CHAPTER V

THE EARLIEST PUBLICATION IN EUROPE OF A SYSTEMATIC TREATISE ON HYGIENE, PUBLIC HEALTH AND MEDICO-LEGAL SCIENCE

In the early part of the eighteenth century municipal and private-house sanitation existed in comparatively few cities of Europe, and then only in the wealthier quarters. Such a thing as sanitary police was practically unknown, and public health was considered only when the inhabitants were threatened with a serious epidemic like that of cholera, the plague, or leprosy. This indifference to public sanitation persisted down to the end of the nineteenth century. On arriving in Paris in the spring of 1857, at a time when the city was overcrowded with travelers, my friend and I were glad to secure a room on the fourth story of a modest hotel situated in the central part of the city, quite near the Palais Royal. We found no good reason to complain of the room itself; it was clean and adequately well ventilated. But the toilet facilities were such as one might expect to find in a hotel of the fourteenth or fifteenth century. On the roof of our building a lean-to had been constructed alongside a broad brick chimney, and this shack, which was distant at least forty feet from the doorway that led by a short stair-case to the fourth story of the hotel, could be reached only over a narrow plank walk that was wholly unprotected by a railing. Then again, on a bicycling trip which I made in 1896, through the central part of France, my friend and I experienced more than one surprise of a similar nature. For example, in several of the smaller towns we found that the ancient practice of throwing the slops out of the second-story windows into the middle of the narrow street, still persisted. But, in a matter of this kind, nothing is to be gained by entering into many details; “enough is as good as a feast.” I merely wish to emphasize the fact that even France, where civilization was so far advanced in many respects, was fearfully slow in adopting the first principles of house and municipal sanitation. It was only toward the end of the nineteenth century that London, the birthplace of the finest types of house and municipal sanitation, began to give serious attention to this subject. During the early part of the eighteenth century, however, even this great metropolis was very backward in manifesting any marked desire to improve the sanitary condition of its dwellings; for, was it not the Earl of Chesterfield who, at this very period of time (about 1750) made the statement, in a letter to his natural son, that “the lanes or narrow passage-ways in Holland are cleaner than the houses are in London?”

It was in Germany, many of my readers will doubtless be surprised to learn, that the first really serious attempt was made to present to the world a scientific treatise on this subject, a work which was published in several consecutive volumes and which even to-day is consulted as a most trustworthy and remarkably complete authority on municipal and private-house sanitation. The work referred to was written by J. P. Frank.

Johann Peter Frank, more commonly spoken of as Peter Frank, was born in 1745 at Rothalben, a village located in territory which at that time belonged to the Grand Duchy of Baden. He received a good preliminary training at the High School of Pont-à-Mousson, and then afterward took courses at the Universities of Heidelberg and Strassburg. His medical degree was bestowed upon him in 1766 by the first of these institutions, the subject of his thesis being “Medical Police.” Two years later he commenced the practice of his profession at the city of Baden-Baden, and in 1769 was appointed Court Physician at Rastatt.

During these early years of his career he did not lose interest in the subject which he had chosen for his thesis, but continued to work upon it until, in 1768, he was ready to submit to a bookseller the manuscript of Vol. I. The latter, after receiving from a so-called medical expert an unfavorable report on the quality of the text, expressed his unwillingness to publish the work. Frank’s discouragement over this result was so great that he proceeded without delay to throw the manuscript into the fire. Then, after further reflection, he decided to begin work afresh on the same theme, and thus it came about that he devoted the following eleven years to the preparation of a new text for Vol. I. In 1779 this first volume was published. In 1780, 1783, 1788 and 1813 four more volumes were issued. Volume VI and two supplementary volumes were issued between the years 1817 and 1819.

“Notwithstanding its defects,” says Puschmann, “this work is one of the most important, one of the greatest and most creditable pieces of medical literature of which the Germans may rightfully boast. Blumenbach called it a classic, the first treatise of its kind and indeed possessing a unique character.”

Of the other works published by Peter Frank, works which deal with pathology and the practice of medicine, the most important is that entitled “De Curandis Hominum Morbis Epitome” (“An abridged treatise on the diseases to which man is liable”). As he progressed with the writing of this treatise Frank undoubtedly discovered that he could not, with any degree of satisfaction, accomplish his original design of compressing what he had to say into an “epitome”; and so, from this time forward, he carried on the work, without paying any further attention to his original plan of an abridgment, until the book had reached its sixth volume; and even then it was not completed.[[8]] Despite its incompleteness this work passed through several editions, for it was highly appreciated for its practical character and for the clearness of its descriptions of disease.