THE HIGHER SPHERE OF SANITARY SCIENCE.

By REV. DAVID L. HOLBROOK, OF LAKE GENEVA.

Scarcely any science depends so much for its practical success upon the cordial appreciation and co-operation of the public as does sanitary science. Others may be elaborated in the field, the study, the laboratory, until their ripened fruits in the form of useful inventions are ready to be offered to the public; but even in the experimental stage of sanitary science, not only the votaries of it, but the entire public must be taken into confidence, and upon their intelligent aid depends in no small measure the success of preliminary investigations and experiments, to say nothing of the application of their results upon any extended scale. Legislatures must be induced to establish Boards of Health, to enact sanitary laws, and to make suitable appropriations. Physicians must stand upon a high plane of philanthropy, to engage unselfishly in a work, the success of which means the diminution of their incomes: and outside of all official and legislative control, lies a wide field of voluntary co-operation on the part of the community, which must be secur. ed by overcoming a solid mass of indifference and prejudice.

It is the aim of the writer to loosen a stone or two in this barrier wall by showing how high a sphere belongs to this noble science, and how heaven high its structure towers above some of the unpleasant subjects necessarily handled in laying its foundations.

In many minds the word "sanitary" is connected only with disease and filth, with vitiated air and foul drains, disease germs and epidemics. But it must be remembered that the dealing with these matters is to sanitation what the cleansing of a sore is to a wholesome bath. The word sanitary, roots itself in health, not in disease, and though commonly regarded on its negative side, as the prevention of

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disease, it has also a positive side in the cultivation of health. It was considered a great advance in medical science, when attention, so long concentrated on disease, began to be turned also to its prevention, and it must be remembered that this advance has been made within a very few years. The foundations of modern sanitary science were laid in the work of the registrar general's office for collecting and publishing the figures relating to births, marriages and deaths in Great Britain. This became established between 1810 and 1850; but not until 1869, did the subject attract sufficient attention in this country to lead to the organization of the first State Board of Health, that of Massachusetts, and the organization of the American Public Health Association, dates from 1872. But young as the science is, it has been making rapid progress. Already, attention is turning to the higher plane of the subject, higher even than the prevention of disease, namely, the elevation of the general standard of health by the development of physique. It is coming to be understood not only that health is something more than mere absence of disease, but also that it is possible to strengthen the physical system in increasing its hold upon health, and to develop into power and symmetry that most marvellous work of the Creator, the human body, by setting in operation the causes that tend to produce these conditions.

Some of the lines along which science may co-operate with nature in the interests of health are also proper subjects for legislation, but these are chiefly of the negative order, and have to do with the lower planes of sanitations those of the prevention of disease. On the positive side, that of physical culture, increased knowledge and the higher intelligence on the part of the subjects of such development must be the main reliance. A most valuable work, therefore, for the Board of Health, is the collection of vital statistics on a wide scale, and the reduction of the facts

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thus gathered at the hands of scientific experts to forms available for extensive popular use.

The subject of heredity is thus receiving much attention, and although it is not possible to improve the breed of the human family by the direct methods of the stock breeder, a knowledge of the facts concerning heredity may yet influence many in the choice of their partners for life and in the care of their own health and habits in view of the influence of these upon prospective parentage. In lines where the connection with health is not so remote, as in oxygenation, nutrition, climate, exercise, etc., the influence of scientific knowledge will be more powerful. Important as is the element of heredity, it is not the only factor. Given an inherited constitution of but moderate vigor, a considerable structure of health may be built up thereon, and when once it comes to be understood what possibilities there are of robust physical development by means of intelligent and persistent attention to the causes known to favor it, the necessary attention will be given, and the beneficent results will follow.

But sanitary science is not altogether dependent for the production of its best results upon the fitful co-operation of a pre-occupied and unappreciative public. The most favorable time of life for physical culture is the period of youth. When, therefore, our educators become thoroughly intelligent and convinced of the importance of the subject, a fine field will open for cultivation in the successive classes which come under their care. Good and progressive work has already been done along this line in our American schools and colleges, and there is promise of greater effectiveness in the future. The pioneer in this field is Amherst College, Mass., where, about thirty years ago, not only were gymnastic exercises introduced and made a compulsory part of the college course, but physical training was made a distinct department, with an educated physician as its professor at the head, ranking as a member of the faculty, in all respects

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on the same footing with the other professors. At present there are said to be "over fifty large institutions in our country that have adopted some regular system of physical culture, or are making preparations for the same." The dominant idea in this movement is not the cultivation of athletics in the current acceptation of that term, which is a disproportionate development of the muscular system, and quite commonly of only a special part of that, but in the symmetrical development of the whole body in harmony with a parallel development of the mind. The motto of the movement is "Mens sana in corpore sano." While, as in the splendid Pratt Gymnasium at Amherst, all forms of gymnastic apparatus are commonly provided for the free use of the student, the emphasis is laid not upon the use of“ heavy apparatus," so-called, but upon light gymnastics, practiced regularly by classes, light wooden dumb-bells and wands for example, used in such a manner as to bring every part of the body into free play. In connection with the exercises at Am. herst, an elaborate record of vital statistics has been kept by Dr. Hitchcock for many years. "Upon the admission of every new class to college, each student submits to some sixty different measurements of his body and its parts, such as weight, height, lung capacity, girth of chest, arm, etc., and an exact record of these measurements is kept. These examinations are repeated every year, and since they commenced, over twenty-five hundred different students have been thus measured.”

On the basis of these and similar tables it becomes possible to construct an ideal standard, and to detect the location of the defects by observation of the point and amount of departure from the standard, and the weak point being thus ascertained, it may be, as a matter of fact often is, possible to strengthen it by proper exercises. Gratifying results have already been attained along this line in some of our institutions, and the field in this particular direction bids fair to be extensively and faithfully cultivated.

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The work thus far done by the institutions referred to has brought and is bringing to public notice the fact that the possession of a fine healthy physique is not a matter of hap. hazard, but is the result of assignable causes, which causes are measurably within human control. A course of instruction in one of them does not undermine the health, but positively improves it. The erect carriage, elastic step and healthy complexion of the students at Amherst, have been frequently the subject of remark, and Dr. Nathan Allen, in his new book on Physical Development, testifies that" from an experience of fifty years with the college, and an attendance upon many commencements, we can testify that there has been a marked improvement in the countenance and physique of students."

Sanitary Science is indeed teaching us that the body as well as the mind is a subject for a systematic process of development. The mind, as a matter of fact would get a not inconsiderable amount of development were no attention given to its education. Children learn before they go to school, and they would continue to learn were they never to open a book. But the mental development thus attained would be pitiful indeed as compared with what we are accustomed to see as the result of a systematic training. So the body will grow and develop after a fashion, though no attention other than that compelled by disease and pain be bestowed on it, but in like manner the average physical development thus attained falls far below the standard of symmetry and strength that may be reached by means of systematic and scientific training.

Only a beginning has been made in this large work of Sanitary Science, and that chiefly in the institutions to which reference has been just had. In the community at large the work of sanitation is of necessity confined chiefly to the prevention of disease. But the students dealt with and trained are annually carrying out into the community advanced ideas in regard to physical culture, and the slow