REPORTS FROM CITY BOARDS OF HEALTH

DAYTONA, FLA.

G. A. Klock, M. D., City Health Officer

The following deaths occurred during 1911:

The health of our city has been excellent during the past year. There have been only ten cases of typhoid fever and three cases of diphtheria. among the communicable diseases. There is no record of the births occurring here.

JACKSONVILLE, FLA.

C. E. Terry, M. D., City Health Officer

(FROM 1911 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CITY BOARD OF HEALTH.) BIRTHS RECORDED DURING 1911 WITH SEX AND COLOR

* See Appendix for other excerpts from 1911 Annual Report of the Jacksonville State Board of Health, in regard to Hydrophobia and Typhoid Fever in Jacksonville, 1911.

KEY WEST, FLA.

S. D. W. Light, M. D., City Health Officer

REPORT OF BIRTHS BY RACES AND BY MONTHS, 191I

REPORT OF DEATHS BY RACES AND BY MONTHS, 1911

MADISON, FLA.

D. H. Yates, M. D., City Physician

In complying with your request for a statement of the health of our town during 1911, I will state that I have no accurate record of the births and deaths which occurred during the year, but the health of our town has been greatly improved by reason of the fact that we have installed a sewerage system in the latter part of 1910. The sewage is disposed of in a septic tank about one mile from town. This system we find eminently satisfactory. It has almost elminated typhoid fever from the place. There have not been more than four cases in the town since the system has been installed, and these were visitors from other places. In neither case was any person infected from any of the four cases.

We had one little epidemic of smallpox, which was quickly terminated by vaccination and by isolation of the cases.

No cases of diphtheria have been reported.

Hookworm disease has been practically eradicated from our community.

Four cases of pellagra have occurred, one case coming here from DeSoto County, Florida. The State Board of Health is doubtless familiar with this particular case, as he wrote you on several different occasions in regard to pellagra, from that county. All four of these cases have been permanently cured by a high potential electric current.

We have a very good location here for lung troubles, Madison being on a very high hill and well drained. We are ninety feet higher here than Valdosta, Ga. The town is only fifty miles from the Gulf coast, which gives us some sea breeze without the accompanying dampness of nearer points.

Not much has been done as yet towards the extermination of the mosquito, but, thanks to the Health Notes, through it our people have been so educated on the subject that houses have been screened and mosquito nets used until malaria has been wonderfully reduced in its prevalence.

OCALA, FLA.*

E. Van Hood, M. D., President Board of Health

The health, of the city for the past twelve months has been excellent.

The above is the nearest to a correct report of vital statistics that this office has ever made. No arrests for failure to report births and deaths were made during the past year but the threat was made in real earnest in January, 1911, and it is just possible that this is why so many cases have been reported. The Board hopes to do even better in 1912.

Your health officer feels that this work should be done by some live citizen of Ocala, not a physician. Many cities are doing it that way.

The Board has met in executive session but three times this year. Once in company with a member of the Womans Club and a member of the Auxiliary Hospital Association, when they inspected the city market in detail; once to inspect the dumping grounds near Taylor Pond; and once to inspect a livery stable which was giving trouble to the neighborhood on account of its unsanitary condition.

Smallpox panics have been on our hands in localities and naturally the citizens of these localities came to the Board of Health for advice and assistance, although in one instance our County Commissioners were appealed to for help. The County Commissioners conferred with the City Board of Health in this case and the latter was able to do all that was necessary to relieve the situation-the panic.

*This report is a copy of that made by Dr. Van Hood to the Mayor and City Council of Ocala.

Martel, Citra, Summerfield, Fort McCoy and Burbank each have had trouble with cases of smallpox. The pest-house is what each plaintiff thinks is the only "thing needful," but the pest-house is not only unsatisfactory in every way, but it is a failure scientifically. Vaccination is the only solution of the problem and this is the position which the Board takes in every instance.

During the year one of the local physicians was bitten by a rabid animal, and anti-rabic vaccine was furnished by the State Board of Health for administration.

In the spring we had some cases of diphtheria among our indigent population, and the Board asked the City Council to provide free antitoxin. This the City Council did. The State Board of Health, on being advised of the action taken, instructed your local health officer to continue to call on the State Board for antitoxin for the indigent patients, whether for Ocala or Marion County. So there has been no expense in that direction to this depart

ment.

The city needs an Inspector of Dairy and Market products. Many diseases come to us through these channels, and most of them are preventable.

Several members of the Board from time to time inspected the dairy of Mr. Jack Camp and not only pronounced the system and methods good, but getting better. This is an entirely new enterprise, and was constructed at no little expense and care.

Health Day in the calendar of the Womans Club fell on April 4th. Two local physicians and one dentist prepared articles on the physical examination of school children, and a minister gave a lecture on the subject. On that occasion the Health Department of the Womans Club secured Dr. C. T. Young, Assistant State Health Officer, who lectured interestingly on prevalent diseases and their prevention. They also secured a film of moving pictures from the State Board of Health, showing the habits of the housefly.

Anti-typhoid vaccination is gaining ground. This is, as you know, a preventive treatment, and in the past year it has been used in Ocala many times. The treatment is practically harmless. The results reported from the United States Army statistics are little short of miraculous.

Pellagra has appeared in Ocala to the extent of seven cases. Two were sent to Chattahoochee, to the State Hospital for the Insane, on account of their demented condition, three died, and