Personal standards of hygiene.

Abstract

medicine concerned with the preservation of health. The Greeks of Sparta took a very practical view in their worship of Hygieia; from an early age, their infants and young people were encouraged in the use of fresh air, light, and cold water; they were, so far as we know, a race of virile, healthy men and women, both physically and mentally. Because of the prevalence of epidemics of infectious illness in the middle ages (perhaps intensified by the industrial revolution, with all the evils consequent on overcrowding in badly planned cities and houses, combined with overwork and malnutrition), the early pioneers of public health were forced to place cleanliness as the first rite in the worship of Hygieia. The eminent success of their endeavours we all know so well. The result is that hygiene has become recognized as synonymous with cleanliness in its widest sense. During the last century an unremitting battle has been waged against slum conditions, against bad or non-existent drainage and water supplies, and against malnutrition. Now that these conditions are, to a great extent, under control (if not entirely conquered) the direction of public health energies has changed to a great measure, during the last twenty years, and is now directed towards personal hygiene. It must be said at once, that the work of educationalists, sanitary inspectors, school nurses, health visitors, social workers, and a host of others (not forgetting enlightened laymen and parents) has achieved a major triumph in the general standard of living and consequently of the health of the masses. The reduction of maternal and infant mortality, the increase in weight and height of school children, and the steady decline in morbidity and mortality rates of so many diseases are evidence of what has been achieved. It is probably desirable to think at this stage of the emblem of health-the serpenta beast which is traditionally subtle; one that crawls on its belly, is little seen, but is at once powerful and venomous. Perhaps these attributes of the serpent are more appropriate to disease, but the lesson to be learned is that the methods necessary to fight disease must be equally subtle and must be carried into the undergrowth.