Since that date the reports of health committees all over the country record the substantial results of persevering work in the interests of hygiene, qualified by the fact that the experience of other nations has been abundantly confirmed by our own, namely, that it is futile to legislate in advance of public opinion. Until the populace has been impregnated with a knowledge of what is right, right action, though demanded by its legislators, will be perverted by ignorant intention or by resentful indolence. Even those who have served the cause of sanitation most loyally recognise that coercion is but a poor yeast with which to leaven measures for the public weal; the product is liable to become sour and worthless rather than wholesome and effective. One higher grade must be passed by the nation under the tutelage of a sanitary reform before its education can be called complete. The final stage in this last long period is described by Professor de Chaumont as that of "Freedom," of which the attainment is not possible until action is based on intelligent individual conviction. Then and then alone there will be a general recognition that "rights" are inevitably associated with responsibilities, and that true liberty is followed not by license, but by self-control and respect for the rights of others. IV. WHY THE IDEALS OF MODERN HYGIENE ARE NOT ATTAINED And so it has come about that, with this ideal in view, the methods of modern hygiene are directed to awaken the nation's sanitary conscience and to stimulate the growth of true civic freedom. These methods may be fairly defined as the working of common sense aided by the results of scientific research, in their turn supported by very carefully tested applications. Necessarily it is assumed that each individual will accord to them intelligent, personal support and, where necessary, will be willing to sink unreasonable likes and dislikes in the sea of social service.