Transactions of the Conference on the future of public health in the United States and the education of sanitarians : held at Washington, D.C. March 14 and 15, 1922 under the auspices of the United States Public Health Service.
- Conference on the Future of Public Health in the United States and the Education of Sanitarians (1922 : Washington, D.C.)
- Date:
- 1922
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Transactions of the Conference on the future of public health in the United States and the education of sanitarians : held at Washington, D.C. March 14 and 15, 1922 under the auspices of the United States Public Health Service. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![tremendous force for public health and for the training of public- health officers will be created. Dr. A. T. McCormack, Kentucky State Board of Health: We have heard a great deal about what is going to happen at the start but very little about the road and trail and path that leads to the head of the hill. It does not make any difference whether it is in New York, Philadelphia, or Boston, with their great health de- partments and excellent surroundings, or whether it is out on the prairies, the plains, the mountains, or in the hills, it is the fellow who is at the end of the trail that we have to reach with the lessons of good health and good living, as well as those who are more favorably situated. It is easier to reach him because his head has not been filled with deadwood as have those of us who have had greater educa- tional advantages. We have during our collegiate years gotten to a large extent practically all the knowledge we can ever learn. Some of us while at college devote some time to athletics and so we still have an opportunity to learn. [Laughter.] I do not for one moment discount the tremendous contribution to the future of our complex civilization made by the great institutions of learning. I believe that to these institutions we can not contribute too much in time, money, energy, or thought. I would not for a moment assume in any sort of way to feel that we are doing nearly enough for them. But at the same time, recognizing the basic health ignorance of our public, we are compelled to provide the kind of health officer who can speak in the vernacular and transmit the things our leaders already know in science. We want to remember a thing that we have forgotten in medicine— forgotten almost entirely—that the important thing for the fellow who is sick is the art of medicine, not the science. It is a matter of comparatively small importance to the individual what a person may have died of or what he is ill with—that is science; the main thing to him is that the man who is going to be in charge of him shall know what he is likely to have, how to prevent it, and how to cure it. He does not care a continental about the name of the thing which he has. What we need to-day in educating health officers is educa- tion in the art of health officering. If we are going to emphasize only one or two things, let us emphasize the question as to whether he can translate his knowledge into action with the individual— translate it into action for those of us who do not know. If he can write big so that he who runs may read, then he has learned the lesson that can be translated to the people. It is indeed a mat- ter of importance that we have this type of man. The greatest research man should be able to talk in the vernacular, so that he can translate his information into action to those with whom he has to deal. This is the most important part of our problem to-day.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32185820_0141.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
