TABLE 43-SHOWING THE NUMBER OF SUITS INSTITUTED FOR VIOLATION OF THE ACT TO PREVENT THE SALE OF ADULTERATED FOOD AND DRUGS, TOGETHER WITH THE DATE OF ANALYSIS OF SAMPLE AND THE DISPOSITION OF THE CASE, FOR THE YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 31, 1906-Continued. D-7275....... Milk....... A-6087.. Milk. A-6081........ Milk................................................... C-7687... Milk.. D-7285..... Milk.. Name of article. Paid penalty. Sept. 12, 1906 Milk....... Pending. Sept. 12, 1906.. D-7287.. Paid penalty. Sept. 12, 1906.. D-7290... Pending. Sept. 12, 1906....... D-7291. Pending. Sept. 12, 1906 D-7293.. Milk.. Pending. Sept. 13, 1906. Paid penalty. Sept. 13, 1906.. C-7689.. Tr. Opium...... Pending. Sept 14, 1906 A-6151.. Milk... Paid penalty. Sept. 14, 1906.. Paid penalty. Sept. 14, 1906 Paid penalty. Oct. Sept. 15, 1906........ Sept. 29, 1906 2, 1906 Paid penalty. D-8032... Milk.... ........... Pending. D-8031.... Tr. Iodine....... Pending. Oct. 3, 1906... Oct. 5, 1906 Pending. Milk......... Paid penalty. Oct. Milk.. Pending. Paid penalty. Milk. Pending Milk. Paid penalty. Milk.............. Pending. Pending. Pending. Oct. 11, 1906 D-8048........ Milk.... Duplicate of D-8047. C-7755... Cider Vinegar........ Pending. Oct. 18, 1906. D-8074... Milk.... Pending. Oct. 18, 1906. Oct. 18, 1906. E-1112.. Milk... .... Pending. Pending. A-6331.. Milk..... Pending. Oct. 24, 1906. C-7726........ Tr. Opium........ Pending. Oct. 24, 1906. C-7748........ Tr. Opium...... Pending. Oct. 25, 1906. C-7766........ Cider Vinegar... Pending. Oct. 25, 1906. C-7767.. Cider Vinegar... Pending. Oct. 26, 1906 A-6356.... Milk........ Pending. Oct. 26, 1906... Pending. Oct. 26, 1906. Pending. Beverages. The habit of drinking sweetened and highly-flavored, and often highly-colored, fluids has greatly increased during recent years, and periodical laboratory examinations of liquids of this character have been made in the State laboratory of hygiene. The reports of these examinations have not shown that the ingestion of the substances which enter into the composition of these beverages is necessarily injurious to health in the quantities usually contained in them, but an inspection of the methods employed in their preparation and sale has in every instance shown disregard of cleanliness. Unclean utensils are used in mixing the ingredients; unclean hands are used in the work; flies are not excluded from contact with the mixtures; the receptacles in the so-called "fountains" from which these fluids are usually drawn are difficult of access and often found to be unclean; the open receptacles containing these liquids, which frequently stand exposed to view, receive dirt from the street. The drinking glasses which are provided for dispensing these beverages are usually rinsed in filthy water. The legislature has not yet provided authority under which the preparation and sale of these fluids may be regulated, but doubtless action will be taken as soon as a popular demand for better conditions shall be made. Confectionery.-Illness which is believed to be due to eating candy is reported occasionally, but investigations have not resulted in finding poisonous ingredients in the samples forwarded to the laboratory. The sickness in these cases is probably due to the excessive quantities which are consumed, or, in some instances, to other articles which are introduced into the stomach, and concerning which no report is made. Inspections are in progress in New Jersey to learn the methods which are employed in packing confectionery after the manufacturing process is finished, and the facts thus far reported indicate that uncleanly practices are not uncommon. The candy is freely exposed to flies, and it is handled by unclean hands and brought into contact with tables having unclean surfaces. Before it reaches the consumer it is sometimes exposed for long periods to the dust of the shop, and when retailed it is again handled by unclean fingers. Sanitary Inspection Service.-During the past year licenses have been granted under authority contained in the act approved April 8th, 1903, as follows: To serve as health officer, 14; to serve as sanitary inspector of the first class, 15; to serve as meat inspector, 3; to serve as plumbing inspector, 7. A list of all persons to whom licenses have been issused is published in this report, and a report from the secretary of the sanitary examiners is also presented. Chapter 129 of the laws of 1906 authorizes two or more adjacent municipalities or townships to join in the employment of a health officer, and thus obtain the services of a skilled official, the salary to be paid on some basis which may be agreed upon by the employing authorities. By this arrangement it is hoped that certain sanitary districts, which have heretofore been poorly served by a poorly paid sanitary officer, will hereafter adopt this co-operative system, and in this manner secure the advantage of first-class sanitary service at a minimum of cost. The public health service as a career is attracting an increasing number of brilliant men to the executive and laboratory departments, but the salaries which are paid to inspectors have not yet proved tempting. The public demand, however, for skillful and high-class appointees has begun to influence the selection of health officers and sanitary inspectors in the larger municipalities, and there is general recognition of the fact that the inspectors' art cannot be "picked up," and that it can be acquired only by persons who are fitted for it by nature, and who have been prepared for the work by education and special training. Local Sanitary Administration.-In conducting municipal sanitary operations it is advisable, while carrying on the general work uninterruptedly, to at all times give especial attention to one class or group of unsanitary conditions. Without relaxing in any manner the routine enforcement of the laws and ordinances, a considerable amount of time may be set aside each day for investigation and improvement of certain local conditions affecting the public health. These questions will arise from time to time, and they often assume a degree of importance which urgently calls for close study and prompt remedial action. By this method all of the sanitary problems which claim attention, but which do not belong to the emergency group, can have painstaking and exhaustive investigation, and when appropriate remedies have been applied to each in its turn, a new subject can be selected for special examination. The aim of every local health officer and sanitary inspector should be to gain for his district a degree of healthfulness above the general average for the State, as shown by the annual morbidity and mortality rates. Special or extraordinary investigations may relate to the milk-supply; the sale of unwholesome food; mosquito-breeding localities; the vaccinal status of infants; the water-supply; the disposal of refuse substances; tracing the sources of infectious diseases, &c. The sanitary officer who is not afraid of work and who has a clear conception of his duties to the community in which he is located will never fail to find some particular question which is pressing for inquiry, and it is from these studies that he obtains the keen delight which attends the examination and betterment of conditions which affect human health and life unfavorably. Infectious Diseases of Animals.-An outbreak of anthrax occurred in March, 1906, on the farm of Richard V. Northrup, located near Newton, in Sussex county. Efforts to trace the origin of these cases proved unsuccessful. Preventive inoculations were administered to the animals in the locality, and the disease did not spread beyond the premises where it first appeared. No other cases have occurred in Sussex county. The disease appeared during the spring and summer in Cumberland and Salem counties in localities which had in previous years been infected with anthrax, and the total number of deaths among animals from this cause in these districts during the year ending October 31st, 1906, was sixty-eight. The State board of health caused anti anthrax vaccinations to be employed, and all cattle and horses which were exposed to the infection were inoculated. To prevent the annual recurrence of outbreaks of anthrax in the infected districts in New Jersey, it is essential that protective inoculations shall be made before animals are permitted to feed in the infected pastures. Owners of horses and cattle in the localities where anthrax has occurred have been notified by this board of the necessity for inoculations early in the spring of each year, but thus far few owners have availed themselves of the protection which is afforded by the employment of anti anthrax vaccine, and it appears that the only effectual means which can be employed to prevent the further appearance of this disease will be to offer free inoculations at the expense of the State. A serious outbreak of glanders appeared in Middlesex county, and the origin of these cases was clearly traced to animals purchased at a sale stable in New York City by a local trader. The infected horses were bought because they were cheap. As a result of this importation, twenty-four horses affected with glanders were destroyed in Perth Amboy and vicinity. During the year 147 cases of glanders were reported. These facts show that a closer supervi-` sion is needed at points where animals infected with glanders are brought into the State, viz., at the ferries in Jersey City and Camden, and it is very desirable that an additional amount shall be appropriated by the legislature to warrant the employment of two inspectors to be located at the points above named. A detailed statement of the cases referred to is presented further on in this report. Embalming. It has been pointed out that there is no certain method by which "arsenic administered by the mouth or rectum which produced death can be discriminated from arsenic contained in the embalming fluid of the undertaker," and "it is now demonstrated that a perfectly sure, safe and reliable embalming fluid can be made without the use of arsenic or any poison or ingredient dangerous to human life."* With these considerations in view the legislature inserted a clause in the act approved May 12th, 1906, as follows: "But no person shall employ, for the purpose of embalming or preserving any dead human body, any arsenical solution nor any other poisonous agent which may, by its presence in the viscera, prevent the detection of criminal uses of said poisonous agents before the death of the individual occurred." Examinations of the embalming fluids employed in this State will be made from time to time, and persons violating the act above quoted will be prosecuted. Nuisances.-A misapprehension concerning the directions in which activity shall be exercised by sanitary officers still prevails in some portions of the State, but it is gratifying to note that fewer instances are reported in which smoke and noise nuisances have been attacked under the health laws, and it appears to be reasonable to expect that the annual conferences which are provided for in chapter 131 of the laws of 1906, will do much toward preventing unwise and useless efforts to attain desirable ends through wrong channels. In addition to the usual and ordinary class of nuisances which it has been found practicable to deal with under the authority contained in the health laws, the abolition of the breeding places of house flies has been undertaken in some localities. These insects have been con-clusively shown to be carriers of the causative agents of typhoid fever and tuberculosis, and it is probable that they also act as distributers of certain other affections, and measures to prevent their breeding offer a most satisfactory and beneficial line of work in every sanitary district. All places in which maggots can live should be declared, *The Lancet, April 7th, 1906. |