RT Journal
T1 THe hygienic exhibit and its lessons
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 2012
FD October 3
VO 308
IS 13
SP 1302
OP 1302
DO 10.1001/jama.2012.3240
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2012.3240
AB 
In former generations, the relations between physician and patient were almost entirely individual. Only with the development of modern medicine has either the individual physician or the combined profession attained a distinct social function and responsibility. In former generations, owing to meager knowledge of diseases and their causes, the social responsibility for a large share of humanity's ills was not recognized. To-day, as soon as science discovers the cause of a disease, its method of transmission and the means for its prevention, the disease ceases to be a problem from a scientific point of view. It then becomes an additional social responsibility, since, in the majority of cases, our recently acquired knowledge shows that preventable diseases exist largely because of social sins, and that their prevention involves the reformation of some long-standing evil.