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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![not afraid of sinall-j)ox, because lliey had liad the cow ])Ox. And Jenner took 20 years of careful einjuirj’ before he ventui-ed to announce the pro- tective power of vaccination. The laws of sanitary science are many and varied. The subject covers a very wide lield of investigation. Jt includes legitimately within its scope, the habitations of men, their modes of living, their occupations, their water, air, and food supplies; even their social relations, in short whatever influences the longevity of the human race, or concerns its vitality and health. It is also a ])rogressive science, and its jirogress is as ever before, dependent upon the accurate observation, classification and comj)arison of facts, in their relation to man’s i)hysical health. Hence it is that the basis of the science is ^utal Statistics: An accurate and full knowledge of the length of life in a given community, the birth- rate, the marriage-rate, the death-rate, and the causes of death. Here permit me to congratulate the people of Michigan, that your State Board has carried the education of your legislature so far, that at its last ses- sion it enacted a law for the more !)erfect registration of deaths through- out the State, by requiring a certified statement of the fact with certain particulars and a ])ermit to be issued, before tlie burial or removal of the body. It was a most important ste]> in the cause of sanitary science. It will speedily demonstrate its usefulness, and lead inevitably to other desiral)le reforms in registration. It is a consummation which your State Board has long been striving for, and which they long ago would have realized, if legislators had fully appreciated, that tlie administration of public sanifation is founded on a rock-bottom of science, of which vital statistics is the chief corner-stone. The idea has prevailed too much in the po])ular mind that ptiblic-heaKh laws were a sort of fad of indi- viduals, an impracticable hobby of a few enthusiastic and visionary people, generally doctors, who must have some scheme in it for their own interest. The ])oi)ulace has made the tremendous jump from the premises to that conclusion, by the simple logic involved in the question, “Why else should doctors before all others be so persistent in advocating them?” As if the measure of every effort for the ])ublic good were grounded in selfishness, as it so often is with i)oliticians! The most essential element of success in the administration of Public Hygiene is public cooperation; an intelligent ai)preciation on the ]tart of the ]>eople that the woi-k of State and local boards of health is simply applied sanUary scimee. It is merely the employment of what the ])eoj)le call business ])rinciples and common sense, to the observance of those conditions and that environment which by the ordinances of the Supreme Buler of the Universe are most conducive to the health of communities. The State Board of ^[ichigan recognized 1he necessity of such cooperation, and has strenuously and persistently sought to secure it by its unre- mitting efforts to educate the people. Its work in that direction has been characterized by a practical directness and efiiciency unsurpassed by any organization in the country. It has not been satisfied with the pub- lication of an annual report, which although replete with valuable in- formation, reaches but a small portion of the people. But it has secured their attention and interest far more successfully and effectively by other means. Your Board was among the first to recognize in its plan of instruction ihat men tonic most interest in irh(it eoncerns them personally. Hence the Board seized the o])portunity on every occasion of an outbreak of a con-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22335213_0052.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
