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

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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$5() good ground, and will boar fniit all through the State. ]\Ianufacturing towns as u rule are not i)roi)itious spots for such ineetings. The people work hard all day and are fagged out at night, and, if they go out at all in the evening, wish and need to bo amused rather than instructed. I can conceive of no more unsanitary procedure than to invite such people to si)end an evening in ji hot, stull'y hall, vainly endeavoring to tix their attention on subjects which they can only jjartially comprehend. Of course much of the success of a convention de]»ends on the per- sonality of the iiromoter. As I read the accounts of the conventions which so ra])idly succeed one another in this State, and the machine-like precision with which they move, it seems as if the Moses of this “pleasant I>(*ninsula” had but to wave his stall' and smite the llinty hearts of the citizens of any desired ]>lace, and, presto, the health-giving waters flow forth; the ])opnlar ])reacher gushes with liygienic eloquence, the leading lawyer sj)onts sti-eams of oil-hand sanitary lore, and the prominent ])oli- tician blows with one breath the truni])et of i)ul)lic health and his own.* Now a word as to the arrangement of the ju-ogram. “A proj)het is not without honor save in his own country”. The ])oliticians of Moses’ day and nation had a very small opinion of his abilities and freely ex- pressed themselves to that effect. I once overheard a doctor saying to a friend, as they came out arm-in-ann from a Medical Convention, before which I had been reading a jtaper, “I have a good deal better o])inion of that man Lee than they have in IMiiladelphia.” It is well, therefore, to have at least one name on the j)rogram of a well-known man from a distance, preferably from another State, as a drawing card. In Pennsyl- vania we have several tiim‘s been so fortunate as to avail ourselves for this purpose of the abundant material of this kind furnished by the Michigan Board, twice, if my memory serves me right, in the person of its Secretary, and once in that of the brilliant and gifted A. Arnold Clark. I deem it a ]>rivilege to have an opportunity in this presence to bear testimony to the ])rofound and lasting impression made by that earnest and eloquent 3'oung sanitary enthusiast on his audience on that occasion. Is it not a melancholy commentary on the imuh^quacy of our sanitary precautions as yet, that the title of his intentiely interesting address was, “The Germ Army and how to Kout It”? Poor fellow! ^^'ithin two short years he had himself fallen under the combined on- slaught of the two most formidable divisions of that army. Residents of the town, however—local talent, as it is called—must be depended on to furnish the greater number of the papers—and this for two reasons, first, because the resident is more familiar with the local conditions, in reference to sewerage, drainage, water-supply and sanitary measures generally, which ought always to be freely discussed, than a stranger can be, and secondly, because, having once been induced to com- ])Ose and read a ]»aper on a sanitary subject lie will be ever after a sani- tarian. This result is unfailing. I have sometimes, however, resorted to the plan of having an inspector visit the town shortly before the meeting to spy out all its hygienic short-comings and iniquities, and serve them up as a dainty dish for the delectation of the inhabitants. This expe- * In explanation of liow tbe staff is waved, as soon as the tonics and speakers are selected the card cataloRne of the State Board of Health library is searched throu<fh for every topic proposed to be written about or disonssed at a sanitary convention, and everything in the library, especially all the most recent literature likely to be useful to either the “popular preacher,’’ “leading lawyer.” “promi- nent i»olitician,” or other norson who is to take part in the convention, is sent to that j)erson by express, charges prepaid. The author has then only to choose from the best that can be selected from what has been written on his subject.$