The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-11-15
Editor Palladium

Editor Palladium.
Please allow further discussion of
the city's health department. Like
the preacher who thanked the travel
ing man who did the swearing after
they both failed to run down an out
going train, we feel thankful to our
good friend DR.. Davis for relieving US
from publishing that the city runs its
health department, its most valuable
asset, on the measly sum of S3,S60
According to the writer's crippled
philosophy, with a health officer not
a practicing physician, thoroughly
trained in every department of sani-
tary science both individual and pub
lie and a corps Of trained assistants
each expert in his own department,
and a we'll equipped city laboratory,
the city, by actual prevention of com
municable and preventaDIe diseases,
thus conserving the health and earn
ing capacity of its citizens, could save
in expense more than enough to pay
adequate salaries of the health Off
GERS. Suppose in the last year. scarlet
fever, smallpox, dyptheria, typhoid, tu-
berculOsiS, measles and chiCken-pOX.
had been prevented as the people have
a right to expect of the health depart
ment. would the City's eXcheqOur not
have been amply adequate to pay the
salaries mentioned in our former COM
munication. for such efficient work?
In this connection we beg to quote
from an article in the October Is,
1913, Literary Digest as follows:
"A SCHOOL FOR HEALTH OFFI-
CERS-A SCHOOL to train officers
for what has been called the public
health militia has been established
under the auspices of Harvard univer-
sity and the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. That the
need of precise training for public
health officers is crying one. and
that the graduates of the new school
the first of its kind in the rieId-will
be III a position to render great civic
service, is the opinion of NJ. ]. Rose
nau, who writes in The Harvard Grad
yates Magazine Cambridge, Septem-
ber) He says:
Health administration in this coun-
try lags largely for want of trained
leadership. The call to public health
is loud and clear. Preventative medi-
cine is the watchword of the hour, and
the people are asking: If disease is
preventable. why is it not prevented?'
They are not satisfied with promises,
but demand results; this is as it
should be. The orthodox training
leading to the degree of NJ D. does
not necessarily fit a man for the posi-
ton of health officer. The average
practitioner learns little concerning
vital statistics, sanitary engineering,
water publication, sewage disposal.
disinfection, forensic medicin and the
making and breaking of health laws
The public health officer looks upon
disease in the large, and is less inter
esteu in the individual case, which is
the chief concern of the practicing
physician. The health office looks up
on disease with an eye to preventing
its spread-in order to DO so, he must
know its mode of transmission. The
practicing physician on. the other hand
looks upon disease with view to af-
fording relief or cure, and his princi-
pal interest, therefore. is in diagnosis
and treatment. The public-health Off
Ger must also be a specialist Public
health administration Is, indeed,
profession which bends its knee to
none, so far as ideals and service. are
concerned.
1t must not be understood that the
health officer is concerned only in
There are many preventable defects
which may be reached, especially in
school children, and there is the gen
eral conduct of life, which makes not
only for longevity but for maximum
efficiency. The present day health of
flcer must also concern himself with
the problems of heredity and eugeniCs.
He must further concern himself with
questions of immunity anG must make
every effort TO help conditions which
menace work-people Industrial hy-
giene and the diseases of occupation
form a large and important chapter
in the volume of preventative medi-
cine. Furthermore, the people must
depend upon the health officer to
guard the quality of the food, includ-
ing the purity of the milk and the
cleanliness of the water which they
consume. The health officer therefore
must be familiar with the sanitary
scieces in addition to the medical
sciences, both of which in the broad
biological sense, underlie the founda-
ton of successful health administers
ton = 81
THE demand for men with proper
training to supervise the health of ev-
cry community will be very great Ev-
erywhere the Importance of this mat
ter is coming to be more thoroughly
recognized, The Public Health Service
of the National Government the State
and municipal boards of health, are
constantly widening their scope of ac-
tivities and will need many additional
skilled workers."
Richmond the beautiful, Richmond
the dutiful, Richmond the Panic |
proof City, certainly deserves if she |
u
JOSEPH NJ. THURSTO\