The Portland daily press., 1877-01-19
A State Board of Health.

III lne Time OF lne great plague IN London
The only attempt made to stay its ravages
was to Isolate the houses where the sick
were by making cross upon the door and
writing beneath "Lord have mercy upon u.s."
The people of that day believed a pestilence
to be direct visitation of God for their sins,
and knew of no way of escape but by flight.
We have learned since then that Heaven
aids those who aid themselves, that pestilen-
tial diseases can be controlled by huma n
agencies, and that great proportion of Or
dioary mortality and sickness can be pre-
vented if proper measures be only taken in
season. But though we know this we fail to
take proper advantage of our knowledge.
Growing that the earth under our feet, the
air we breathe, the water we drink, the food
We eat are often loaded with the germs of
disease, we blindly trust ourselves to fortune,
making no adequate effort at protection,
1t is held by the highest authorities in the
matter that by the proper observance of san-
tary precautions the death-rate can be reduced
one-haf. Indeed tests elsewhere well-nigh
establish this, and in localities where bodies
of competent men understanding the causes
and conditions of disease and the means OF
prevention have been mepowered by law to
remove the causes and change the conditions
disease has been very materially diminished.
The establishment of these organizations,
sometimes called sanitary boards, sometimes
boards of health, has been invariably attended
with the happiest results.
Maine has Jagged behind other states in
| this important matter. Wlllfully neglecting
its own interests, disregarding the important
duty of seli-protection, the State has gone on
| in the old way. making no effort to prevent
| disease or remove the causes of death every
where about us. Uamindful that increase of
| health is increase of happiness and power
| aud wealth, that any diminution of disease
adds so much to the working power and con-
| sequent prosperity of the State, aud that she
has it in her power to work
the increase Maine las taken no
measures to protect her citizens from
the agencies that menace their well-being
and lives. She has now opportunity to make
| amends for her neglect. A bill is now before
the Legislature asking for the establishment
| of State Board of Health. 1t demands
and should receive the most respectful atten-
| ton, and early action upon it is highly desir
able. The appropriation applied for is very
| small, insufficient indeed 70 pay the actual
| expenses of the members of the Board, and
| the outlay will in brief time more than repay
| itself in the increase of health and happiness
| OF our citizens. The purposes Of the Board
are the perfection of the system of hygiene
conducive to the prolongation of human life !;
| the obtaining of statistics concerning epidem
ics aud contagious diseases; the adoption of
| measures to secure the purity Of the air we
breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat /;
attention to the drainage aud sewerage of
every city and village in the State; provision
| for the proper ventilation of our schools, col
'eges, court-rooms, hospitals, asylums. the
atres aud public halls, with facilities for ready
exit in case of fire; the regulation, removal
or suppression of business dangerous or det-
rimental to individual or public health; the
| protection of children overwoIked, neglected
or abused; and finally the establishment of
an efic ent quarantine, with power adequate
| to any emergency. All this can only be eff
| fected by body of scientific men, trained to
| observation and conversant with the causes
| and prevention of disease, empowered by
| law to make necessary researches and TO car
| ry out proper measures for the protection OF
| the public health. Such body the Legisla-
| ture is called to establish. The request
| should be granted, for the highest consdera-
| tions of public welfare demand it, and the
sentiment of the people is strongly in favor
| of the bill.
The reasons for the establishment of the
| Board are so well set forth by the committee
| of the Maine Medical Association appointed
to consider the matter that we give them be.
low, inviting to them the careful attention OF
| our readers:
A bill will be brought before the next Legs-
| lature, for the establishment Of State Board
| OF Health, similar to that already organized in
eleven Otner States of the Union; you are
urged to assist in this movement for the follow
| lpg reasons:
The prosperity of the State is measured BY
the ager gate working power of the membe r.
of the Commonwealth and whatever promotes
the health OF The individual, increases the re-
sources and wealth of the State; all sanitary
legislation is therefore as legitimate and prof
table as repairs on the highway or appropria
tion of money for the advancement of education
agriculture or trade. The life OF every citizen
whether farmer, artisan or soldier, has def
mite money value to the State, determipable by
the quality of the work and the health of the
workman, and the State cannot afford, OF
grounds Of economy, to bave their usefulnes'
interrupted by preventable sickness or terml
mated prematurely by death
The same principle which dictates the appro
priation Of money for building poor-houses
jails and asylums, justifies its expenditure il
the promugatlon OF sanitary knowledge aut
measures which tend to diminish the numbe
OF paupers aod criminals