A state board of health : a communication to a member of the legislature on sanitary organization and administration in the state of New York / by Stephen Smith.

  • Smith, Stephen, 1823-1922.
Date:
[1880?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A state board of health : a communication to a member of the legislature on sanitary organization and administration in the state of New York / by Stephen Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    The investigations related to the improvement of local sanitary gov- ernment, the prevention of the pollution of water supplies, the system of records of mortality, nuisances and noxious trades, homes for the poor, adulterated and deleterious foods and beverages, school-room hygiene, the vending of poisons, the propagation and neglect of contagious pestilences, the local sources of fatal diseases, the avoidable causes of consumption. CONCLUDING REMARKS. The Bill to establish a State Board of Health has been charac- terized in high places as a doctors' job, a method of extorting money from the State, etc. This is not the first time that similar phrases have been used in the Legislative Halls of this State. Fif- teen years ago the medical men of New York City brought to the Capitol the Metropolitan Health Bill, and they were greeted with the same remark. But true statesmen like Hon. Geo. H. Andrews, Hon. Ezra Cornell, Hon. Andrew D. White, in the Senate; Hon. Henry J. Raymond, and Hon. Henry R. Selden, in the Assembly; detemed and sustained the measure, and it became a law. And what has been the result ? New York to-day has the best sanitary government in the world. Three thousand lives are now annually saved, that before were lost; life is more secure than in many a rural district; and as a place of residence no commercial metrop- olis can compete with it in health, comfort, and attractiveness. Of the value of that Board to the commercial interests of New York, we need cite but a single instance. Said one of its largest mer- chants in a public meeting a few evenings since : The cash value of the Board of Health of this city to the branch of business in which I am engaged cannot be estimated at less than $100,000,000. In England the medical profession receives due credit for its efforts to promote the public health. Says an eminent English au- thority, who not only compliments in strong language the labors of our profession, but explains the reason for its interest in pre- ventive medicine : The medical men of this country have, as a rule, acted like true philanthropists in generally taking the lead in all questions relat- ing to the prevention of disease. To no body of scientific persons are the effects of an unsanitary condition made more painfully man- ifest. Disease in unsanitary districts sits like a vampire on its vic- tim, which is never satiated till the last drop of life blood is ex- hausted. Medical men know full well that it is almost futile to