The Value of Hygiene
During the Republican era, personal hygiene and public sanitation became indicators for civilization and a healthy and strong population. Influenced by similar notions in Europe, the United States, Japan and other countries that aspired to be modern, Chinese politicians, intellectuals, and educators strongly promoted hygiene measures and health knowledge among the people. In this context, “population” became an important category of governance that had to be monitored to control its growth and guarantee its quality, and thus the prosperity of the nation. In 1928, Zhang Zhongshan 張仲山, a doctor and lecturer at the Military Medical College in Beiping (Beijing), published a comprehensive reference book on hygiene with the title Hygienics or the Science of Hygiene (Weishengxue 衛生學). In the introduction, Zhang highlighted the meaning of hygiene to govern the population and presented tables showing the death and birth rates in various countries in comparison (exclusive of China) as well as the city of Beijing. Moreover, Zhang particularly emphasized the economic value of hygiene:
With the current progress in medical statistics, we can genuinely calculate gains and losses in the [population] numbers. According to the statistics, out of 34 sick people, one dies on average. From the death statistics, we can know the number of sick people. And we can know the financial amount we could save. For instance, if you take 100.000 people, the result of [observing] hygiene would be a reduction of the death number by one percent. If 100 less people died, according to [our] calculations, this would mean 3400 less sick people. Moreover, according to a survey by statisticians, hospital beds are on average occupied for 20 days. Therefore, based on the number of sick people, we could save 68.000 [occupancy] days in total. 20 x 3400=68.000. If a sick person costs one yuan per day, then saving the expenditures for 3400 sick people would mean 68.000 yuan per year. Strictly enforcing hygiene is not of small benefit to the means of livelihood [of the people], understanding this is truly valuable!
According to Zhang, hygiene had not only a rather vague dimension regarding the prevention of diseases, but also a quantifiable financial aspect, similarly affecting individual and national health.
Translated from: Zhang Zhongshan 張仲山: Weishengxue 衛生學 (The Science of Hygiene). Beiping 北平: 陸軍軍醫學校 (1928), p. 6.
(posted by Dr. Nicolas Schillinger)