WAR ON DISEASE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20476, 30 November 1934, Page 4

WAR ON DISEASE.

Man’s Conquest in Great Romance. RISE OF SANITATION. “ The Adventure of the Public Health ” was the title of an address delivered last evening by Mr A. R. Galbraith, City Engineer, at the inaugural meeting of the Canterbury Centre of the Royal Sanitary Institute. Mr Galbraith explained that all life was an adventure and in order to enjoy the best health it was necessary to live a pure, healthy life. Many times the human race had nearly perished during the blind struggle for existence in the early ages, and man was his own worst enemy. It was necessary to strive for the future, as well as for the present, and a sympathetic attitude of mind, and abundance of knowledge, would help the common weal. Man’s fight against disease and his conquest of it formed jone of the greatest romances in history. Mr Galbraith then traced the. rise of sanitation in ancient times and stated that in ruins which have been excavated the remains of sanitary plants dating back 3000 years had been discovered. Both the Romans and Venetians had played their parts, and then in Britain the Great Plague of 1660 aroused public interest in the problem. The great age of discovery might be said to date from the beginning of the eighteenth century, and it had reached its height in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The discoveries of scientists were recalled, and then Mr Galbraith traced the improvements in administration of public health in Britain, and quoted many of the laws governing that great service. International action had also played a prominent part in the eradication of disease, and for this reason the Public Health Bureau of the League of Nations was invaluable. But with all the efforts of municipal and central government bodies there could never be complete success until the people had been so educated that to suffer from a disease would be considered a punishable crime. Then would come the consummation of the “ Romance of the Public Health.”