The eminent domain of sanitary science and the usefulness of state boards in guarding the public welfare

摘要

IT HAS BECOME A CLASSIC saying that "public health is public wealth;" but who can estimate it rightly? Every case of sickness and the loss of every life from preventable disease is a tax upon the material wealth of the State and a great sorrow to the family. Count the number of deaths in a community for any given period, multiply it by thirteen-the estimated number of sick on hand for each death-and you have the average total of sick persons cared for at an expense much greater than would have been necessary for their support in health. In addition to this estimate, let us remember that at least one third of all the cases of sickness and of the deaths that occur are preventable; that this suffering and continuing tax on health and life is in direct antagonism to industry and the general prosperity; that the visitation of diseases falls heaviest always on the poor and most helpless classes of the community; and that the pressure of bad health and poverty, with their far-reaching ill effects upon the growing and reproductive parts of the population tends to deterioration of the race.