of health for many years, and is therefore specially fitted for giving instructions in the many legal questions involved in public health work

VITAL STATISTICS.

There is great necessity for some changes in legislation relating to the collection of vital statistics. It needs no argument in the face of what has been done in other States and countries to prove the value of such statistics; the necessity for such work has long been recognized in our State, and attempts to collect such facts have been made in Ohio for nearly forty years. A large amount of money and much time has been wasted in this work, for Ohio's vital statistics are next to worthless. No deductions can be drawn from them as to our losses by deaths from preventable causes, nor of our gains by births. The present system of collecting births and deaths is through the agency of the assessors, who annually go from house to house, and from what they are told by the heads or members of families visited, record the required facts. It needs but little thought to see that this method can never even accurately enumerate, to say nothing of the more important facts which should be known regarding the circumstances attending such births and deaths

The faults of the present system of collecting vital statistics, and the necessity for radical changes thereof, have been fully considered in former reports of the Secretary of State, and in the first report of the State Board of Health, to which we respectfully refer you.

It is sincerely to be hoped that this matter will receive attention from the present General Assembly, and that such changes in legislation will be made as will insure a complete and accurate registration of the vital statistics of our State.

Secretary's Report.

ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD AT ITS MEETINGS DURING THE YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 31, 1890.

JANUARY MEETING.

The regular meeting of the State Board of Health was held in Columbus January 15, 1890.

In the absence of the President, Dr. Beckwith, Dr. Hoover was chosen President pro tem.

The members present were Drs. Hoover, Sharp, Cretcher, Anderson and Prof. Nelson.

Dr. H J. Detmers, of the O. S. University; Dr. Frank Billings, of Chicago; Dr. J. C. Culbertson, of Cincinnati, and Dr. C. M. Wanzer, member of Legislature, were present as invited guests.

Dr. Detmers addressed the Board on the subject of meat inspection. He dwelt especially on the dangers attending the use of either the flesh or milk of tuberculous cows, and urged the importance of providing for the inspection of all animals used for human food, both before and after slaughter.

He spoke also of the danger of eating the flesh of hogs affected with trichinosis, and proposed as a measure to eradicate this disease among hogs, that it be made compulsory to bury all dead animals immediately after death. In support of this measure he stated that trichinosis in hogs was nearly always due to their feeding on the carcasses of other animals containing the trichina spiralis, which produces the disease.

Dr. Billings was invited to address the Board, and spoke at some length in favor of a bill in Congress, which provides for the establishment of a National Laboratory for the original investigation of diseases of man and animals.

Dr. Culbertson addressed the Board on the subject of sewerage and water supply for suburban districts of Cincinnati-especially those situated along the course of Mill Creek.

He spoke of the unusual exodus of Cincinnati people to these districts, that has followed recent reductions in rates and increased facilities of transportation.

The only outlet for the sewerage of this region is Mill Creek, a sluggish stream of small depth in dry weather, which is already receiving the sewage of a number of small village, of the insane asylum, zoological garden and other public buildings. In addition this creek is the natural outlet for the drainage of a large and thickly populated area.

About nineteen-twentieths of the dairies supplying Cincinnati with milk are within this district; and the water given to the cows is entirely unfit for use in dry weather, being little better than sewage. The doctor was of the opinion that many children die from the use of such milk.

Dr. Culberston, in the Lancet and Clinic of January 11th, proposes the following measures for relieving this district of its sewage: At the north end of Lockland a new canal-bed should be located in the channel of Mill Creek and follow the straightened bed of the creek to the river.

This new canal should receive all the water from all the tributaries of Mill Creek and sewers as far south as North Cumminsville, as well as all the water from the canal (the Miami and Erie canal) at Lockland and all the sewage of the entire Mill Creek water shed. The canal, creek and sewer should be made to form a sort of slack-water navigation purpose from Lockland to the river, with a large capacity, and kept constantly filled with water drawn from the State dam above Middletown. This canal could be made of the greatest commercial use by the construction of large locks at the exit to the river, sufficient to receive the largest sized coal barges, while the sides of the canal should be walled to a height corresponding with sixty to sixty-five feet of water at the present city waterworks. No sewers being tapped into this canal south of North Cumminsville, these side-walls would be a complete barrier to all ordinary overflow and back-water from the Ohio, and would add many fold to the value of the entire Mill Creek bottom. The enlarged canal would allow shipments of coal in original barges to all points on its banks as far north as Lockland. Piers could be built at intervals that would still further enhance the commercial utility of the line. However, the greatest and most valuable of all purposes would be its practical solution of the extensive sewerage system of a large and populous area, and which vitally concerns the health and welfare of half a million of people.

Dr. Culbertson suggested the propriety of the State Board of Health appointing a committe to investigate the conditions outlined by him; with the view of making a report thereon to the Legislature.

The Secretary presented communications from Dr. Sutton, health officer of Zanesville; Dr. Rauch, Secretary of the Illinois Board of Health,

and Dr. Tomlinson, Registrar of Chicago, relative to the shipment from Chicago to Zanesville of the body of a child that had died of diphtheria. The body was exposed to view in Zanesville, and a number of cases of diphtheria and several deaths resulted.

The Secretary was instructed to pursue the investigation until all the facts bearing on the case could be learned and substantiated.

The rules for the transportation of dead bodies adopted by the Board were taken up for discussion and modified so that corpses could be shipped by express without being accompanied by a person in charge; also relieving baggage agents of all responsibility in shipments made by express.

The Secretary presented a circular letter recently sent to Superintendents of Public Schools, inviting them to participate in a meeting with the State Board of Health for the purpose of discussing questions relating to school hygiene. A number of letters were read from Superintendents who expressed themselves in sympathy with such a meeting and promised their support.

The Secretary was authorized to arrange a program for a meeting of this kind, to be held at Columbus, in April.

An amendment to the by-laws was adopted, changing the time of regular meetings of the Board from the third to the fourth Wednesday of January, April, June and September.

The Secretary presented the following quarterly report:

SECRETARY'S QUARTERLY REPORT.

Mr. President and Members of the Board:

Your Secretary begs leave to submit the following report:

I take pleasure first in announcing that the Governor, on November 27, re-appointed Dr. S. P. Wise a member of this Board for the term of seven years, ending December 13, 1896.

The circular adopted at the last meeting relative to a report by health officers on the sanitary condition of school-houses, was not sent out as the report on ventilation was to rest entirely on the use of Walpurt's Air Tester, and it was deemed advisable to have the instrument itself tested before sending it out. Prof. Nelson kindly agreed to have this done, but has not yet made a final report.

On November 18, I was requested to come to Lancaster and advise with the Board of Health just established, as to measures to be taken to control a serious outbreak of diphtheria in that city.

The board had been organized a few days prior to the 18th, and had already inaugurated vigorous measures for stamping out the disease.

The health officer, Dr. Lewis, reported that he had visited every physician in the city and secured a list of the cases of diphtheria each had treated.

The first case occurred September 18, and seventy-six cases and eleven deaths were reported up to November 18.

The exact location of the majority of these cases was not known, but in all recent cases the houses were being placarded, physicians being required to report the names and residences of all patients.

It was reported at the meeting that in several instances cases of simple sore throat had been called diphtheria and the houses placarded, unjustly increasing unfavorable reports as to the extent of the epidemic; and the health officer was accordingly instructed (without our advice, however), to personally visit each case of infectious disease reported, and satisfy himself as to the correctness of the diagnosis before placarding the house. This was agreed to by all the physicians present, six or seven in number.

The question of opening the public schools, which had been closed for several weeks, was discussed. The argument in favor of the proposition was that children would be less exposed in school than when turned loose upon the street. This argument we supported, but only upon the condition that the Board should have knowledge of each case in the city, and that the superintendent of schools should be promptly notified of each case reported, and precautions taken to keep infected children and clothing from the schools. And furthermore, in consideration of the fact that a number of cases of diphtheria had already occurred, the location of which was not known, it was urged that it would be unsafe to open the schools until each house in which diphtheria had occurred had been found and thoroughly disinfected. Where the disease was still in progress, children from such houses were to be kept from school.

Acting upon this advice, the Board instructed the health officer to employ a competent assistant, and to hunt out each infected house in the city and thoroughly disinfect it.

It was further advised that a complete sanitary survey be made of the city, and all nuisances found, promptly abated.

Under the guidance of Dr. J. H. Goss, the following facts regarding the sewerage of Lancaster were learned: A considerable portion of Lancaster is located on a moderately high hill which slopes in all directions. On the east side two three-foot brick sewers were built a number of years ago, which receive storm water and also the drainage from a small number of houses connected with them.

These sewers pass under the State canal and discharge upon an open, marshy plain, about forty feet below the level of that portion of the city.