Dr. Griswold was disgusted. Shaking his copy of the Greenwich Graphic for October 9, 1886, he muttered “We try to help this community and the first thing we get is public criticism”.
William L. Griswold, MD was the first Health Officer of the Town of Greenwich, appointed by the Board of Health which itself had been formed as part of a national movement that would come to be called the Great Sanitary Awakening. This was the time in the latter part of the 19th century when people first became aware of the connection between sanitation and health, between purity of drinking water and proper disposal of sewage on the one hand and lower
disease rates on the other. Disease resulting from poor sanitation came to be seen as a problem for society as a whole and not just of the poor. The author of the 1850 Report to the Massachusetts Sanitary Commission had done extensive surveys of communities in that state, documenting disease and death rates and correlating them with sanitary conditions in both poor and wealthy communities. Widely distributed, this became a seminal document in public health, and inspired the formation of Boards of Health and the appointment of Health Officers all over the country, includingGreenwich
disease rates on the other. Disease resulting from poor sanitation came to be seen as a problem for society as a whole and not just of the poor. The author of the 1850 Report to the Massachusetts Sanitary Commission had done extensive surveys of communities in that state, documenting disease and death rates and correlating them with sanitary conditions in both poor and wealthy communities. Widely distributed, this became a seminal document in public health, and inspired the formation of Boards of Health and the appointment of Health Officers all over the country, including
Twelve years later, Dr. Griswold had been appointed as Health Officer by the Board. That year, the Connecticut General Assembly had mandated that each Board of Health make an annual report to the town at its Town Meeting. And this was duly done, in October. Dr. Griswold thought it was a good, thorough report. It described how he had been appointed in May, and how all the physicians practicing in Greenwich
The resulting article that annoyed Dr. Griswold summarized the contents of the report, and then said that although it was a “good” document, it “would doubtless have pleased the voters better by giving some information about the sanitary conditions of the town”.
Life went on. The Board of Health that appointed Dr. Griswold was to last 125 years and counting. A dozen Health Officers, now called Health Directors, would follow him. In time, a full Health Department would be founded, and would serve the public to the present day. Among its myriad duties, it is still concerned with monitoring the community’s health and the sanitary conditions that were important in 1886. And yes, the voters are pleased that today the Greenwich Department of Health gives them a lot of information about the health conditions of the town.
Sources:
The Future of Public Health, 1988
Greenwich News & Graphic, October 9, 1886