em nutritious, readily digested food is a
requisite. The farmer or the fisherman can digest, even thrive upon,
food which would be deadly for a woman working in a factory.

In the fourth report of the Massachusetts State Board of Health
(1873), Dr. Derby, the secretary, holds that "we have good reason to
believe that the many forms of dyspepsia which are so commonly met
with among all classes in Massachusetts, in country quite as much as
in town, are but too often the danger signal that Nature gives us to
show that the food, either in its quality, or its preparation, or its
variety, is unsuited to maintain the vital processes. If this warning
is rejected, the result of malnutrition is frequently chronic disease
of the so-called major class."

Sanitation in relation to food deals first with wholesome and clean
materials--meat from animals free from disease; fruit and vegetables
free from decay; milk, butter, etc., free from harmful bacteria. The
dangers are the transference to the human body of encysted organisms
like trichina; of the absorption of poisonous substances as toxins or
ptomaines; of the lodgment of germs of disease along with dust on
berries, rough peach skins, crushed-open fruits; of dirt clinging to
lettuce, celery, and such vegetables as are eaten raw.

For the next class of dangers we turn to the handling of foods with
unclean hands.

In countless ways disease is spread mysteriously, all due to unclean
habits. It is a safe precaution to patronize only those restaurants in
which the waiters are evidently trained to handle the food and vessels
with care. It will pay well to take care of one's hands and learn
sanitary habits when one is young; then one will do right without
effort. Whatever change of ideas may come with increase of knowledge,
these habits will not need to be unlearned. Without knowing the
reasons for them, they have been proclaimed in civilized lands.

It should be the part of the physicians to take pains to advise, for
most of our people are accessible to ideas; yet from these can come no
improvement until the people are convinced that it is needed. Just as
soon as the individual fully realizes that he himself is to blame for
his suffering or his poverty in human energy, he will apply his
intelligence to the bettering of his condition. If he can, in a short
time, make as good a showing as public effort has made in the case of
water supplies, he will accomplish much for the race.

Of