The Charlatan and His Methods. selves is one of levying an impost duty upon all newspapers and journals in which their announcements and claims arepublished. It is said in support of the suggestion that the newspapers furnish the chief means whereby the char-latan obtains his notoriety, and that nothing contributes so powerfully to his support as do the journals that not only open their advertising columns to his mendacious announcements, but lend the influence of the editorial pages to aid him in entrapping his victims. In other fields of business, it is said, the men who endorse an impostor are held responsible for the consequence of their endorsement, and there seems no good and sufficient reason why the like rule should not hold in the case of guarantees given to the general public, by means of which they are induced to place confidence in one wholly unworthy of it.. While it would doubtless be wiser and better for the interests of the public health for the conductors of the press to refrain from recommendations of the kind, it is obvious that they cannot justly be held to any such responsibility as that implied in the above proposition, and it is by no means clear that any permanent good results would follow if such a course were practicable. The only line of conduct that promises lasting advantage is that of educating the people from whom these meanest of all mean scoundrels derive their subsistence out of the belief that a supernatural healing power is conferred by an accident of birth, whether it be as the seventh son of a seventh son, or the nineteenth son of a twenty-ninth daughter. Let it once be thoroughly understood that no mys-terious knowledge can be obtained by dwelling ten, fifteen or a hundred years in an Indian wigwam, even though he who undertakes that peculiar form of penance may supplement it by never looking upon a civilized face during its continuance, and may go to the further length of never washing his own; that the assertions put forth by quacks and charlatans, or on their behalf are for the most part 184 STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. The Charlatan and His Methods. monstrous lies; that any man who claims any exclusive and peculiar knowledge of medicine proves himself an impostor by the very fact of making such a claim, and that the pretender to skill or secrets in medical science unknown to to the medical profession at large owes whatever scraps and fragments of knowledge he may possess to the large-hearted generosity and communicativeness of the very men whom he slanders and belies. Let these things be once fully comprehended by any individual or any community and a quack will no longer find in that particular quarter a field for the exercise of his peculiar talents. It would be difficult to mention any line of treatment for this most pernicious disease of quackery that has not been tried at some period of the long history of the world and at some point on its broad surface, from the killing of the doctor on the occurrence of the third death in his practice to the exaction of a heavy license fee from all itinerant charlatans, but the only measure that appears to offer any promise of permanent success is that of education, which, though it does not accord with the dominant idea of “rushing things,” is still certain in the course of time to give the best results. 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 appli. cation 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 The Higher Sphere of Sanitary Science. 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 pub. lishing 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 The Higher Sphere of Sanitary Science. 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 |