This republication of the record of the sanitary commission of Massachusetts, dated 1850, is particularly timely as we approach the centennial anniversary of its publication. It is generally credited to Lemuel Shattuck and is known as the Shattuck report. Almost a century ago it made many fundamental proposals which are recognized as the essentials for public health organization and procedure today. Most notable was its proposal for creation of state and local boards of health, which were then nonexistent. Even today local boards are in such a state that their further development and extension is a major public health objective.
The Shattuck recommendations regarding vital statistics, community sanitation, health of the school child, training of nurses, house and slum clearance and medical research are still the principal areas in which medical progress is being made today.
The book is beautifully printed and bound with a frontispiece reproduction of the cover