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the ways and habits of life, the inter-relation of work, repose and
recreation for mind and body, the charge of infancy—these are
matters of individual concern and of individual knowledge and
education, for which the State, as such, can do little or nothing.
Yet these counsels for personal self-government, enforced from
age to age by the ever-growing common experience of mankind,
are of vital importance to the health of a community, and must on
110 account be deemed superfluous because Sanitary Authorities
have been established and public health law is administered by
boards of local government. It is idle to expect good results from
the latter, if personal hygiene and the duties and rights of the
individual be ignored. If it be true that the Empire depends
upon the homes of the people, it is also true to say that homelife
depends upon the well-being and health of individuals. For
the individual is the unit of the home as the home is the unit of
the State.