demand, the following regulations were issued to every town and city in the state: [Circular No. 6.] STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. OFFICE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH, State-House, Concord. ORDER TO LOCAL HEALTH BOARDS. In all towns and cities of the state in which local boards of health have not been appointed, the selectmen shall constitute such local board of health (Gen Laws, ch. 40, sec. 4), who shall have supervision of the sanitary condition of the town or city; and in accordance with chapters 111, 112, 113, of the General Laws of the state, they shall enforce the health and sanitary laws of the state, and such rules and regulations as are issued by the State Board of Health for the prevention of disease, and for the improvement of the sanitary condition of the people. The National Board of Health having declared small-pox to be epidemic at the present time, it becomes our duty to use every precaution against its invasion of or its propagation within the state. To this end the following regulations are issued to the public and local health officers as a guide to their efforts in prevention, and we would respectfully call their attention to section 1, chapter 3 of the General Laws of the state. which gives local boards of health officers, in case of an invasion of the disease, the power to establish such further rules and regulations as the exigencies of the case demand. 1st. That no person suspected of having small-pox, in any of its forms, shall be allowed to travel on railroad, waterway, or other means of public conveyance in the state, and all common carriers are hereby interdicted from transporting any such persons. 2d. That no goods, or chattels, or merchandise, or wearing apparel belonging or pertaining to any person infected with smallpox, or which may have been exposed to such infection, shall be received on board of any train, steamboat, barge, or other public conveyance for transportation to any point within the state, or elsewhere. 3d. No passenger or goods of any description shall be received by any line of public carriers for transportation, without the certificate of an inspector, recognized by the board, if there is reason to believe that such passenger or goods have been exposed to infection. 4th All persons in the employ of any lines of transportation should be at once vaccinated or revaccinated. We urge that this order be mandatory by such public carriers. 5th. That no corpse, having died of small-pox or other infectious disease, shall be transported under fifteen months after death, and then only with a temperature of 32° or under, and upon a certificate of the health officer at the place of disinterment and reinterment, if any there be; and that public carriers and transportation lines should require a permit from local health officers, in all cases, before transporting any corpse to and from any point within or without the state, said permit to be based upon the attending physician's certificate. 6th. Local boards of health should declare it unlawful for any person who has become affected with any contagious or infectious disease, or who is recovering from such disease, to attend school, church, or any public gathering, or to mingle in society in any way, until the board of health, or some person designated by them, certifies that they are no longer liable to communicate said disease. 7th. Local boards of health should prohibit the holding of a public funeral for any person who has died of cholera, small-pox, diphtheria, or scarlet fever. 8th. Isolation should be ordered immediately upon the invasion of the disease, and rigidly enforced; and in case of extensive exposure in a community all public gatherings should be prohibited for the three following weeks. 9th. Upon the appearance of small-pox or varioloid, general vaccination should be at once ordered by the local board of health. 10th The methods for prevention, care of, and disinfection following such cases, as recommended by this board (Circular No. 5), should be faithfully carried out by local boards and private families. 11th. Local boards should make such additional rules as the business, situation. or any other circumstances not coming under a general regulation, demand; and should rigidly and impartially enforce all rules or regulations so issued. I. A. WATSON, M. D., Secretary. G. P. CONN, M. D., President. PROSPECTIVE DANGER. About the 20th of January the contract was signed for the building of the Pemigewasset Valley Railroad, with a stipulation that it should be completed within a specified time. Work was to be commenced at once, and quite a large force of laborers was to be employed. These were to be distributed along the entire route, so that work would be in progression simultaneously in all the towns along the line. It was reasonable to suppose that these laborers would be largely of a class then out of employment,-in fact, would be gathered almost wholly from our large cities in which existed smallpox; that these men, being of such a class, would come from the low dens, and haunts, and alleys, and by-ways, or at least be familiar with them, of the city; that the liability of some of them having been in small-pox localities, or even perhaps themselves recovering from the disease, was within the bounds of logical reasoning. If, therefore, some plan could be devised whereby these laborers could be vaccinated, every one of them, without regard to personal statements or prior vaccination, it would seem that a most desirable end had been accomplished. As a preliminary step towards the measure, a copy of the following letter was transmitted to the authorities of the towns of Plymouth, Campton, Thornton, and Woodstock: STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. OFFICE OF STATE BOARD OF HEALTH, State House, Concord, Jan. 31, 1882. Work is to be commenced at once upon the Pemigewasset Valley Railroad, and I am informed that a large number of men will be distributed along the line of the same. Laborers will undoubtedly come from all sections of the country, and will be of a class now largely out of employment, and many of them perhaps have been roving from place to place. With the existence of small-pox at so many different points, the liability of the disease being imported into the towns along the line of the road to be built is very great, and it is a duty incumbent upon the authorities of the said towns to take measures at once to prevent any such dangerous infection. As the laborers will proceed to Plymouth prior to the commencement of work, it seems advisable that the towns along the proposed railroad should unite with the town of Plymouth and compel all of the men who propose to work upon the road to be vaccinated on their arrival at Plymouth. Energetic action in the matter may be your only safeguard. A copy of this will be sent to all the towns interested, and it is advised that you immediately confer with the Plymouth authorities, and be ready to act at once, as the arrival of laborers will commence in a very few days. Please inform this office at the earliest possible moment your decision in the matter. Respectfully yours, I. A. WATSON, Secretary. After the lapse of a few days it was learned that no concerted action could be brought about between the towns named. The Secretary then visited Plymouth, and after consultation with the local health authorities it was decided to vaccinate all the laborers upon arrival at Plymouth, and orders were issued to that effect. Upon my way back a train was met at East Concord, having the first car-load of laborers. Hon. J. A. Dodge, Manager of B., C. & M. Railroad, being on same train, very kindly held both trains, at the above-mentioned place, till a consultation could be had with the men who had charge of these laborers. They at once demonstrated their good sense by endorsing the course proposed, and further by ordering their men to submit to the order under peril of discharge. Upon arrival at Concord a telegram was sent to C. B. Hodge, the efficient health officer of Plymouth, informing him that the men were on their way. Taking Dr. Burns, he met them at the station and vaccinated the entire lot on the spot. The initiative having been successfully taken, there was no trouble in treating subsequent arrivals with the same cordial bovine-virus reception. SMALL-POX AT CONWAY. Notice of a case at Conway was received as follows: CONWAY, N. H., Mar. 15, 1882. To Dr. Watson, Sec't'y State B'd of Health :— One case of varioloid or modified small-pox; send, if possible, five dollars' worth of animal virus. [Signed] DAVID WATSON, M. D. The following day the Secretary visited Conway, and learned that the case was that of a man who, it was thought, contracted the disease from the case at Rochester, as it was learned that he called at the place where that case existed two weeks prior. This statement was obtained through the attending physician. The case was well quarantined, the house being in an isolated locality. Vaccination was well attended to, and no further cases occurred. I. A. Watson, M. D.:— CONWAY, March 20, 1882. Dear Doctor:-Yours was received and contents noted. The case of varioloid is all right. No other cases. The greater part of the people have been vaccinated. Yours truly, DAVID WATSON, M. D. SMALL-POX AT MILFORD AND AMHERST. The following telegrams were received the same day on the day of their date :— AMHERST, N. H., Apr. 3, 1882. Dr. I. A. Watson, Sec. State Board of Health :— Case small-pox just over Amherst line in Milford,-Dr. Dearborn's patient. EDWARD AIKEN, M. D. MILFORD, N. H., Apr. 3, 1882. I. A. Watson, Sec. State Board of Health :- D. C. DEARBORN. Telegrams asking for particulars were at once dispatched. Dr. Aiken very kindly replied with facts so far as were convenient to him, he being only a consulting physician in the case. lowing letter was received from the attending physician: Dr. Watson :— The fol MILFORD, N. H., Apr. 4, 1882. Dear Sir:-I am trying to do the best I can in the case, but as the patient was taken in the first place with pneumonia (smallpox developing after a two weeks illness with the lung trouble) there has been every opportunity offered for a wide spread of the disease. I have given up all practice, attending only the case in question. Our local board of health may be efficient, but, under the existing circumstances, I think it would be well for you to come and look the field over at your earliest opportunity. Very truly yours, D. C. DEARBORN. About this time information was received that a case of varioloid existed at Amherst, and in response to an inquiry the following was received from Dr. Hinds, of Milford : |