Evening star., 1935-09-01
Scope of Public
Health Work
BY Frederic ]. Haskin.


propagation and spreading thereof" is
as large task as has ever been assigned
any group of men, but the Congress of
the United States has laid that task on
the United States Public Health Service.
Every one is familiar With the adage
about the saintliness of the devil when
he was sick and his backsliding upon re-
covery.
1t doubtless will come as a surprise
to most Americans to learn that this
service Is among the oldest agencies Of
the United States. In July. 1893, when
John Adams was President, the UnitAa
States Public Health Service was estab-
lished 1t first was known as the Marine
Hospital Service, and its purpose then
was to provide medical and hospital care
for American seamen.
In these times when the major con-
Germs of the Nation are with inland mat
terS, it is a bit difficult to realize how
preoccupied Americans were in the early
days with the sea. The Thirteen Original
States, lying along the Atlantic seaboard,
looked to the sea. 1t was their highway
between each other and with foreign
parts. A surprising number Of Ameri-
can citizens drew their living from the
sea by fishing. by whaling, by engaging
in the tea trade to the Orient, and, in
not a few cases, by little judiciouS
piracy on the high seas Those were
the days of privateers. The naval ac-
tionS of the War of the American Revo-
luton and of the War of 1872 have fur
nished some of our most stirring annals.
So it was not surprising that special
service should have been set up for the
care of Seamen. But the Federal Gov
ernment was not in position to pour
huge sums of money laviShly forth in
those days. While the Government
supervised the Marine Hospital Service,
it did not at first defray the entire ex-
pense as now. A tax was levied upon
all American seamen amounting to 20
cents a month. AS ships put into port
the tax was collected by collectors of
customs, and it was this fact that caused
the service to be placed under the Treas
ury. Although the seamens tax no
longer is collected-indeed, has not been
for generations-the Treasury still has
the United States Public Health Service.
~
Twenty-six marine hospitals now are
maintained in various parts of the coun-
try, and a corps of physicians and sur
geons has been built up which ranks
with the best professional skill in the
world. When in 1901 Congress author
ized the hygienic laboratory, it decreed
that the United States Public Health
Service should concern itself with the
study of infectious and contagious
diseases. Important as this assignment
was. yet it was narrow. and so in 1912
Congress extended the scope to include
.soJ AF a,,I oOy,Ii+tay1c {y1
fluencing the propagation and spread
thereof"
1t will be seen that this leaves no
loophole. There is nothing affecting the
health of mankind that the service is
not concerned with. and this not only
applies to the physical ills, but also to
mental difficulties. One of the most
fascinating branches of the service work
is in connection with the Department of
Justice. From its corps of specialists it
furnishes doctors and surgeons for the
Federal prisons. There is, of course, the
routine medical work, but. in addition,
constant Investigations and studies into
the mentality Of prisoners are being car
ried on.
This is but one angle of the work of
the United States Public Health Service.
It is constantly at work investigating
disease and has devoted a special amount
of attention to occupational diseases.
There is something especially ironic
about occupational diseases. The worker
must continue at his desk in order to
live, and vet in some cases the very fact of
doing so means his serious illness, and.
possibly. his death. To find means for
preventing, or at least reducing. the in
cidence of occupational diseases has be-
come one of the chief concerns of the
service.
The Public Health Service maintains
the birth and death registration service
of the country, and is in possession of
the most complete statistics. In 1888.
for example. there were $4,000 deaths
in this country. and the service finds
250,000 of these were preventable. Among
the deaths were those of 10000 infants
under l year of age. In cooperation
with the ChildrenS Bureau of the De-
partment of Labor, the service main
tains a child hygiene service which is
steadily reducing this infant mortality
through a system of education OF
mothers.
An unusually interesting achievement
of the service has been the elimination
of typhoid fever from the cities. Once
this dread plague swept congested groups
of population, but now it is only an
isolated case which is reported from a
city. This is due very largely to the
work of the service in purifying city
water supplies. Now. however typhoid
is something of a rural problem. The
Public Health Service is turning its ener-
gies to eradication of rural typhoid.
Local health units in the rural counties
are organized with the aid of the service
and instruction is given IN the cleaning
up of plague spots. For instance, pic
turesque swampy stream. somewhat like
the Suwanee River. may appear quite
pleasing to the eye as it quietly meanders
along, but. in many cases it is nothing
more than a typhoid breeder. Under
instructions of the Public Health Serv-
ice the dank underbruSh and rank
groWthS are cleared from such water
ways with very favorable affects on local
health.
Extensive areas of malarial swamp
lands, especially in the Southern States,
have been drained under the guidance
of the service. Not only is there the
benefit accruing from improvement in
health conditions-the land often is re-
stored TO usefulness as tilth.
Diet studies constantly are being ma@s
One of the more important discoveries
of the Public Health Service was OF
pellagra. the destructive disease which
kaI ls4f