EDITOR'S TABLE. SANITARIAN, DECEMBER, 1901. THE SANITARIAN TO DATE. GROWING OLD? NO! Call not him old, whose visionary brain Twenty-eight Years-Forty-seven Volumes. The discrepancy is due to but one volume yearly for the first eleven years, and two volumes since. It was based at the outset upon medical knowledge and sanitary service over an extensive field of observation in various climates in different quarters of the world, large experience in dealing with epidemic diseases, and practical sanitation for the maintenance of health under the most trying conditions, though it was not so stated in the Prospectus, still carried (on ad. page) without change, except by the addition of a promise to abide by it. Nevertheless, the bare announcement was received with signally gratifying expressions by Willard Parker, Stephen Smith, S. Oakley Vanderpoel, Edwin M. Snow, Andrew Clark, A. L. Loomis, Austin Flint, Austin Flint, Jr., Samuel G. Armor, Wm. N. Van Beuren, William Hammond, James M. Minor, Henry W. Bellows, John Ordronaux, C. R. Agnew, Gordon Buck, T. Gailard Thomas, N. S. Davis, J. M. Toner, Jas. F. Hibberd and others, who had knowledge of the sanitary work then but recently undertaken in England, and a lively sense of the need of like work in this country, some of whose letters are published in early numbers. AFTER NINETEEN YEARS. "THE SANITARIAN for June, 1892, contains a life-sketch of its venerable and distinguished editor, Dr. A. N. Bell (from "The Brooklyn Medical Journal"), and several contributions upon 'The Triumphs of Preventive Medicine,' in the interest of which Dr. Bell has labored so long and so successfully. *** No one has been so long, so patient and so persistent in awakening public attention to an interest in this cause. No one has filled so many positions demanding skill in practical work. No one has been more successful in practical work under greater difficulties. The writer of the article is Dr. Stephen Smith, the eminent surgeon and anthor."-Tennessee State Board of Health Bulletin. Soon after the publication of the article in "The Brooklyn Medical Journal" here referred to, the editor received many communications from subscribers and others who had been readers of THE SANITARIAN, with reference to what, in their judgment, it had been the means of accomplishing in the promotion of its purpose, in part as follows: Editor of THE SANITARIAN: ELMIRA, N. Y., May 6, 1892. It is needless to state that "all sorts and conditions of men" have profited by your labors in behalf of sanitary reform. Individually and through your journal sanitation, in the direction of schoolchildren, has witnessed development from small beginning up to the present advanced state of knowledge on the subject, by which the health of innumerable pupils has been preserved and education made possible, which otherwise would have been unattainable. This is only a single instance of what has been accomplished by means of enlightened sanitary inquiry, which in the manner of "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little," has forced itself upon the attention of the medical profession. This branch of inquiry, which is mentioned by way of illustration, including the site and construction of school-houses, water supply, drainage, cubic space, the admission of light, building of desks and seats, hours of study, and physical training, shows the scope of investigation which has characterized THE SANITARIAN during the many years its pages have teemed with questions of the most vital importance. When we consider the wide range of topics that has filled the pages of THE SANITARIAN on questions embracing the health and welfare of the people, a summary is presented of the history of a particular field of inquiry, encyclopædic in character, which cannot be furnished in any other form. Indeed, the volumes of THE SANITARIAN constitute, in a shape available for ready reference, a complete presentation of what has been contributed to preventive medicine since you undertook to lead scientific investigation in the department you have been found so capable of illustrating. WILLIAM C. WEY. MEDICAL DEPARTMENT, TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA, NEW ORLEANS, April 23, 1892. DEAR DR. BELL: I take this opportunity to assure you of my highest appreciation of your erudition and experience as a sanitarian, and of the great value, unequaled in the United States, of your monthly publication, THE SANITARIAN. STANFORD E. CHAILLÉ. NEW YORK, May 2, 1892. DEAR DR. BELL: I congratulate you on the well-merited tribute accorded you by Dr. Stephen Smith, in the May number of the "Brooklyn Medical Journal," and upon the ability with which you have conducted THE SANITARIAN, now in the twentieth year of its existence. Each successive number has shown your untiring devotion to preventive medicine, and to say that THE SANITARIAN occupies the first place among the periodicals of its class is very far from overestimating its value as a practical and popular educator in all matters relating to public health. On its pages have been reported from time to time transactions of the various learned bodies. whose labors are devoted in whole or in part to the improvement of human conditions, thus bringing readers in close relation to the best thinkers and workers of the age. In turning over its leaves one finds that it has recognized and supported every public movement promotive of the interests and welfare of the people. This is especially shown by the energy it has displayed in the organization of national, State and municipal boards of health, and voluntary health associations as means of securing a wise system of sanitary administration, and creating a popular interest in those subjects. which relate to the prevention of disease and the saving of life. Public health administration has at all times been carefully reviewed, and wherever criticism has been deserved, your dearest personal friends have not escaped the strictures of your just, even though it be somewhat caustic, pen. The subject of house sanitation has at all times received due attention, and you have kept pace with the most advanced views on this important branch of domestic hygiene. The same may be sal of school hygiene, in the advocacy of which you have always been found at the front. In the field of scientific investigation your readers have been kept well informed of the results of bacteriological study, the gradual growth and development of the germ theory; the value, use, and methods of employing antiseptics and disinfectants, detailing at length the results of experiments in testing the relative efficiency of the several agents used in this department of sanitary science and effective practical work. The growing interest in matters pertaining to public health which THE SANITARIAN has done so much to foster is seen in the public press, heard from the pulpit and platform, and is especially shown by the establishment of professorships in medical, literary and technical institutions. But neither time nor space will allow me to notice the many other features which render THE SANITARIAN indispensable to one who reads it as I have for the last nineteen years; but I venture to suggest that every practical sanitarian who has frequent occasion to refer to his back volumes will soon need an index volume to aid him in such reference. If such a volume could be prepared, giving a brief epitome of the more important articles, I am sure your subscribers would support you in the undertaking. E. H. JANES. (Assistant Sanitary Superintendent, Department of Health, New York.) NEW YORK, May 3, 1892. MY DEAR DR. BELL: I have read with great interest Dr. Stephen Smith's interesting account of your life and life-work as a practical sanitarian. Certainly no man in this country has done more than yourself to call public attention to the importance of general sanitation, and inculcating individual sound doctrines in your writings upon these important subjects will not be questioned by any sanitary expert. I trust that your valuable journal, THE SANITARIAN, may remain under your direction for many years to come, in which case it will no doubt maintain the position which it has attained as the leading sanitarian periodical in America. GEORGE M. STERNBERG. (Deputy Surgeon-General, U. S. Army.) COLDWATER, MICH., May 3, 1892. MY DEAR BELL: I have read Dr. Smith's paper in the April num ber of the "Brooklyn Medical Journal." To show what THE SANITARIAN alone has done would require an index catalogue. If it were read and consulted, and the suggestions it suggests, the helps that help, and the advice that advises, applied in their usefulness, sanitation would be more advanced. Let us be thankful that you have done so much so worthily. T. J. TURNER. (Medical Director, U. S. Navy.) How well these encomiums are sustained is shown by the forty-seven volumes now complete. Some of the particularly prominent subjects discussed in the first series (eleven volumes), 1873 to 1883: Abattoirs; Adulterated Foods; Excessive Death-rate Among Children; Filth Diseases; Garbage Disposal; Health Legislation; Health of Rowing Men; House Drainage and Sanitary Plumbing, illustrated; Infant Diet; Milk Analysis; Panama Canal Sanitation; Perils of Emigrants; Dwelling Houses for Working People; Deformities and Hygiene; Perils of the Schoolroom; Perils of Massing Population in Cities; Public Parks and Camping Grounds; Water Supplies; Quarantine; Baths; Sanitary Vessels; Sanitary Jurisprudence; Sanitary Resorts; School Sanitation; Sewage Disposal; Small-pox; Soil Drainage; Tenement Houses; Tuberculosis in Milch Cows, and the Danger Therefrom; Vaccination; Prevention of Venereal Diseases; Ventilation. Subsequent volumes are replete with advanced knowledge on practical sanitation by the most distinguished writers. It promises no abatement. A SYNOPSIS OF SANITARY SCIENCE, AS REPRESENTED IN THE SANITARIAN, WILL BEGIN IN THE JANUARY NUMBER, AND BE CONTINUED AS A SERIAL TILL COMPLETE. BY THE EDITOR. THE UTILITARIAN PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION AND THEIR RELATION The scope of Mr. Guernsey's serial has been pretty well indicated by the eight articles which have already appeared in THE SANITARIAN during the year 1901. It will proceed to discuss the propriety and necessity of further encouraging, by appropriate taxation and legislation, the expansion of population from congested centers of large cities, by building factories and shops and local industries, by supplying family needs in suburbs of cities, encouraging home builders, and providing better and more health |