HYGIENE, HEALTH AND EDUCATION: AN HISTORICAL APPROACH

Abstract

Hygiene, health and education have been connected since the origins of mankind. This very close relationship offers different forms and intensities. The apparition of the hygienist movement about the middle of the XIXth century, and the social and educational changes linked to the schooling process that took place in the mentioned century and in the first half of the XXth, as well as the scientific study of the childhood, developed in the intermediate period between both centuries, favored the creation of new societies and professions or professional specialties, the proliferation of magazines, leaflets and books, the organization of congresses, the passing of several laws about those matters, and the public and private initiatives. In this prefatory text al! of this is accounted for. Likewise the rest of the texts of this monographical issue are introduced; also some observations about the so called "education for health" are made, and a chronology of more relevant events, publications and laws, related to the subject, is annexed.