Henry Baird Favill, AB, MD, LL.D., 1860-1916, a ... - University Library

396 HENRY BAIRD FAY ILL
In addition to the immediate work of the Council,
there have been organized under this general supervision
a large number of committees dealing with specific problems.
These committees are made up of men who are
both enthusiasts and experts and whose activities are
coordinated rather than directed by the Council: the
Committee for the Prevention of Blindness, for the Prevention
of Cancer, for the Study of Electric Shock, and
so on through the list. Through the Council, these committees
and the American Medical Association form a
sympathetic bond of
in
purpose with non-professional forces
the communit}'.
The foregoing sketch of the plans of the Council will
serve to indicate not only the comprehensiveness of the
problem, but the further fact that popular understanding
and education in this field, as in every other, is fundamental
to
organic law.
Much that is now being done will ultimately be done
through wise and simplifying legislation. Of all phases of
public health work hitherto, legislation has been the most
bungling. Well-intentioned, ill-considered, immature, and
ineffective law is the bane of this situation.
The Council has established a Medicolegal Bureau, in
charge of which is
a trained lawyer, the function of which
is to study all the existing law in this country and others.
Out of this study it is hoped it will be possible to draft model
laws dealing with the public welfare.
This can not be properly done without medical oversight.
It can not be properly done with medical contribution alone.
In order to treat this matter adequately, the medical point
of view, the legal point of view, and the sociologic point of
view must actually be common. It is, therefore, hoped that
out of the studies which our bureau is making may be developed
policies of action which the trustworthy forces of this
country may definitely promote and execute.
The House of Delegates of the American Medical