On Sanitary Legislation and Administration in England

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... would also involve chemical and microscopical researches, with close and regular notice of the phenomena of organic life (animal and vegetable) in relation with, or proximity to, man. The Physicist, therefore, as well as the Statist, must take his place in any national system of inquiry. Medico-legal inquiries are generally placed, in systematic works, under a department of State Medicine, distinct from that of Public Health; but, practically, medical science cannot be brought to bear effectually upon civil and criminal cases, except by persons versed in the principles of sanitary investigation. Moreover, an accurate registration of the causes of deaths and public calamities is absolutely essential to the completeness of forensic inquiry; and the superintendents of the former become the most useful experts in the latter. Hence the Medical Jurisprudence of a country has its administrative and educational connexions with a general sanitary organization. The State being thus in possession of all necessary and useful information, proceeds to diffuse it, in order to justify, enlighten, and direct action (whether this be corporate and legal, or individual and voluntary); whilst cognate laws, framed upon that information, become indispensable for regulating the public life, and the aggregate habits and movements of the several groups of population. The principles, the forms, and the administration of these laws should be in harmonious correlation; whether they apply to the localities which have been or may be selected for human occupation; or to the drainage and irrigation of the land in general, the conservation of rivers, the prevention of floods, and the direction or repair of water-courses; or to the site, plan, and construction of towns and dwellings, their aerat...