sexual disease was more rigorously opposed than it is at present. Leprosy, from which the first civilised nations ran great danger, was opposed by more