A text-book on hygiene and pediatrics from a chiropractic standpoint

by J. H. Craven

Distinction between Sanitation and Hygiene

The term sanitation or sanitary science is often used synonymous with the term hygiene although there is a difference in their meaning and usage. The term sanitation or sanitary science has been used largely in Great Britain and in this country, although both terms are used in America but with somewhat different meanings.

In reality there is a very important distinction between the two terms hygiene and sanitation. Hygiene may be considered the broader term which may be made to include everything relating to health, but more particularly those things which relate to the person. Sanitation or sanitary science relates more to the environmental conditions and their relation to the health of the individual or the community.

This distinction is drawn more sharply by reason of the developments along the line of sanitary engineering on the one hand and the biological and physiological developments on the other.

Sanitary science has been largely under the supervision and in the hands of sanitary engineers, while hygiene has been almost entirely in the hands of the medical profession.