Principles of Public Health

The earliest history of remote ages describes methods employed in combating disease, and down through all the centuries the struggle against infection has been going on. The science of health as applied in recent years reveals wonderful progress in the avoidance of disease, and in the control of the violent epidemics by which in the past nations were almost exterminated. Modern methods of hygiene and sanitation as applied to public health have robbed smallpox and diphtheria of their death-dealing power; cholera and yellow fever have been forced to retreat before the victorious hosts of applied medical science; tuberculosis, the greatest foe of human life, is slowly but surely receding before the determined efforts of modern preventive medicine.