The State Board of Health and a quarter century of public-health work in Michigan / by Theo. R. MacClure.

  • MacClure (Theodore R.). 1869-
Date:
[1898]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The State Board of Health and a quarter century of public-health work in Michigan / by Theo. R. MacClure. 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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    the adult population, and with them has had telling effect. But, to the mind of the writer, the Board has never in all its existence taken up a work of such great import to the State—the future health and welfare of the present and coming gen- erations—as that provided for by the legislatures of 1S95 and 1897, which re- quires that there shall be taught in every public school in Michigan the modes by which the dangerous communicable diseases are spread and the best meth- ods for their restriction and prevention. The great benefits that this new work will confer cannot now be estimated, because the work has practically only been commenced. It is difficult to have such a system take immediate effect; it vflll necessarily go through a process of evolution; but, before many years have passed the results will have assumed proportions which will make them a liv- ing monument to a portion of the unselfish and gratuitous work of the Michigan State Board of Health. In order to comply with the statutory requirement, the Board has issued and widely distributed a leaflet [226] which, in a short and concise manner tells how the dangerous diseases are spread, and how they may be restricted and prevented. It is hoped that an important advance will be made when the Board issues the more extensive teachers’ manual, now in process of construction. The Board will in time be able to place in the hand of each teacher a complete plan by which that teacher can even more fully comply with the law; but, for the present, the teaching of the “data and statements” supplied in the leaflet [226] meets all the requirements. In time, sanitary science will be one of the prominent features in the curriculum of every school. There will be large wall charts or wall studies, after the plan of the Yaggie anatomical chart or the Sunday-school catechism, in every school room, to be in plain view of every child and will serve as object lessons. Another advance might be in holding of teachers’ sanitary institutes or inspiration meetings which will bring the teachers together to confer with each other and with members of the State Board. These meetings might be wholly devoted to sanitary subjects, or might be a portion or section of the regular county institutes. However, these meetings should be for the teachers and by the teachers. They should be con- ducted by teachers, teachers should read the papers, the discussions should-be by teachers; but the work might be under the auspices of the State Board, and a mem- ber of the State Board should be at each meeting to direct or observe its proceed- ings. While this personal word-of-mouth meeting with the teachers would be extremely valuable, there is issued monthly, by suggestion of the writer, a “Teach- ers’ Sanitary Bulletin,” after the plan of the Farmers’ Bulletins, issued by the U. S. Government and by State Agricultural colleges; such bulletins serve to keep the teachers in constant touch with the State Board of Health and with recent sanitary progress. Such Bulletins are brief statements relative to the salient facts concern- ing each of the dangerous diseases, and relating to other public-health subjects, and have been prepared by members of the Board, but may be by professors, super- intendents. teachers, and others willing to contribute manuscript.