Public Health

3867

Public Lands

and industrial establishments (lighting, heat-
ing, ventilation, etc.), supervision of swim-
ming pools, bathing beaches, barber shops,
control of insect carriers, etc.

The milk supply of a large city is a diffi-
cult problem of the health department. Prop-
er supervision involves the inspection of the
farms where the milk is produced, of the
conditions under which it is transported and
under which it is handled in retail stores.
Pasteurization should be defined by law and
all milk, except that of certified grade, should
be pasteurized. The United States Public
Health Service has published The Standard
Milk Ordinance as an aid to inspection. All
milk to be sold raw should be tuberculin
tested.

The latest conception of State Medicine—
free medical treatment for everyone at his
earliest need—comes nearest to fulfillment in
Soviet Russia, where the following point of
view obtains: The Soviet government is a
government by the workers and the health
of the workers is the responsibility of the
workers. The logical outcome of this con-
ception is the disappearance of all private
hospitals and of all private practice. Medical
institutions and the treatment of disease were
at once made a state function under the Peo-
ple's Commissariat for the Protection of
Health. All doctors, nurses and pharmacists
became civil servants; all hospitals, sanatoria
and drug stores became state institutions;
unified schemes of medical work were put in
practice: nation-wide programs of child wel-
fare, venereal disease and tuberculosis con-
trol were applied; medical instruction for
doctors was provided; and wholesale pro-
duction and purchase of drugs became a state
business. It is thus intended to make free
medical help accessible to all citizens. All sal-
aried workers and their families, all wounded
ex-soldiers, all school children, and the poorest
of the peasants hold health insurance.

Every possible device is used for the pur-
pose of selling health to the people. For those
who cannot view the city health exhibits,
traveling exhibitions are maintained which
go in railway cars, automobiles, or vehicles
drawn by horses, reindeer, or camels, carrying
moving pictures, lectures, little plays, posters
and literature to the very doors of the peo-
ple. The radio is extensively used for health
education.

Public Health Service, a bureau of the
Treasury Department of the United States,
the largest Federal agency dealing with public
health. Its activities include the protection of

the United States against the introduction of
disease from without, the medical examina-
tion of all arriving aliens, the enforcement
of interstate quarantine and the suppression
of epidemics, cooperation with State and local
health departments in public health matters,
investigation of the diseases of man, control
of interstate commerce in bacteriological
products, promotion of health education,
maintenance of marine hospitals and relief
stations, the maintenance of narcotic farms
for the confinement and treatment of drug
addicts, and the provision of medical service
in Federal prisons.

This service dates from July 16, 1798, when
Congress created the Marine Hospital Fund-
In 1872 the Marine Hospital Service was re-
organized and in 1902 its name was changed
to Public Health and Marine Hospital Serv-
ice; in 1912 it became the Public Health
Service. In 1918 the Division of Venereal
Diseases was created and in 1930 the Divi-
sion of Mental Hygiene. Under the quaran-
tine laws, the Surgeon-General, with the ap-
proval of the Secretary of the Treasury,
formulates rules and regulations for the gov-
ernment of maritime and interstate quar-
antine. Under the health provisions of the
Social Security Act of 1935 and the Venereal
Disease Control Act of 1938, national, state
and local health services are co-ordinated.

Public Lands of the United States.—
The public lands came into the nation's pos-
session in several ways. The Revolution
transferred to the United States all the ter-
ritory of the original 13 colonies and all the
land w. of them to the Mississippi. Those
States claiming the country n.w. of the Ohio
River were in controversy as to boundaries,
and were regarded with jealousy by States
whose charters confined them to the coast.
Maryland refused to ratify the Articles ot
Confederation, forcing the cession of this
'Northwest Territory* to the Union, which
was followed by cession of the lands s. ot
Kentucky by the States claiming them, and
by the Louisiana Purchase (1819); the Ore-
gon acquisition (1846); the Mexican cession
(1848); the Texas Purchase (1850); the
Gadsden Purchase from Mexico (1853), and
the Alaska Purchase (1867). The total area
was slightly under one and one-half billion
acres. Over it the Federal Government was
originally both sovereign and landowner.

At first, lands were sold chieny with a
view to profit. In 1812 the office of General
Commissioner of the Land Office was created,
under the Treasury Department. In 1846 the: