THE HYGIENE OF TRANSMISSIBLE DISEASES. INTRODUCTION. HYGIENE is the science that deals with the laws of health, in the broadest sense. Practical hygiene, or sanitary science, is the art of preserving health (or of preventing disease), and includes a consideration of the methods that are employed in investigating the manifold phases of the subject. It is obvious that the fundamental points to be considered in the study of hygiene are those bearing upon the conditions. under which we live. Hygiene is not so much a study of man as a study of man's surroundings, with the view of determining in how far these are conducive or detrimental to his well-being. Among the earliest medical and ecclesiastical writings are encountered laws for the sanitary guidance of man. It is due largely to the inculcation of these precepts, handed down from generation to generation, that we follow particular modes of living and still instinctively avoid certain conditions then thought to be harmful. Probably the most familiar of the early writings on the subject are the laws of Moses for the guidance of his people. Since practically nothing was then known as to the direct causation of disease, these laws were of necessity empirical, though the measures recommended for preventing the spread of contagion, for cleanliness, for the killing of animals for food, for the isolation of infectious maladies, and for the renovation of dwell THE HYGIENE OF TRANSMISSIBLE DISEASES. INTRODUCTION. HYGIENE is the science that deals with the laws of health, in the broadest sense. Practical hygiene, or sanitary science, is the art of preserving health (or of preventing disease), and includes a consideration of the methods that are employed in investigating the manifold phases of the subject. It is obvious that the fundamental points to be considered in the study of hygiene are those bearing upon the conditions. under which we live. Hygiene is not so much a study of man as a study of man's surroundings, with the view of determining in how far these are conducive or detrimental to his well-being. Among the earliest medical and ecclesiastical writings are encountered laws for the sanitary guidance of man. It is due largely to the inculcation of these precepts, handed down from generation to generation, that we follow particular modes of living and still instinctively avoid certain conditions then thought to be harmful. Probably the most familiar of the early writings on the subject are the laws of Moses for the guidance of his people. Since practically nothing was then known as to the direct causation of disease, these laws were of necessity empirical, though the measures recommended for preventing the spread of contagion, for cleanliness, for the killing of animals for food, for the isolation of infectious maladies, and for the renovation of dwell |