In Memoriam

CONRAD J. CROunse, M. D.

Dr. Crounse died at his home, in Clarksville, on December 12, 1901. He graduated from the Albany Medical College in 1846, and had practiced his profession in the town of Clarksville, Albany county, for forty-five years, winning the respect and esteem of his fellow residents. Dr. Crounse had reached the limit of fourscore years. His widow survives.

MR. JOHN G. MYERS

Mr. Myers was so earnestly associated with the medical institutions of this city that the ANNALS desires to place on record some recognition of the interest that he has ever manifested in the Albany Medical College, as a Trustee, in the Albany Hospital as a Governor, and as a supporter of the ALBANY MEDICAL ANNALS. In his position as Governor of the Albany Hospital, he was able, strong, honest, upright, and ever in earnest in all matters pertaining to the good of its inmates and the administration of the entire plant. The ANNALS has, on more than one occasion, felt his beneficial influence. Mr. Myers was broadminded and ever anxious and pleased to see the success of the journal. He was always interested in the students of the Albany Medical College, and has many times assisted those who were in need of financial assistance.

We shall miss him. His memory is dear to us, and we shall mourn him in the days to come.

Mr. Myers' rare good judgment, his knowledge of men, his liberal views on all questions, public, educational or otherwise, would have made him a thoroughly successful physician. At one time he had some thought of studying medicine, pursuing this line of work for several months, but concluded he would prefer a commercial life.

A. V.

Public bealtb

Edited by Joseph D. Craig, M. D.

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH-CITY OF ALBANY, N. Y.

In the case of the six deaths from diphtheria, antitoxin was not used in one; was used a few hours before death in three, the physician having been called late in the disease; and two to four days in the remaining two cases, each having progressed for a week before use.

The death rate for Albany from November 1, 1900, to November 1, 1901, was 17.59. The death rate for the same period, less non-residents, was 16.14. This is the lowest death rate in years.

ABSTRACT OF THe Report of thE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE CITY OF ALBANY, N. Y., FOR THE YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 31, 1901

The death rate for the year was 17.59 for all deaths, and 16.14 for residents only. For the year 1900 the death rate was 19; for the year 1899 the death rate was 20; for the year 1898, 22. This is the lowest death rate for the City of Albany on record. A number of factors have contributed to this low death rate. The decrease in the number of deaths from typhoid fever, following the opening of the filtration plant; the decrease in the number of deaths from diphtheria, owing to the increasing use of antitoxine; the absence of scarlet fever from the city and, with the exception of the deaths from influenza in January, a very small death rate from contagious and communicable diseases have been the principal factors contributing to that end.

The city has been unfortunate enough to have a large number of cases of smallpox during the year. The disease made its appearance about the end of last November, reached its height in April and disappeared in August. At the public schools, in which the compulsory vaccination law is strictly enforced, there was but one case. In other schools, which did not require vaccination, there were a large number of cases, while in the Lathrop Memorial Home, which had, with one or two exceptions, no protection from vaccination, the entire institution became infected. Sixty per cent. of all the cases of smallpox had never had the benefit of protective vaccination and twenty-six per cent. had been vaccinated only once in infancy.

The Bertillion system of classifying deaths has been introduced in the office, and at the end of another decade valuable comparative statistics for the City of Albany ought to be obtained therefrom. Complete record books also of the deaths in institutions, the burials in cemeteries, contagious diseases reported, the results of the use of antitoxin, the work at the Bender Laboratory, the removal of dead animals, the market and meat inspections and the plumbing inspections are now provided for.

The Health Officer again recommends some public means of caring for cases of contagious disease in an institution adapted for that purpose.

The number of phthisis cases reported has increased, and it is greatly to be desired that as many of these cases as possible should be on record in the Department of Health. At the Bender Laboratory, the proportion in first cultures of two non-diphtheria to one diphtheria is maintained this year and is the same as during the previous year. The use of the laboratory for the diagnosis of this disease and for the final culture is practically universal throughout the city. The number of antitoxin units furnished to physicians was 45,000. The return postal cards for the release of quarantine for diphtheria and scarlet fever have been accepted by the profession and are giving very general satisfaction.

A great many cases of typhoid fever occurring in Albany through the last year were imported cases and many "vacation" typhoids developed in the city during the month of September.

Albany is at the present writing free from scarlet fever.

Coincident with an increase in the number of cases of diphtheria throughout the country, Albany has had a corresponding increase since the opening of the public schools in September. The disease is now under control.

On account of the interest aroused by the presence of smallpox in the city, a separate section is devoted to this subject. The total number of cases in Lathrop Memorial Home was thirty-nine, consisting of twentyfour boys and fifteen girls, and the only inmate in the institution who escaped the disease was a girl who had been vaccinated some years previously. None of the children had ever been vaccinated. The first case found in the institution was one of supposed chicken-pox, and appeared about March 17, 1901. It was not until April 16th that the attention of the health authorities was called and police quarantine instituted. The quarantine was raised on May 7th, and was maintained for a period of thirty-one days. The source of the infection in this institution has not been ascertained and no one outside of the institution contracted the disease.

The total number of cases outside of the Lathrop Memorial Home was seventy-four, which together with the Lathrop Memorial Home cases,

thirty-nine, made a total of 113. The entire expense to the city for conducting these cases was something less than $3,000, and outside of the regular office force, one special inspector and a cook at the Smallpox Hospital were the only extra persons employed. There were no deaths from the disease and no complications except two of conjunctivitis and one of iritis. The disease first made its appearance on November 27, 1900, and was supposed to have been brought into the city by a traveling minstrel troupe.

The disease in Albany exhibited the same mild type as noticed in other places. As a rule, all the cases were well advanced to the pustular stage before identified or reported, or even before a physician had been called. In consequence, certain well members of the family seem to have been infected before the vaccination, which was always promptly done on the discovery of the disease. On the other hand, all the employees of the Health Office were freely exposed to the disease. Previous to such exposure each had been recently vaccinated at least three times, some as many as seven times. None took the disease. In two cases there was an absence of quarantine throughout the entire course of the disease. Both of these cases were mild cases and walked the streets undiscovered, and would have remained unknown had it not been for other cases which they had infected. With the exception of these two all the other cases were quarantined, and all were quarantined by the police with the exception of three. The experience of the department in connection with these three was such as to render it inadvisible in future to quarantine smallpox cases otherwise than by the police. While in these three cases every public interest was safeguarded, still the absence of the police aroused so much fear in the surrounding neighborhood that in future police quarantine seems to be an essential in this disease. Forty-four separate premises were quarantined by the police. By far the greatest number of cases, twenty-nine in number, came directly or indirectly through one of the schools in the city which had become pretty thoroughly infected before the disease was recognized. The children in this school were generally not protected by vaccination. In but one instance did any member of the public schools, where compulsory vaccination is required, contract the disease. The study of this disease from the standpoint of protective vaccination is most interesting. Of the seventy-four cases in the city at large forty-six had never been vaccinated and twenty-eight others had been vaccinated only once in childhood. Of these twenty-eight, however, only twenty-four showed a satisfactory scar, but out of the entire number there had been but nine revaccinations. In sixty-eight cases there had not been a recent protective vaccination except at the time the disease was discovered, and then apparently too late to prevent the contagion.

So much opposition to vaccination developed in certain quarters, in consequence of which the department became seriously hampered in its efforts to stamp out the disease, that the Department of Health requested such members of the medical profession, as desired to do so, to certify as to their belief in the efficacy of vaccination. The cards were returned with