Community Hygiene e-bog

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. One of the most significant and far-reaching movements of the day is the awakening of the health conscience of the community. No matter how alert, well informed, and prudent the individual may be, he is no longer able to protect his own health or that of his family from some of the most serious dangers-which threaten it. Even the most wealthy and influential citizen is utterly powerless to insure the purity of his water-supply, the proper disposal of his sewage and garbage, the purity of the milk his children drink, or the wholesomeness of the food on his table, except by the aid of the strong arm of the law acting through public officers of health. In fact, health has become a community problem. At first sight, the wisdom of giving children in formation about public health may seem open to question. They have no votes; and it will be several years before they are able either to influence public opinion or vote yes or no on questions of public sanitation. Furthermore, it may be argued that they are likely to have difficulty in understand ing the engineering and chemical problems involved in public sanitary measures.