Annual Conference of State and Territorial Boards of Health with the Surgeon General of the U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service.

The Third Annual Conference of the Surgeon General of the U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service was held according to the Act of Congress, on the call of Surgeon General Walter Wyman, at Washington, D. C., May 15, 1905.

The Secretary of this Board was present as delegate.

The Surgeon General presided and presented a statement of the official acts of himself and the service so far as the relationship of the national health authority to those of the several states was concerned.

A statement of the sanitary condition of each state was then called for including special reference to new legislation affecting the status of State Boards of Health.

A long and extremely valuable discussion on the modes of propagation of typhoid fever followed a paper on that subject by Dr. Victor C. Vaughn of the United States Typhoid Fever Commission ap pointed to investigate the prevalence of that disease in military camps during the Spanish American War.

The consensus of opinion was that, as pointed out by Dr. Vaughan, while sudden outbreaks or an endemic prevalence of typhoid in centres of population could almost invariably be traced to polluted water supplies, yet in military camps, and in sparse communities direct contagion through carelessness in various ways was responsible much oftener than has been generally supposed.

This being an official conference, no officers are elected, the Surgeon General acting as the presiding officer.

The International Conference of State and Provincial Boards of Health of North America, at Washington, D. C.

The Board was represented at this meeting by Colonel Milton A. Embick, a Member of the Board, and by its Secretary. Its session extended over two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, May 16th and 17th, 1905.

This being a conference of officials exclusively, its time is not devoted to the hearing of scientific papers, but entirely to the consideration of problems which officials are apt to deal with in their daily work.

Reports were heard on the question of "What would be an ap proved disinfectant to be used by licensed embalmers in preparing the bodies of those dead of contagious diseases for transportation," on the control of venereal diseases; and on the advisability of the abandonment of isolation in the control of small-pox.

It was considered that while theoretically it would unquestionably be wiser to depend entirely upon vaccination and not at all on isolation, yet at the present time faith in vaccination had to so great an extent lost its hold on the people of this country, that the experiment could not as yet be ventured upon.

A strong resolution was adopted declaring that it was essential to the adoption of uniform and advanced measures for the protection of the public health that health officers should be well informed, well trained and skillful sanitary inspectors.

The following resolution expressing confidence in the sanitary management of Cuba at the present time was unanimously adopted: "Whereas, Sensational and misleading articles have recently ap peared in American newspapers, based upon the reports of alleged sanitary experts, impugning the good faith of the Republic of Cuba and the efficiency of her sanitary administration, and

Whereas, Members of this conference are satisfied from personal observation that these reports are in part untrue, in part exaggerated, and in total, misleading;

Therefore be it resolved, First. That these publications are condemned by this conference as unwarranted by facts and as injurious to international amity.

Second. That since the extinction of yellow fever this conference recognizes among the sanitary problems of the Cuban Republic none which is of more hygienic interest to the United States.

Third. That so long as the Cuban Government gives adequate support to its efficient sanitary organization, this conference can anticipate no contingency of disease likely to arise in Cuba, involving the United States or any state in any danger which is not sufficiently safeguarded by the good faith of the Cuban sanitary authorities and the ordinary powers of the United States Public Health Service.”

With reference to throwing open records of births, marriages and · deaths to promiscuous inspection, the registrars of those states which have for the longest period been maintaining systems of registra tion of vital statistics were strongly of the opinion that certain safeguards should be thrown around these records in order to prevent criminal use of the same as well as their abuse in the interest of commercialism.

Your secretary presented a resume of "A Model Bill, Providing for the Registration of Vital Statistics in the State of Pennsylvania," and in connection with this a considerable number of other subjects connected with the registration of statistics and publication of statistical tables were considered.

The officers of the conference were instructed to address a communication to Secretary Taft expressing the belief of the conference in the paramount importance of the hygienic problem at Panama and expressing appreciation of the action of the President and Secretary Taft in giving the medical department as much authority and direct responsibility as possible, as well as its confidence in the medical department of health on the Isthmus.

The International Congress of Hygiene and Demography never having met in the United States, the following resolution was adopted:

"Whereas, the International Congress of Hygiene and Demography has never met in the United States, but has been the guest of the government of every important country in Europe; and whereas such meetings have demonstrated their great influence in promoting sanitation and health in the country of meeting, and whereas, there is reason to believe that an invitation to meet in this country would be cordially accepted; therefore, be it

Resolved, That in the opinion of the conference an invitation be extended through the Secretary of State to the International Congress of Hygiene and Demography at the meeting to be held in Berlin, to hold its sessions in 1909 in the city of Washington.”

The Chief Statistician of the United States Census Division of Vital Statistics, Mr. W. A. King, presented a most interesting statement regarding the present status of registration of vital statistics in the country which was full of encouragement for the future. The following officers were elected for the ensuing year:

Dr. Richard H. Lewis, North Carolina, President; Dr. J. A. Kennedy, Iowa, Vice President; Dr. J. A. Egan, Illionis, Secretary; Dr. John S. Fulton, Maryland, Treasurer.

SANITARY LEGISLATION.

Next to the Legislature of 1885 by which the State Board of Health was established, the credit of the most important legislation for the protection of the public health must be accorded to that of the year 1905 by which the Board, with limited powers and meagre funds, was merged into a Department supervised by a Commissioner, having almost absolute powers and a most generous appropriation. The gain to the State by this measure cannot be overestimated. As already stated the Associated Health Authorities, acting in concert with the State Board, had prepared an act which would have continued the Board with increased powers and means, but a comparison of the two acts developed so many advantages in favor of that creating a Commissioner of Health that the joint committee concluded to avail itself of the power entrusted to it to cease to urge the passage of its own bill and join its efforts to the support of the former. Under its wise and far-reaching provisions, an apportunity is now offered for sanitary reforms of the most searching character in the prosecution of which the Department can count implicity on the loyal support of all the friends of the old Board. The bill for the Registration of Vital Statistics, passed with very trifling opposition and has relieved Pennsylvania of the stigma under which it has so long labored of giving greater prominence to the registration of her live stock than she did to that of human beings.

Two most important bills for preventing the pollution of the waters of the State were also passed, one conferring unusual powers on the Commissioner of Health for the supervision of water works and sewer systems, the other establishing a State Water Supply Com

mission, having for its duty an investigation of all the sources of water supply in the State, and a general control over their distribution. Of this Commission the Commissioner of Health is a member. Many other acts of greater or less importance were passed of which the following is a list of the titles.

LAWS FOR THE BETTER PROTECTION OF LIFE AND HEALTH, PASSED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA, AT THE SESSION OF 1905.

No. 27-An act for the protection of the health of persons addicting to the smoking of cigarettes.

No. 33-An act to prohibit the sale or use of certain fire-works, fire-crackers, pistols, explosive canes and ammunition.

No. 46-An act to prohibit the selling, shipping, consigning, offering for sale, exposing for sale, or having in possession with intent to sell, as fresh, any meat, poultry, game, fish or shell fish which contains any substance or article possessing a preservative or coloring character or action.

No. 56-An act to prevent the spread of dangerous, contagious or infectious diseases among domestic animals and to protect milk supplies from contamination.

No. 68-An act providing for necessary medical attention to needy persons who may be in danger of suffering from hydrophobia.

No. 165-An act to provide for the protection of the public health, by giving and granting to those having charge of the public health and sanitation in cities of the first class of this Commonwealth full power to make rules and regulations governing the care and control of persons suffering from communicable diseases.

No. 182-An act to preserve the purity of the waters of the State, for the protection of the public health.

No. 193-For the purpose of governing the construction of public school buildings in order that the health, sight and comfort of all pupils may be properly protected.

No. 209-An act extending the jurisdiction of the State Board of Undertakers to all parts of this Commonwealth.

No. 217-An act regulating the manufacture of fruit syrups.

No. 218-An act creating a Department of Health, and defining its powers and duties.

No. 219-An act to establish an emergency fund, to be used, as occasion may require, in the suppression of epidemics, the prevention of disease, and protection of human life in times of epidemic disease or of disaster threatening disease.

No. 221-An act to provide for the immediate registration of all births and deaths throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

No. 223-An act authorizing and empowering cities, owning and operating water-works systems, to enter, by any of its employes, upon private lands through which may pass any stream or streams of water supplying such cities.

No. 226-An act to regulate the employment, in all kinds of industrial establishments, of women and children employed at wages or salary, by regulating the age at which minors can be employed and the mode of certifying the same, and by fixing the hours of labor for women and minors.

No. 236-An act creating the Water Supply Commission of Pennsylvania.

VALEDICTORY.

In laying down the trust reposed in its hands by the Legislature of the State twenty years ago, a brief retrospect of the work which the Board has accomplished may not be inappropriate. In looking over the vast and hitherto unoccupied field before it, which was nothing less than the supervision of the lives and health of five millions of people distributed over a princely domain of 45,000 square miles, the Board was impressed with the fact that its labors must be to a great extent of a missionary character. The education both of the people and of the legislators in the first priciples of sanitary science was therefore one of the first objects to which it turned its attention. This it endeavored to accomplish by three principal

means.

First, it availed itself of the generous provision by which all printing required by any of the State Boards may be furnished by the Department of Public Printing and Binding. Large numbers of tracts or circulars were prepared having for their object the dissemination of information of a popular character upon the various contagious and infectious diseases together with plain instructions as to the means to be adopted for the prevention of the spread of the same. These were liberally distributed to the few local boards then in existence and to its inspectors, special care being taken to secure their dissemination in regions where such diseases were at any time prevailing and the popular interest on such subjects had thus been aroused. Many thousands of each of these were distributed annually. As time went on the scope of these pamphlets was enlarged including such subjects as Dairy Hygiene, School Hygiene, the Hygiene of Railroad Cars, and so on.

Secondly, by personal contact with the people of the State. For this purpose instead of always holding its meetings in the capital of the State it made a point of frequently meeting in other cities and towns, and of making such meetings the occasions of holding popular sanitary conventions, in which prominent sanitarians in our own and other states were invited to participate. To these the people were freely invited, and, especially in small centres of population, they attended in large numbers. An awakened interest in health measures was invariably the result of these sanitary missionary meetings, wherever they were held. The Board has been openly and somewhat caustically criticized for adopting this means of reaching