REPORT.

OFFICE OF CITY PHYSICIAN AND SUPT. OF BURIALS.

To the City Council:

GENTLEMEN-In accordance with the ordinance requiring the City Physician and Superintendent of Burials to make an annual report of the condition of his departments, I have the honor to submit the following: The mortality for the year ending December 31, 1882, was 1319, an increase of 32 over that of 1881, and of 7 over that of 1880. This increase is satisfactorily accounted by the increased population of the city. Estimating our population at the present time to be in the neighborhood of sixty-eight thousand, this would make the death rate for the past year to be 19.3 per thousand, a more favorable exhibit than for the past two years. This ratio of mortality, considering the nature of our population and the crowded and unhealthy condition in which a large number, to a great degree, must necessarily live, must be considered as good a showing, if not better than most of the cities and towns of the Commonwealth.

Our city was fortunate during the past year, in being entirely free from any epidemic of disease. During the Winter and Spring of '82 much uneasiness was caused by the prevalence of small-pox in some of the adjoining cities and towns, and the Board of Health thought it necessary to provide some place and means for the purpose of vaccinating, free of charge, any who had not taken this means of

escaping the disease; accordingly, the City Physician was appointed to do the work, and the hour between 12 м. and 1 P. M. was thought to be the most convenient time in which he might be found at the Dispensary on Market street. During the alarm consequent to its proximity, large numbers availed themselves of the opportunity afforded. The number of vaccinations and re-vaccinations was 701. Notwithstanding this large number there still remain a great many, both old and young, who have not been, but who need to be, vaccinated, and the Board has consequently decided to furnish a place where this much-needed work may be done during the present year.

In April, '81, the duties of the City Physician were greatly lessened by a new arrangement, whereby each of the six wards of the city was provided with a physician to take charge of the sick poor in that ward. Such an arrangement is a great improvement over the old method, as the constantly increasing population demands more time than oue physician can give to the work, unless his time was exclusively devoted to it. The duties of the City Physician are now principally confined to the City Farm and Police Station. The new buildings at the Farm, which are to be occupied during the present year, will be of great benefit to the inmates of the institution, more especially to the infirm and sick. The men and boys are at present well housed in warm and comfortable buildings. Not so much can be said in regard to the sick and insane, who, of all the inmates, need the best care and the most comfortable apartments. The so-called hospital, poorly ventilated, close, and old, with all that that term may suggest, is the worst apartment for its purpose in the whole institution. Not much more can be said of the insane department, which is much too small and ill adapted for its purpose.

Too much praise cannot be given to the matron of the institution and her assistants, who do all in their power for the proper hygienic condition of the place and for the comfort and health of the inmates.

In the nursery, an apartment about 75 by 20, where over 40 children sleep and eat, and where the only means of ventilation is by opening the windows directly over the beds in which 4 or 5 children sleep every night, but 2 deaths have occurred during the year, viz., 1 of cholera infantum in a child 22 months old, and 1 of convulsions in an infant 13 days old. This very favorable condition is entirely due to the extreme cleanliness of the room and the watchful care of the attendant in charge.

There has been no epidemic at the Farm. No contagious disease has existed during the year. Only 3 deaths have occurred during the past year wherein the disease was contracted at the institution, namely, the 2 mentioned above and 1 of typhoid fever.

The number of deaths at the institution during the year was 30,

Remembering that the class of persons who are sent to the institution are, as a rule, those who have been dissipated, careless of how they have lived, without the least regard to the rules of health, and broken down from many different causes, the above is, I think, a favorable showing. Medical skill works at a disadvantage on such constitutions.

In April the keeping of the Edson Cemetery was delivered to Elias Lyons and Edward Swan, who have given general satisfaction to those having lots in the grounds. During the year a new chapel