Proceedings of the quarter-centennial celebration of the establishment of the Michigan State Board of Health : held at Detroit, Michigan, August 9, 1898.
- Michigan. State Board of Health
- Date:
- 1898
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Proceedings of the quarter-centennial celebration of the establishment of the Michigan State Board of Health : held at Detroit, Michigan, August 9, 1898. 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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![able accident, and the other extreme old age. If there were anj’^ anti- dotes against these it might be truly said that immortality characterizes life in Detroit. At present there is no contagious disease of any kind in our city. Our health officer, who will address you later, will give you every assurance that your environment is one absolutely foreign to disease. There is another element essential to healthy conditions, and that is fresh air. This we have in abundance, and to cap the climax, we have passing in vast volume in front of our city one of the most beautiful of rivers, whose waters are conservative of both health and cleanliness. A few days ago there assembled in our city the official representatives of many cities. One of the questions most discussed by their assemblage was that relating to the disposition of garbage. When the convention realized that through our system of public and lateral sewers all the fears of the effects of night soil and the absence of sewage was dissipated, and in the careful collection of the garbage of the city, and its inciner- ation a few miles therefrom was the full solution of all our difficulties and dangers, there was manifested great surprise. As we listened to the discussion of representatives of other cities as to the great difficulties they had in sewage, in many cases surface, and the difficulties of properly collecting and disposing of garbage, we in Detroit could but feel that we were peculiarly blessed. There was one suggestion which I made officially and which I renew, and that is my unalterable opposition to the farming out to any private individual of anything which relates to the health of the people. The taxes of the individual are paid in part to secure immunity from disease, and the strong arm of the government should never relax its power or vigilance in this most im])ortant matter. It is hardly a sufficient answer to one who has suffered through foul drainage or the ])utrifying of garbage, that some individual contractor has not done his duty. This duty is too im])ortant to be farmed out, and the individual very properly looks to the city for relief. I welcome you to this city individually and collectively, and because we are all deeply interested in the purpose of your coming. It has been my pleasure in the past to welcome many organizations of men coming here for the accomplishment of various pur])oses. Indeed, the confer- ences have been most varying. Soifie have come for political purposes only, others have come here in the interest of finance, and we have had conventions here of those who are met to discuss the best way of caring for those who are to be prepared for sepulchre. Our welcome to you is especially hearty because your coming is wholly-humanitarian, and we know that as a result of your conference we will all have gained more knowledge of the best means and methods for the preservation and pro- tection of public as well as individual health. In the quarter-century of life of Michigan’s State Board of TTealth how wonderful have been the changes witnessed. How primitive in those early days were the means provided and plans adopted for the conservation of public health in the State and in its several cities. Then we had the omnipresent marsh, the primeval forest, and malaria and ague as a natural consequent. Under present conditions these have largely disappeared, and Michigan has come to be known as a most de- sirable State for one who is seeking health and its attendant blessings. The ratio of deaths has diminished verv largelv since that dav, and multi- 3](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22335213_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
