INTRODUCTION
Origin of the Word Hygiene
Hygeia was the name given the Greek goddess of health. In her statues she was always represented as a woman of perfect health and beauty, and was worshipped as the goddess of health. She was supposed to be the daughter of Esculapius, the god of medicine. In Greek mythology Esculapius attained great fame as a physician, having power not only to prevent dis-ease, but also to raise the dead. A temple was erected to Hygeia near that of her father. Here the people came to worship. There was even a statue of Hygeia in the temple of her father. Thus we see, from time immemorial, health and medicine have been associated.
Hygiene Defined
From the word Hygeia we get the word hygiene, which means health. Hygiene is defined as the science and the art of promoting health; the science of the preservation of human health by the removal of the cause of dis-ease. It is sometimes defined as the science of health. Hygiene is divided into two classes, personal and public.
Personal Hygiene is the science of the promotion of the individual’s health and deals with personal habits, such as eating and drinking; personal cleanliness; personal activities such as work, recreation, self-restraint. The handling of children comes under this branch of hygiene. The human machine is limited by the limitations of the physical, which necessitates the observance of these laws governing the expression of life.
Public Hygiene deals with the methods and processes necessary to preserve and promote the health interests of the public. It deals with man collectively rather than individually. This includes consideration of the environment, such as cleaning of streets, disposal of the dead, and proper hygienic methods in buildings and in public places.
Sanitary Science
Sanitary science includes the sum total of the knowledge of those principles and processes necessary to maintain personal and public health. It is an inductive science and therefore depends upon observation and verification in determining the general laws and truths of health and the relation between cause and effect in public and personal health.