Abstract
“HYGIENE,” in the words of the late Professor n. Parkes, “is the art of preserving health; that is, of obtaining the most perfect action of body and mind during as long a period as is consistent with the laws of life. In other words, it aims at rendering growth more perfect, decay less rapid, life more vigorous, death more remote.” The art of preserving health is correlative with the science of prevention of disease, since perfect health means the absence of disease and of tendencies to disease. Hygiene is thus the art of preserving health and the science of preventing disease; and in taking into account recent advances in sanitary science we must consider recent acquisitions in our knowledge of the origin, causes, and spread of disease, more especially of those diseases known as “preventable,” as well as the methods of improving the natural conditions or social relations surrounding us, which are instrumental in preserving health and counteracting disease.
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Recent Advances in Sanitary Science . Nature 34, 196–199 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/034196a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/034196a0