Evening star., 1922-08-14
URGES BROADER STUDY
OF SANITARY METHODS
Francis Scott Says Doctors Pay Too
Little Attention to Dis
ease Prevention.

To the Editor of The Star:
In an interesting letter by G. Ken
dali. recently appearing in The Star
opposing vivisection, there was a
strong plea for the establishment in
every medical college and university
of department for the study of
health producing conditions. rather
than so much concentration on the
study of disease.
The idea is a splendid one and is
quite in line with the report published
in the Journal of the American Medi-
cal Association. March Il. 1917.
In the discussion which followed
the reading of the principal papers on
Public Health Training in Uni
versities and Public Health instruction
in Medical Schools" DIR. Fl. H. Hem
enway of Evanston. Ill. is reported
to have said: Malcolm Watson says
that sanitarian has to "a approach
the subject through medical practice.
handicap which very few men have
ever been able to overcome. The
medical profession has been the
creates; stumbling block to sanitary
progress in the past. For the trained
specialist a school should be entirely
Independent. There is great diff
ference between the work of the
public sanitarian and that of the
medical profession
Dr. NJ. F. Floyd, Iowa City, Iowa,
is reported to have said: IF our medi-
cal schools would devote more atten-
fion to this subject public health
work), an immense Improvement
would result. The men who are des-
tined at some time in their practice
TO, serve as local health officers would
understand their duties"
DR.. A. w. Abbott of Philadelphia is
reported to have said: Hygiene is
too big a subject to be taught in toto
iol
IN hygiene. AS part of the medical
course the most that one can aspire
TO do is to give the candidate for a
medical degree review of the prob
lens which have been accomplished" !"
Prof: e. o. Jordan, Chicago, Is re-
ported to have said: The provision
for the teaching of hygiene in our
medical schools has not only for a
long time been inadequate, but is at
present ismentably SO. Outside of the
handful OF schools that DIR. Rosenau
mentioned very little provision is
made for teaching of hygiene in our
medical schools throughout the
United States. We find our.
selves now lacking any number of
medical men trained in hygiene"
Dr. victor G. Heiser. New York, is
reported to have said: During the
past fifteen years I have had working
with me graduates from medical
schools sf the United States, and their
woeful deficiencies in matters of hy
giene and sanitation have been harder
10 overcome than the apathy of the
public with which we have to deal,
During the past few years
have had occasion to visit most of
the medical schools in the eastern
hemisphere. particularly those of
India. Hygiene and sanitation and
much of medicine are far better taught
in the average school in India than
tney are in the United States. The
facilities and equipment and the abiI-
ity of the teachers themselves far
exceed the average in this country. y
think it is high time, as shown by
the foregoing admissions of medical
men, for emphasizing the Importance
and great need of hygiene and right
living. The great hope Of the future
lies in a closer following of the laws
of nature as applied to human beings.
Let us strive to preserve health
rather than to seek so exclusively to
cure disease. FRANCIS D. SCOTT.