The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-11-15
THE PUBLIC HEALTH
By DIR. R. NJ. CUNNINGHAM
By Mt City Health Officer of Birmingham Chairman Section Public Health, Southern Medical Association Address Delivered Before the Association in
 Richmond Last Week

Preventive medicine today is the most important department of medical science and art The prevention of disease does away with the necessity of it's treatment. Preventive medicine when capable and appropriated and properly employed, is more certain. exact and effectual than the curative.
 There is a difference between public and individual preventive medicine in their principles and practical employ ment It is true that the public is but an aggregation or sum total of individ- uals, and anything that effects the indi- vldual-good or bad-effects the public likewise. In a general way the whole public may be regarded as a complete entity, while the individual may be re- garded as a single cell performing some specialized function in the general body. In other words there is a world anat- omy, physicology, pathology and etiology as well as an individual anatomy, physl- ology, pathology and etiology. It follows, therefore, that there may be world con- ditions that would affect the individual just as general pathology would bring about local pathological conditions in the individual. The two. however. are inti- dependent, the one from the other.
 The world is naturally divided into geo. graphical areas. continental insular, etc Also along climatic lines which deter mine the flora and fauna of climatic areas Governmental lines, national state. coun- ty and municipal Residential lines, UT ban. suburban. All these natural and artificial environments may operate as predisposing causes of disease by af- fording favorable circumstances which diminish the resisting power of the in- dividual and the introduction into the body of the specific causes of disease
 Again, there are individual predisposing causes to disease-which may be racial, national, family and acquired from un- favorable environmental conditions, which maybe diminish the intrinsic power to resist disease and invite its development. Finally, the habits, the occupation and other conditions peculiar to the individ- ual operate as predisposing causes.
 A crude classification of predisposing causes are geographical, climatic, gov ernmental, economic, industrial, racial. family and individual heredity, habits and occupations of the individuals A gen. eral classification of these is
 First, natural.
 Second, artificial or acquired.
 The natural may be divided into two groups: (a) land with its resources, the properties of it's soil, etc; (b) water. with its relations to land. qualities, etc: Co climatic, with it's influence upon the growth and maintenance of different kinds of vegetable and animal life.
 Iaf nf 1ar, hs ,t,, erals, the primary industry will be min ing; if a productive soil, the primary industry will be agriculture. If the wa ter be a large inter-continental body, oceans and seas 1t provides a highway for international and world traffic; if in streams or intra-land large bodies, they afford a highway for intra-land traffic if in it's course through the land there are falls, it is a natural source of power. ! If this water becomes polluted from nat ural sources and is not naturally purified it at once becomes cause of disease | The chief factors of climate are temper ature, moisture, winds soil and water 1 which in turn determine the nature of the ! flora and efauna.
 Primary Factors
 These natural properties of land water and climate are the primary fac l tors in determining the occupation of the people. If these natural resources be appropriately related they will de- termine the manufacturing Industry for localities and in this way create the predisposing and exciting causes ct occupational diseases. Natural con- difons, then not only predispose to | disease. but may also provide their | immediate or exciting causes and for | their spread and introduction into the | body of individuals.
 The artificial or acquired causes are 1 the works of man. These include oc- l eupational diseases. the diseases of 1 habitation. of transportation, of eco | homie and industrial diseases. All oi
 these may modify a natural condition | that is favorable to health and make 1t a predisposing cause or to provide
 the exciting cause of disease Thus | Q natural drain may be obstructed by man, forming a pond of water which
 becomes a breeding place for mos | ouitoes. climatic and other conditions 1 being favorable. or naturally pure 1 streams or bodies of water may be polluted or contaminated in such a
 way as to produce disease. The aii
 may be filled with dust fumes, gases etc. that cause disease. The soil may be polluted and cause disease. Improp-
 erly. built dwellings and workshops
 which are the living and working hab-
 itations of men may favor disease. Tho l economic policies of government that