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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![tagious disease to circulate iu the families so afllicted aud among the neighbors, full printed instruction for the restriction and prevention of the disease; well assured that the waste basket at such a time will not receive them until the} have been studiousl}' considered, and their coun- sels put in practice. In short, your State Board of Health, with a wisdom that is beyond criticism, has taken the people into its confidence, has frankly told them what it wished to do for the public good; has told them just how it is to be done, and how much they can help in its ac- complishment. It has not arbitrarih* undertaken the work alone, but, with commendable judgment, has not onh sought the aid so necessary to success but has adopted the wisest methods to secure it cheerfully and even zealously. By such wise measures, the administration of pub- lic sanitation has been established in your State upon a basis of organic unity, in which not only the State and local boards are joined, but every reputable and intelligent citizen and householder in the State, feels also the responsibility of being a health officer to his own domicil. Your board has not only told the people what to do, but it has justified its course, and confirmed its teaching, by keeping iu the public eye the results of its work, by means of those gra])hic illustrations, showing the diminished prevalence of contagious diseases, which although covering only a page, are conspicuous across the room, and which are so familiar not only to you, but to every reader of sanitary literature throughout the United States. ^Vith a boldness, born of experience, and an assurance of the confi- dence of the public in its discretion and judgment, it ventured, before any other State Board, to include consumption in the list of communi- cable diseases that must be rejjorted to the health officer, as soon as it is recognized. Consumption having now found its legitimate place among the infectious diseases, the Board, could not logically avoid tak- ing some direct supervision of it, as it does of other diseases of the class. JS^evertheless there are reasons why the act required a courage, that most other Boards of Health have failed to exhibit. It is significant of the respect in which the State Board of Health of Michigan is held by the people. Numerous and varied fields of service, requiring skill and learning iu the administration of public hygiene, are yet to be developed by the conditions which progressive civilization is constantly producing. In no department of human activity is there afforded better opportunity for philanthropic effort, with promise of rich results than in tliose undertak- ings for the protection and improvement of the public health so wisely inaugurated aud auspiciously pursued by the Michigan State Board of Health. Politics. There is no party politics in sanitary organizations, or there ought not to be, because it is as destructive to their usefulness as the typhoid bacillus is to the human subject. Hence it follows^ as the night follows day, that public sanitation has no attractions for the ordinary legislator. He is never a leader in sanitary legislation. The approval of all such legislation is forced from him by the enlightened sentiments of his constituents. Any instance of a sanitary law, originating in a legislature, would be justly quoted in support of the theory of sj)on- taneous generation. Therefore, that your legislature has enacted so many excellent laws through the instrumentality of your State Board of Health,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22335213_0053.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
