The Health of the State

Excerpt from The Health of the State

This little book has been written in response to the request of my friend, Mr. Percy Alden. It is of an introductory character only. It is not intended to be a text-book, but an elementary handbook dealing in plain language with some of the more important problems of public health. It is addressed to laymen, and, as its title indicates, to those citizens in particular who desire to render of their free will some social service to the State. Personal service is still the great factor in human affairs.

In the study and practice of preventive medicine, few things have impressed me more than the fact that substantial progress is possible only on the basis of a hearty and sane co-operation, a partnership as Edmund Burke called it, between those who govern and those who are governed. The health of the people is no doubt, in theory, the supreme law, but to make it a practice it is certain that the will of the people is the supreme method. And its will should be controlled and guided by a knowledge of things as they are.

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