(source)
|
Hermann M. Biggs
(29 Sep 1859 - 28 Jun 1923)
American physician who was New York City's Public Health Officer and pioneered the use of bacteriological studies in the field of public health for the prevention and control of contagious diseases.
|
Science Quotes by Hermann M. Biggs (3 quotes)
Disease is largely a removable evil. It continues to afflict humanity, not only because of incomplete knowledge of its causes and lack of individual and public hygiene, but also because it is extensively fostered by harsh economic and industrial conditions and by wretched housing in congested communities. ... The reduction of the death rate is the principal statistical expression and index of human social progress. It means the saving and lengthening of lives of thousands of citizens, the extension of the vigorous working period well into old age, and the prevention of inefficiency, misery, and suffering. These advances can be made by organized social effort. Public health is purchasable. (1911)
— Hermann M. Biggs
Quoted in Evelynn Maxine Hammonds, Childhood's Deadly Scourge: The Campaign to Control Diphtheria in New York City, 1880-1930(1999), 221.
Public health is purchasable. Within a few natural and important limitations any community can determine its own health.
— Hermann M. Biggs
The human body is the only machine in which there are no spare parts.
— Hermann M. Biggs
See also:
- 29 Sep - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Biggs's birth.
- Hermann M Biggs - The New Treatment of Diphtheria
- 9 Sep - first diagnostic public heath laboratory in U.S. opened in New York City.
- 13 Dec - first tuberculosis community laboratory in U.S. opened in New York City.
- The Public Health Service and the Control of Biologics - John Parascanola writes about the early production of diphtheria anti-toxin, and the associated problems with contamination. (pdf)
- A Short History of the National Institutes of Health - Biologics
- Childhood's Deadly Scourge: The Campaign to Control Diphtheria in New York City, 1880-1930, by Evelynn Maxine Hammonds. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
