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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![Each lias its cimiculties, but notwitlistandiug, they ai*e iusisted upon aud out'orced. To the etlicieucy of enforcement the limitations of the con- tagious diseases have been narrowed and severe epidemic visitations made a matter of history. If to the factors enumerated could he added a system of compulsory official and municipal disinfection, it would almost appear that extermi- nation of acute contagious diseases was in sight. It is remarkable that municipal equiimient for municipal disinfection, the most cogent of measures, should }'et be subsidiar}'. To disinfect, as now practiced in most communities, is a matter of de- partment recognition carried out under the directions of the physician, with such implied efficiency as only the personal factor admits. Disinfection, to he efficient, should he obligatory, arbitrary, made by those specially trained and by up-to-date equipments and applied with intimate thoroughness of knowledge regarding the various agents and their particular use aud indications in individual cases. The Department of Health should supervise the disinfection, see that contagion is annihilated and a public record maintained of such inspec- tion and disinfection. Fi*om such record, data should be available for the real estate interests, for the public and for house hunters. What is more pitiable, and yes, more preventable, than the possibility of a family of little ones moving into a dwelling, perchance to be the vic- tims of a i)estilential infection. Medical men are but too familiar with instances of this character and its results. We liave to consider the most formidable foe of the human race— tuberculosis—and one presenting pro])Ositions as difficult as important. A notable feature ])ertaining to it, and beyond question, is its prev- alence amongst lower animals. No disease equals its fatalitj' nor attacks so many of them. Domestic animals only var}' in susceptibility and those escaping under natural conditions })rom])(ly respond and succumb when innoculated. Its communicability and identity in man and the lower animals, its enormous mortality and the methorls of dissemination, with equally accurate knowledge as to the methods which could restrict its prevalence, direct criticism to what is largely left undone by the State whose attitude in general is one of negligence or indifference. The cause of this apathy need not detain us, it is explainable by lack of knowledge, experience, conflicting interest, sentiment and the like. In some sections, ])artial efforts have been and are made, yet the essential of succes.s—uniform and systematic ])rocedure—is lacking,' and until this is obtained, without considering the question of the ways and means, compensation, etc., the State, which should be, if anything, prodigal in its expenditure for life and health, should maintain the following: 1. (Quarantine against the introduction of tubercular cattle. This should be as rigid as that against an}- pestilential disease in man. Security against foreign invasion circumscribes the conditions and concentrates aggressiAm action at home. 2. Milk hei'ds and dairy interests should be under strict surveillance and preferably under the license system. No dairyman should be per- mitted to engage in supplying milk Avithout first obtaining a State license to do so, which should only be issued after inspection. Such inspection](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22335213_0081.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
