Public hygiene / [signed] by order of the Board, C. W. Chamberlain, M.D., Secretary State Board of Health.

  • Connecticut. State Board of Health.
Date:
[1878]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Public hygiene / [signed] by order of the Board, C. W. Chamberlain, M.D., Secretary State Board of Health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    PUBLIC HYGIENE. The aim of public hygiene is to arrest or prevent, by official measures, all diseases which are not, in their nature, strictly limited to the individual, but which, from external causes, or from their specific characters, have a tendency to spread throughout families, institutions, and communities, and which cannot be otherwise controlled. Sanitary science has proved that many of the diseases which act as the principal factors in producing death, are preventable and controllable by practical hygienic measures from the neglect of which not only are many precious lives wasted every year, but many also crippled and dwarfed by disease; lucrative enterprises abandoned ; hopes blasted, and poverty and want induced, if not pauperism, vice, and crime, from the distress caused by the losses resulting from unnecessary sickness and death. It costs to be sick and more to die ; and if we simply estimate the cash value of the lives wasted each year, during the productive period of life in this State, the sum would be expressed in many millions of dollars. This estimate rests upon the same basis used by the great business men of the world, the statesman and scientist, and is as reliable also in sanitary science. Although the general principles concerning the prevention of disease have been long known and published, still the knowledge has been confined to a few, and consequently their application has been limited, and it is not until the elements of sanitary science are known and appreciated by every citizen that the desired results can be fully attained in the prevention of disease and death, the preservation of health, the prolonging of human life, and the promotion of public wealth and prosperity. Says Disraeli, The health of the people is really the foundation upon which all their happiness and all their power as a state depend. The health of the people is, in my opinion, therefore, the first duty of the statesman ; and I am confident that there is no object of higher importance to engage the interests of society. Great advances have been made during the last few years in sanitary science, in relation to the causes of disease and the control of epidemic, infectious, and contagious diseases. To systematically disseminate this knowledge among the people, and carry out the necessary measures extensively and throughout the State requires some public agency, and this work the State Board of Health propose to inaugurate and carry out. The prosperity of any community, and its comparative healthfulness, are inseparably connected, and unsalubrious conditions effectually check development and growth. It is a part of our work to investigate the local conditions affecting health and longevity in the State ; and here the value of registration of vital statistics becomes apparent, showing that diseases appear irregularly and with certain conditions, increasing or decreasing as these conditions vary.