New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-07-21
PUBIC HEALTH.


In anotlae column We publish communi- !
cation on the subject Of the health ordinance
which, for some time, has been before the
council. We had hoped that the ordnance
would be adopted before this time, IN oruer
that an efficient and practical scheme Tor the
preservation of the public health might be or
oanizef, ana enforced as speedily as possible.
Objections may perhaps exist to some of the
| 5afa;iz ,of the project. The provisions may
here be too stringent or there too lax ; in one
1 plaoe there may be an omission-in the other
a superfuity; but such imperfectons are I'M
avoidable in the initiation of any method which
eontemplates, of necessity, a certain amount
of empiricism as preliminary to the gener-
alizations which, in the end, are to be ar
rived at Of course objections of this char
acter are not valid as against the plan
of the ordinance; and it may be left
| to experiment to determine whether or not
they are well founded. Experience, after all,
is the best guide but to possess any value
at all, it must be the experience of intelligent
and sagacious men-of men capable of draw
ing correct conclusions and of turning facts
and observations to proper account. Any
other sort of experience is worse than useless.
because it almost always is the parent Of
false and pernicious differences But it is,
/ perhaps, superfiuous to argue propositions
which commend themselves so forciby to all
intelligent minds We have no reason to
believe that there is, in the council, any seri-
Gus opposition to the ordinance and in fact
We did not know Of the existence Of nysueh
| objections as those alluded to by our cores
pondent. Those objections appear to u.s. as
to him, entirely unworthy Of consideration
The duties of the street commissioner
and those of the health officers may
assimilate, but they are by no means identi-
cal they may vary but they do not clash,
In So far as they assimilate the faithful dis
charge of his duties by the street commits
sioner would Of course greatly facilitate the
objects of the health officers. IN 50 far as
they vary the duties of the one cannot be dis
charged by the other The preservation of
public health is speciality of SO important
and so peculiar character that it must be
confded to men possessing a certain kind of
! attainments and whose efforts shall be directed
exclusively to the achievement Of the purpose
against epidemics to enforce some effective
hygienie regimen to gather, collate and gen
! crate in scientific manner the facts from
which may uItimatelyar at a knowledge
II Of the laws of disease, and, if not avert, at
i least modify such disastrous yisitations as ep-
idemic cholera, yellow fever, typhus, smallpox,
etc Although the street commissioner may
contribute much towards accomplishing this
work, he can By no means consummate it.
The time has past when men believed that
4 purely scientific problems are to be solved in
any other way than by purely scientific
methods The problem to be solved in this
case IS pre-eminently scientific in its charac-
ter, and, it therefore requires to be treated in
a scientific manner We do not, Of course,
/ mean that the end in view can be attained BY
means Of those vague and often wild hypo-
theses which too often usurp the name Of
4 science ;lbut we do mean that the subject
should be confded to men who, from their
4 profession, and the character of their studies,
n possess peculiar capacity for treating it sue
cessfully 1t is with this view that the ordi-
nance has wisely, we think. limited the choice
of health officers to the medical profession.
\ As we have already said there may be errors,
defects, superHutties, in the details Of the
ordinance. If such exist, which is by no
means improbable, experience will soon detect
and correct them. What we want is a general
system, administered by competent and intel
igent men. and for such system the ordi-
nance provides. The method is unquestion-
ably correct. II Is simple, comprehensive, in
telligible and economical To be rendered
effective it is only necessary that proper per
sons be chosen to carry it into effect