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But whom does this great matter of public health concern? By whom is this subject to be surveyed, analyzed, and practically applied? And who are to be benefited by this application? Some will answer, the physician, certainly. True, but only in a degree; not mainly. It will assist him to learn the causes of disease; but it will be infinitely more valuable to the whole people, to teach them how to prevent disease, and to live without being sick. This is a blessing which cannot be measured by money value. The people are principally concerned, and on them must depend, in part, at least, the introduction and progress of sanitary measures.

An eminent physician has recently said: "Our education has made our calling exclusively a curative, and not a conservative one, and the business of our responsible lives has confined us to it. Our thoughts are devoted to, our interests are concerned in, and our employments are connected solely with, sickness, debility, or injury, -- with diminution of life in some of its forms. But with health, with fullness of unalloyed, unimpaired life, we, professionally, have nothing to do." (2) Though this may generally be true, professionally, yet the intelligent physician "can see arrows of disease, invisible to any one else; watch their havoc, and know whence they come, and how they may be stayed;" and there are many eminent medical men, who have, as individuals, nobly used the means which their superior position and knowledge have placed within their control, in the prevention of disease, and in the promotion of public health. And we wish to increase the number of such professional men. We would not, however, confine it to them. We would not make it the object of any one profession exclusively. (3) We would bespeak the attention of intelligent men of all classes and all professions, whatever their prejudices or opinions may have been, to a candid consideration of the whole subject; and if found worthy, would solicit their cooperation and assistance, in its practical application and its onward progress.

(3) The medical department of the National Institute have said, in the Transactions of the American Medical Association, Vol. I, p 306, that "they had reasons to know, that the medical profession in this country, as a general rule, has many preconceived prejudices to overcome, in order lo prepare it to enter into the inquiry with that spirit of philosophical research, which can alone make its deductions practically useful." We sincerely hope, however, that this prejudice does not extensively exist.

"Ignorant men," says Dr. Simon, "may sneer at the pretensions of sanitary science; weak and timorous men may hesitate to commit themselves to its principles, so large in their application; selfish men may shrink from the labor of change, which its recognition must entail; and wicked men may turn indifferently from considering that which concerns the health and happiness of millions of their fellow-creatures; but in the great objects which it proposes to itself, in the immense amelioration which it proffers to the physical, social, and, indirectly, to the moral condition of an immense majority of our fellow-creatures, it transcends the importance of all other sciences; and, in its beneficent operation, seems to embody the spirit, and to fulfil the intentions, of practical Christianity." (4)

In a subject of such vast importance, on which so little is generally known, and so much ought to be universally known, and which is so full of interesting and useful illustrations, it is difficult to confine ourselves within the limits of a single report of reasonable length. This great matter cannot, however, be presented so as to be understood, without some detail. And though we shall restrain any inclination to go into minute illustration, yet, in our judgment, it would be unworthy of Massachusetts, under whose authority we act, and it certainly would be unsatisfactory to ourselves, if we failed to make the attempt, at least, to present the subject so that the people of the State

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8. It appeals to the State. Under our constitution and laws "each individual in society has a right to be protected in the enjoyment of his life."This may be considered in a sanitary as well as a murderous sense. And it is the duty of the State to extend over the people its guardian care, that those who cannot or will not protect themselves, may nevertheless be protected; and that those who can and desire to do it, may have the means of doing it more easily. This right and authority should be exercised by wise laws, wisely administered; and when this is neglected the State should be held answerable for the consequences of this neglect. If legislators and public officers knew the number of lives unnecessarily destroyed, and the suffering unnecessarily occasioned by a wrong movement, or by no movement at all, this great matter would be more carefully studied, and errors would not be so frequently committed.