Literature Network » Oliver Wendell Holmes

How will history treat today's public health and environmental health practitioners?(President's Message)

Content courtesy of

From: Journal of Environmental Health
Date: 20050101
Author:Balsamo, James, Jr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "The bills of mortality are more affected by drainage than this or that method of medical practice." Justice Holmes was an early proponent of preventive medicine and public health. Although preventive medicine is as old as the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Roman societies, it is sometimes hard to recognize through its religious and philosophical trimmings. (1)

Long before the Age of Bacteriology, the principles of sanitation were very much alive in military and local governments. Robert Koch once said that "our best ally" was cholera because it forced ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Other Articles on Oliver Wendell Holmes

About Our Articles: We've partnered with Highbeam Research to provide these article excerpts for your research needs. However, due to copyright laws, we cannot publish the whole article. To view these articles in full length you'll need to use the link above to access the free trial at Highbeam.