The Encyclopedia of Public Health was designed to offer the lay reader information about important aspects of the sciences, arts, practical skills, organization, essential functions, and historical traditions of the field. It is intended specifically for general readers with a high school or college level education, although many professional workers, trainees, and students of public health will find much here of use and interest to them.

Public health is one of the essential institutions of society. It exists to promote, protect, preserve, and restore the good health of all the people, and it achieves these ends largely through collective action. The programs, services, organizations, and institutions devoted to public health are concerned with the health needs of entire populations. Professionals engaged in the field regard it as an organized effort directed at improving the health of populations by assuring the conditions in which people can be healthy. It thus differs from the healing arts such as medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacy that aim their services at the health of individuals. Public health emphasizes health promotion, the prevention and early detection of disease, disability, and premature death. Many scientific disciplines, technologies, and practical skills are involved in public health, which can be viewed as a social institution, a collective discipline (one that focuses a large group of discrete disciplines on public health), and a practice.

The component parts of public health include a wide array of intellectual disciplines, professions, trades, and practical skills: vital statistics, demography, epidemiology, and biostatistics; basic medical sciences such as microbiology, physiology, pharmacology, and toxicology; physical sciences such as physics and chemistry; engineering; social and behavioral sciences; and clinical sciences such as those that deal with communicable diseases, cancer, and heart disease. Mature professions such as medicine, nursing, dentistry, and law, as well as newly emerged professions such as psychology, nutrition, and dietetics are all engaged in public health. All are described and discussed in this encyclopedia.

There are more than 900 entries in the Encyclopedia of Public Health, all arranged in alphabetical order for easy reference. The entries range in length from several thousand words on each of the most important sectors and disciplines of public health, to a hundred words or so that define basic elements of the field. All entries were written by experts, authorities in their respective fields. As much as possible, however, the authors have used language that is free of jargon and which should be easily accessible to the public at large, whether in the high school, community college, or public library environments. There are bibliographies to guide readers to sources of further information and exhaustive cross-references to help them to related topics.

The back matter features "basic documents," a collection of some of the most essential statements of lasting historical importance about public health, as well as some of the epochal writings about public health, which are reproduced in whole or in part. In addition, there is an annotated bibliography of other basic texts.

An outline of contents appears at the back of Volume 4. Its purpose is to regroup articles in broad topical categories, thereby offering teachers and readers alike an informed map of the field. A comprehensive index provides yet another avenue for lay readers to access the mass of information contained in these four volumes.

The editors thank the staff at Macmillan Reference for their support throughout this project. In particular, we thank Elly Dickason for her initial advice and encouragement; Hélène Potter for keeping us going when the going got tough; and Barbara van Orden, Deirdre Graves, and Michael McGandy for all their hard work.

Many contributors wish to acknowledge the help they received from family members and colleagues; we express our gratitude to them all.

LESTER BRESLOW