Report of Joint Board upon the Restoration of Green Harbor, Experiments on the Purification of Sewage and Water at the Lawrence Experiment Sewage Purification of Cities and Towns in Massachusetts, 3. Report upon Food and Drug Inspection, Report of Dr. C. P. Worcester, Analyst, Report of Prof. C. A. Goessmann, Analyst, 4. Report on the Production and Use of Antitoxin, 5. Report on Diphtheria Cultures, . 6. Report on Examinations for Tuberculosis, GENERAL REPORT. The following report of the State Board of Health comprises an account of its general work during the year ending Sept. 30, 1897, and of that which relates to Water Supply and Sewerage for the calendar year 1897. This first portion, paged in Roman numerals, contains a condensed statement of the work done under the provisions of the laws defining the duties of the Board. To this is appended the report, in brief, already presented to the Legislature by the joint board consisting of the Harbor and Land Commissioners and the State Board of Health, upon the restoration of Green Harbor in the town of Marshfield. The second part of the report, paged in Arabic figures, contains the fuller details of the work of the Board, under the acts relating to water supply and sewerage, food and drug inspection and the reporting of infectious diseases. The following members comprised the Board in 1897 : HENRY P. WALCOTT, Chairman. FRANK W. DRAPER. HIRAM F. MILLS. JAMES W. HULL. GERARD C. TOBEY. No changes have taken place in the membership of the Board during the year. INFECTIOUS DISEASES. In the last annual report a brief table was presented, in which it was shown that there has been a general decrease, with a fair degree of uniformity, in the death rate from the principal infectious and preventable diseases in Massachusetts during the past forty years. From a maximum of 93 deaths per 10,000 living from these causes in the five-year period 1861-65 there had been a fall to 47.1 per 10,000 in 1895, or but little more than one-half. In 1896 there was a slight rise to 48.1, but the returns thus far received from cities and towns for the year 1897 indicate a considerable decrease from the figures of 1896.* Small-pox. The outbreaks of small-pox which occurred in the State in 1897 were limited to the first half of the year, and the cases which were reported to the Board were 18, 10 of which occurred in Boston, 2 in Somerville, 2 in Holyoke, 2 in Cambridge, 1 in New Bedford and 1 in Gloucester. The particulars in regard to these cases are detailed in the following table: Cases of Small-pox reported to the State Board of Health in 1897, under the Provisions of Chapter 138 of the Acts of 1883. *The causes of death embraced in the term "principal infectious and preventable diseases," as here employed, are small-pox, measles, scarlet-fever, diphtheria and croup, typhoid fever, cholera infantum, consumption, whooping-cough, dysentery and child-birth. † In infancy and when exposed. § In infancy. Only at time of exposure as far as can be learned. |