Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER V THE PHYSICIAN AND THE HEALTH OFFICER Public Opinion and the Physician.—Every physician is a guardian of public health, and the people expect him to be interested in medical matters of a public nature, just as they expect the lawyer to speak out regarding the legal aspects of public affairs, or any other citizen to contribute his best thoughts upon public questions. The opportunities and influence of the physician as an educator are greater than those of almost any other person. Nearly every person has a blind and implicit confidence in the word of some physician, and the attitude of the people toward public health matters is the composite attitude of the physicians of a community. The knowledge and practice of many physicians in matters of public health is that of five, ten, or twenty years ago, and their ideas are adopted by the people on their visiting lists. Few medical schools have given instruction in preventive medicine, and almost the only physicians who can qualify as public health specialists are those who have been intensely public spirited and unselfish, and have kept themselves up to date in all lines of medical progress. But medical schools are now beginning to require courses in public health, state departments of health are insisting that physicians shall know and practice the most modern methods of public health procedure, and the people are becoming educated by lectures and magazine articles to demand that family physicians shall practice modern preventive medicine. It will be necessary that physicians in the future shall take more and more interest in public health affairs. The Attitude of the Physician.—Physicians are often inclined to shirk public health work. They say that the people do not appreciate the work of a health officer; that many pe...