1893-1894 - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

15-1 XOKTII CAROLIXA BOARD OF HEALTH.
client is not willing to be put to a little temporary inconvenience for the
sake of the health, and lives often, of his neighbors.
Now, what is the explanation of this state of affairs? In my humble
judgment it is attributable, mainly, to a want of proper instruction
during the formative period in their medical lives. "Train up a
child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart
from it" is a proverb of the wisest of men which applies with equal
force to the education of physicians. The neglect of this early training
is,
doubtless, the chief cause of the indifference to the claims of sanitary
science of which we complain in so many physicians now in the field.
If hygiene be given a dignified position in the curriculum and its
great importance be properly emphasized, there can be no question as to
the good it would accomj)lish in the coming generation. It would not
only redound greatb' to the welfare of the people, but it would have an
elevating eti'ect upon the profession itself, by impressing the philanthropic
aspect of the calling which we are in the habit of referring to as
"noble"—improperly, we must admit, if we take the merely commercial
view of it— if we value it simply for the money there is in it.
I regret that I am not informed as to the extent to which hygiene is
taught in all our medical colleges, but from what I know I feel that I am
safe in saying that, outside of a very few of the best, the subject is practically
ignored.
That this condition of affairs should not be allowed to
continue, if it can be prevented, needs no I'urther argument. As guardians
of the public health it is our duty to see that it is done. We have
it in our power to do it. In many of the States the State Board of Health
and the Medical Examining Board are one and the same. If those Boards
alone will unite in demanding of the medical colleges sufficient instruction
in hygiene, and will require of every applicant for license ifatisfactr^ry
evidence that lie has received and profited by it, the matter will be settled.
Of course the desired result would be obtained more quickly and more
certainly by an advance all along the line. In those States where the
two Boards referred to are separate and independent of one another the
Board of Health should exert itself to interest the Board of Examiners,
particularly, and the profession, generally, in the subject. As bearing
upon tills point, and as a fitting conclusion to what I have to say, I will
take the liberty of quoting, what some of you may have seen, an editorial
entitled "Hygiene in ^Medical Education," which appeared in the
June number of our Bulletin and which shows W'hat action has been
taken in Xorth Carolina. The reader is respectfully referred to the
same.
HYGIENE IN MEDICAL EDUCATION.
At the recent conjoint session of the State Board of Healtli and the
State Medical Society the following resolutions were unanimously
adopted: