From public health to the health of the public

BMJ 1998;317:550-551 ( 29 August )

Editorials

From public health to the health of the public

Modern public health problems will not be solved by anything as simple as sewers

Editorial p 549 Recent advances p 584 Education and debate pp 587 -98

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

"I have ... been taken to see the worst parts of the worst towns in England ... but never did I see anything which could comparewith Merthyr ... one of the most strongly marked cases of theevil so frequently observed, of allowing a village to grow intoa town, without providing the means of civic organisation. Itis the story of laissez-faire carried out to its legitimate conclusion."¹So said P H Holland writing to the General Board of Health on15 December 1853. The priority was for clean drinking water andsewage disposal "before the cholera returns." Holland hoped thatthe yet to be appointed officer of health would agree, since hebelieved that "the labour of such (an) officer will do much toremove the ignorance which has permitted such evils to arise,to arouse the apathy which allows their continuance and to overcomethe opposition which impedes their removal. Such . . . [Full text of this article]