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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![sr> lawyer of Buffalo, as a result of his chauge of location. Early habits could uot be entirely eradicated, however, and among his several valuable legal writings tliose on the public-health laws of the United States, are most valuable. I introduce io you Hon. Le Boy Parker, ex-president of the Michigan State Board of Health. IIOX. LkKOY I’AKIvEK, BUFFALO, X. Y. PROFESSOR OF LAW; Rl'FFALO LAW SCHOOL. Mr. President and Ladies and (Ientlemen:—It is impossible for me to fully express tlie gratiticiitiou I feel at meeting again with the Michi- gan State Board of Health, and to participate in the Quarter-Centennial Celebration of its establishment. It is a pleasure for all of us to meet here and take part in the celebration of the completion of twenty-tive years of such noble work for humanity as the Michigan State Board of Health has performed, but it is doubly so for me, who for six years- served as a member of that Board and participated to some extent in its- work. At the time of my appointment by Gov. Croswell as a member of the Board in 1877, it had not comiiletcHrthe fourth year of its existence, but it had already become a living force in the work of prevention of dis- ease through the collection and tabulation of vital statistics and the dissemination of valuable and useful information among the people of the State. It had become an educator of the people in all matters re- lating to the maintenance and preservation of their health. How could it be otherwise when its first membershi]) consisted of*such men as Dr. Hitchcock, Dr. Bliss, Dr. Kedzie, Rev. Mr. Brigham, Dr. Lyster, Rev. Mr. Goodman, and that indefatigable collector and tabulator of statistical information, whose retention by the Board as its Secretary, from its first organization to the ])i*esent time, is the best jiossible proof of his invaluable services. Dr. Henry B. Baker? After an absence of many years I return, at the invitation of your Governor, from Xew York, the State of my adoption, to the State where I was born and where 1 spent the years of my early manhood, and find that the Michigan State IJoard of Health is in the very front rank of those which are fighting against disease and death, and which, by its untir- ing and well-directed efforts, is adding years to the life of man and wealth to the State. It is one of the noblest works of humanity to prevent disease, disability and death, and such prevention increases, incredibly, the productive re- sources of the Commonwealth. Xo economic measure that the State can foster, will, in my opinion, (and that opinion is bas('d upon innumerable statistics), add more to the sum of human haj)i)iness and to the wealth of the people and the obliteration of preventable diseases and the con- sequent prolongation of hale and productive life. I need not quote the figures of statisticians to show how great is the drain upon the ])urses of the people of the State for the expenses of sickness that might be prevented, nor how great the pecuniary loss in the destruction of lives tliat might be saved for many years of productive industry. You are too familiar with them to require a repetition here. In the introductory address of Dr. ITomer O. Hitchcock, at the organi- zation of the Board of Health of Michigan, July JOth, 1873, he outlined](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22335213_0089.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
