Social hygiene

“ The study of social hygiene means the study of those things which concern the welfare of human beings living in societies. There can, therefore, be no study more widely important or more generally interesting. I fear, however, that by many persons social hygiene is vaguely regarded either as a mere extension of sanitary science, or else as an effort to set up an intolerable bureaucracy to oversee every action of our lives, and perhaps even to breed us as cattle are bred. ”

“ Finally, the social worker must know the principles of hygiene, in order that she may effectively combat medical quackery and the prevalent medical superstitions of the people. That portion of hygiene which is both securely founded upon scientific evidence and useful in the preservation of health, makes up only a very small body of knowledge, so that it can be easily mastered by any intelligent person. Our knowledge upon such matters as diet, exercise, bathing, sleep, ventilation, when such knowledge is both scientific and practically useful, could be written upon a very few pages. ”

“ It is inevitable, indeed, that with the development of social hygiene during the past hundred years there should also develop a radical opposition of opinion as to the methods by which such hygiene ought to be accomplished. There has always been this opposition in the political sphere; it is natural to find it also in the social sphere. The very fact that old-fashioned politics are [382] becoming more and more transformed into questions of social hygiene itself ensures the continuance of such an opposition. ”

“ It is thus that civilization, at a certain point in its course, renders inevitable the appearance of that wider and deeper organization of life which in the present volume we are concerned with under the name of Social Hygiene. That movement is far from being an abrupt or revolutionary manifestation in the ordinary progress of social growth. As we have seen, social reform during the past eighty years may be said to have proceeded in four successive stages, each of which has involved a nearer approach to the sources of life. ”

“ Not until such measures as these, under the controlling influence of a sense of personal responsibility extending to every member of the [403] community, have long been put into practice, can we hope to see man on the earth risen to his full stature, healthy in body, noble in spirit, beautiful in both alike, moving spaciously and harmoniously among his fellows in the great world of Nature, to which he is so subtly adapted because he has himself sprung out of it and is its most exquisite flower. At this final point social hygiene becomes one with the hygiene of the soul. ”

“ It is scarcely necessary to say that other classifications of social reform on its more hygienic side may be put forward. Thus W.H. Allen, looking more narrowly at the sanitary side of the matter, but without confining his consideration to the nineteenth century, finds that there are always seven stages: (1) that of racial tutelage, when sanitation becomes conscious and receives the sanction of law; (2) the introduction of sanitary comfort, well-paved streets, public sewers, extensive waterworks ”

“ It has been practised with signal lack of success for several thousand years. Therefore, if Social Hygiene is really to progress among us on sane and fundamental lines, it is necessary for us to realize clearly the mistakes of the past. ”

“ The progress of civilization, with the self-control it involves, has made it possible to accept this suggestion seriously. [22] The difference is that whereas the flowers of our gardens are bettered only by the control of an arbitrary external will and intelligence, our human flowers may be bettered by an intelligence and will, a finer sense of responsibility, developed within themselves. Thus it is that human culture renders possible Social Hygiene. ”

“ Education and the Public Health.—The basis of successful public health work is the education of people in hygiene and sanitation. If the people can be brought to realize the transcendent importance of the work, their co-operation will be given cheerfully. Where the health regulations are now disobeyed it is largely because their value to the individual, as well as to the community, has not been made clear. ”

“ Professor Patten, the economist, whom I shall quote many times because he is particularly interested in the purpose of this book, was recently dining at my house and illustrated from his own health the importance of teaching hygiene so as to affect social as well as personal standards. "To be true to my own health needs, I ought to have declined nearly everything that has been offered me for dinner, but in the long run, if I am going to visit, my eating what is placed before me is better for society than making those who entertain me feel uncomfortable." ”

“ How important, then, is the habit of suppressing the states that are harmful and of cultivating those that are beneficial. From a hygienic, as well as social, standpoint a cheerful, happy disposition is worth all the effort necessary for its attainment. ”

“ Its appearance marks the first stage of social reform, which was mainly a sanitary effort to clear away the gross filth from our cities, to look after the cleansing, lighting, and policing of the streets, to create a drainage system, to improve dwellings, and in these ways to combat disease and to lower the very high death-rate. ”

“ There is need for further instruction of the public in all branches of hygiene; and we need, if we are to be efficient in social work, to follow the advice of Oliver Wendell Holmes, to remove the intellectual membrana nictitans from our eyes, and to consider the physical and moral as well as the intellectual obstacles to health. ”

“ And so it has come about that, with this ideal in view, the methods of modern hygiene are directed to awaken the nation’s sanitary conscience and to stimulate the growth of true civic freedom. These methods may be fairly defined as the working of common sense aided by the results of scientific research, in their turn supported by very carefully tested applications. Necessarily it is assumed that each individual will accord to them intelligent, personal support and, where necessary, will be willing to sink unreasonable likes and dislikes in the sea of social service. ”

“ It is all very well to patch up the diseased man with drugs or what not. But at best that is a makeshift method. The Consumptive Sanatoriums have aroused enthusiasm, and they also are all very well. But the Charity Organisation Society has shown that only about 50 per cent. of those who pass through such institutions become fit for work. It is not more treatment of disease that we want, it is less need for treatment. And a State Medical Service is the only method by which Medicine can be brought into close touch with Hygiene. ”

“ Another point might then also have become clear: the whole tendency of medicine is towards a recognition of the predominance of Hygiene. The modern aim is to prevent disease. The whole national system of medicine is being slowly though steadily built up in recognition of the great fact that the interests of Health come before the interests of Disease. ”

“ Anatomy, physiology, psychology, bacteriology, pathology, general hygiene, individual hygiene, group hygiene, and intergroup hygiene are sciences, or combinations of sciences, from which physical training draws its facts. These sciences and those phases of economics and sociology that have to do with the economic and social influences of health and disease, of physical efficiency and physical degeneracy, supply physical training with its general subject matter. ”

“ Local or operative treatment is not as a rule necessary, for the majority of cases yield to a strict régime of hygienic living. The régime should include regulation of sleeping, of eating, of hours of work and relaxation, of dressing and of exercise. ”

“ Since the first commission to inquire into the conditions of great cities was appointed in Manchester in 1844, sanitary science, both in knowledge and municipal authority, has progressed until advocates of the most advanced measures in city hygiene and preventive sanitary science boldly state that neglected childhood and neglected disease are the most potent causes of social insufficiency. ”

“ If the rural leaders could put together the cases of social maladjustment present in many different communities, there is no doubt that the great need of mental hygiene in the country would be easily recognized. ”

“ Our homes, our industrial occupations, our legislative enactments, should all be guided by hygienic knowledge, and its diffusion should be actively encouraged by the community. Our hospitals and dispensaries need to promote practical hygiene. ”

“ Every sanitary society, every agency whose aim is to work in the interest of public health, has actively aided, and is aiding, in the propaganda for a better universal understanding of the principles of sanitation and hygiene. The individual must be educated to understand the tragic need of such a law. You cannot legislate virtue into the public conscience. ”

“ Now why are so many of our splendid women, well-fed, living largely in the open air, busy, educated, passionately devoted to the study of hygiene and sanitation, inevitably destined to be cut up on the operating-tables of our hospitals? ”

“ What is the Existing Machinery of Public Health in what are called—with a grim sarcasm—our Rural Sanitary Districts? Is health or sickness, life or death, the greatest miracle in the present condition of things? To some of us the greatest miracle, repeated every day, is that we can live at all in the surroundings which our ignorance and neglect create. ”

“ From the standpoint of common decency we are interested in sanitation or cleanliness, yet an immaculately clean environment will not result in perfect health or in the cure of dis-ease. The streets and alleys of the city may be kept clean and in a sanitary condition, yet the inside of the homes may be filled with filth. So the environment of man may be in a perfect condition so far as sanitation is concerned, yet the body may be filled with all kinds of poison and refuse. ”

“ The rapid growth of cities in the last fifty years has forced them to take measures for the preservation of health, and public health administration has become a distinct branch of medical science. It is the health problems which have arisen in the congested sections of our large cities, and those which are due to a sedentary life or to unhealthful conditions of certain trades and industries, which have incited the discoveries of medical science and which have created a new attitude toward sanitation and hygiene among city people. ”

“ Obviously, when the external noxious influences exceed a certain measure, we may endeavour to effect an improvement by measures of general hygiene, through the activities of the central government, the municipality, or the community at large. ”

“ Practical success in sanitation is impossible without the recognition of mind, both in the actual working of the organs of the living body and in the knowledge and acceptance by mankind of the conditions which are essential to health.
If the human constitution be governed by laws in obedience to which healthy growth is alone possible, then those laws must be carefully sought for before we can build up a science of hygiene. ”

“ Among the subjects continually described in newspapers and magazines, and even on billboards and in street-car advertising, is the subject of hygiene. No greater service can be rendered the community than for those who are conducting discussions of health to teach people how to read correctly this mass of information regarding health, to separate misinformation from information, and to apply the lessons learned to personal and public hygiene. ”

“ The former treats of the influence of habits, cleanliness, exercise, clothing, and food on health; while the latter is concerned with the interests of the community at large, as affected by a pure supply of air and water, the removal of all excreta, the condition of the soil, and with the administrative measures required to secure the removal of evil conditions. It is obvious, however, that these two divisions are not mutually exclusive. What is important to the health of the community, is equally so to each individual member of it. ”

“ Other sanitary advantages of inestimable value to the community are mentioned as likely to accrue from the establishment of such sanitariums and their proper management. Patients will, for instance, receive there a proper sanitary education, and be drilled in sanitary practice, taking which to their homes, they will become educational factors in public hygiene. ”

“ I feel the deepest conviction that no sanitary system can be adequate to the requirements of the time, or can cure those radical evils which infest the under framework of society, unless the importance be distinctly recognised and the duty manfully undertaken of improving the social condition of the poor.... ”

“ Consider first the average American household, where the family physician cannot call every day. Not a day finds this household without the need of information in medicine or hygiene or sanitation. More efforts of the profession are thwarted by ignorance than by epidemic. Not to supplant the doctor, but to supplement him, carefully prepared information should be at hand on the hygiene of health—sanitation, diet, exercise, clothing, baths, etc.; on the hygiene of disease—nursing and sick-room conduct, control of the nervous and insane, emergency resources, domestic remedies ”