In the past two decades, the combined strately based on the threefold forces of clinical, laboratory and epidemiological disciplines has virtually led to the conquest of infections, at least of their lethal types. The term “epidemiology” has thus been responsible for new interpretation. Epidemiologists are turning their attention to neoplasms, chronic degenerative conditions, air pollution disasters and congenital malformations. Extensive knowledge improved in a short space of time indicates that a majority of human monsters originate as fetal manifestations induced by environmental insults especially in early pregnancy. The association of maternal rubella and developmental defects in the offspring was first pointed out in Australia. The recent tragic episode with thalidomide warns that new remedies for pregnant women should not be administered during the early months of pregnancy unless they were warranted to be free from danger. An excess of hormone, the anticarcinoma substances and exposure of developmental embryo to ionizing radiation also cause congenital anomalies. The increasing incidence of mongolism, which is a condition with an abnormality of chromosome number, with increasing maternal age seems well established. To-day, investigators believe the over-all incidence of major malfomations to be some five per cent of total live-births. After meditating about these complex facts, the author claims that it is high time to challenge the control of human monsters a terms of environmental preventive medicine.
