A Treatise on Public Health and its Applications in Different European Countries

Abstract

ALTHOUGH scarcely more than a year has elapsed since the issue of the Swedish edition of this work, translations of it have already appeared in French, English, and Spanish. A book which within so short an interval has attained to such a pitch of popularity may be admitted to have practically established its claim to rank amongst the important contributions towards the literature of the subject with which it is concerned. Extensive indeed as is the ground travelled over by the author, yet so ably has the material been handled, that we feel it to be a matter for regret that the writer was unable to deal with the hygienic administration of all, instead of a portion only, of the important European countries. The sanitary administrations of England, Scotland, France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, and Finland are detailed; but the description of the Public Health service of Russia, Denmark, Norway, Holland, and Italy is omitted. Not having visited these countries, and studied the subject by a personal inquiry on the spot, Dr. Palmberg very wisely preferred not to deal with them at all, rather than run the risk of making inexact statements concerning them. A Treatise on Public Health and its Applications in Different European Countries. By Albert Palmberg, Medical Officer of Health for the County of Helsingfors in Finland. Translated from the French edition, and the section on England edited by Arthur Newsholme, M.D. (Lond.), D.P.H., Medical Officer of Health for Brighton. (London: Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 1893.)