Civics and Health   By: William H. (WIlliam Harvey) Allen (1874-1963)

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[Illustration: LOUIS AGASSIZ "A natural law is as sacred as a moral principle"]

CIVICS AND HEALTH

BY

WILLIAM H. ALLEN

SECRETARY, BUREAU OF MUNICIPAL RESEARCH

FORMER SECRETARY OF THE NEW YORK COMMITTEE ON PHYSICAL WELFARE OF SCHOOL CHILDREN, AUTHOR OF "EFFICIENT DEMOCRACY" AND "RURAL SANITARY ADMINISTRATION IN PENNSYLVANIA," JOINT AUTHOR OF "SCHOOL REPORTS AND SCHOOL EFFICIENCY"

WITH AN INTRODUCTION

BY

WILLIAM T. SEDGWICK

PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY IN THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON · NEW YORK · CHICAGO · LONDON

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL

COPYRIGHT, 1909 BY WILLIAM H. ALLEN

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

910.4

The Athenæum Press GINN AND COMPANY · PROPRIETORS · BOSTON · U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION

It is a common weakness of mankind to be caught by an idea and captivated by a phrase. To rest therewith content and to neglect the carrying of the idea into practice is a weakness still more common. It is this frequent failure of reformers to reduce their theories to practice, their tendency to dwell in the cloudland of the ideal rather than to test it in action, that has often made them distrusted and unpopular.

With our forefathers the phrase mens sana in corpore sano was a high favorite. It was constantly quoted with approval by writers on hygiene and sanitation, and used as the text or the finale of hundreds of popular lectures. And yet we shall seek in vain for any evidence of its practical usefulness. Its words are good and true, but passive and actionless, not of that dynamic type where words are "words indeed, but words that draw armed men behind them."

Our age is of another temper. It yearns for reality. It no longer rests satisfied with mere ideas, or words, or phrases. The modern Ulysses would drink life to the dregs. The present age is dissatisfied with the vague assurance that the Lord will provide, and, rightly or wrongly, is beginning to expect the state to provide. And while this desire for reality has its drawbacks, it has also its advantages. Our age doubts absolutely the virtues of blind submission and resignation, and cries out instead for prevention and amelioration. Disease is no longer regarded, as Cruden regarded it, as the penalty and the consequence of sin. Nature herself is now perceived to be capable of imperfect work. Time was when the human eye was referred to as a perfect apparatus, but the number of young children wearing spectacles renders that idea untenable to day.