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
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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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    Originally boards of health were called into existence during periods of epidemics of smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, or plague. Their sole function was to act as medical consultants to the public authority in such emergencies. With the passing of the emergency | the board likewise passed. When vaccination had reduced the preva- lence and virulence of smallpox to the point where isolation and quarantine were of value in preventing epidemics, the work of caring for smallpox was taken over by the boards of health, and permanent organizations began to be established. The measures against filth and overcrowding, in so far as they were applicable to American con- ditions, were likewise made the duty of the board of health. In Massachusetts, in the city of New York, and in a few other States and cities the value of the new science had already been recognized, and important work had already been done by the health organizations in connection with water supply, communicable diseases, tuberculosis, and other problems. 3 The beginning of the century, therefore, found in most of our States and cities, and in many of our counties and towns, boards of health. These were usually composed of practicing physicians, of whom one acted as secretary. Their work in controlling smallpox and nuisance was largely intrusted to lay inspectors called sanitary police. The measures carried out by such a board of health were extremely simple, and the work called for little or no special knowledge or experience. Under these conditions an appointment as member of a board, as secretary or inspector, was usually disposed of as minor political patronage. This was the machinery available to put imto effect our new science of preventive medicine. It had in its favor the fact that it was under the control of physicians and that the word ‘‘health”’ occurred in the title. | With the beginning of the new century began the attack on con- sumption, causing at that time one-seventh of all deaths and one-third of those between the ages of 20 to 30. Controlling consumption was. no task for a sanitary policeman or a part-time practicing physician. For success it required accurate, detailed, scientific method. It. required coordinated clinical, preventive, and social measures. It required clinics, hospitals, nurses, social workers, physicians, and. educators. The hopelessness of expecting the then existing boards. of health to conduct such work was so manifest that’ voluntary agencies were created to carry it on, and even where it was financed by public funds agencies separate and distinct from the board of health were set up to do tuberculosis work alone. The 20 years just gone have seen one after another of the major problems of public health taken up and made the objects of sustained © and successful attack. Typhoid fever, infant mortality, diphtheria, scarlet fever, hookworm disease, malaria, and finally venereal disease: