ABSTRACT
Public health and medical science, without actually using the term ecology until quite recently, have been ecologically oriented, in the epidemiological sense, for a long time. In fact, recognition of the existence of a relationship between environmental conditions, such as climate, and health appears in writings attributed to Hippocrates and probably has existed from the very earliest period of man. The health leader will be he who can add to this an unquenchable drive to seek real and complete answers, and who can utilize the full potential for human betterment implicit in the concept of a "planning society. "The early interests of public health in man's environment were focused largely on the detection and control of environmental conditions as the direct precursors of disease—e.g., with polluted drinking water, contaminated food, bacterial and viral agents and their carriers, isolation of infectious cases, protective immunizations, and the like.
