health Statutory regulations of communicable disease are found in all Public but three or four states, but in many instances they are of a very general character and are not of practical application. In at least three states, however, Kansas, Montana and New Hampshire1, during the present year quite elaborate statutes were enacted covering this subject. The Kansas law embodies most of the more modern and generally accepted ideas as to the means for combating these diseases. The attending physician and also the householder are required to report immediately to the local health authority the existence of any case of disease dangerous to the public health of which he has knowledge. The house where the sickness occurs is to be placarded with a sign bearing the name of the disease. All persons sick with certain specified diseases are to be isolated, and also those exposed to them if necessary. Members of the household are required to "abstain from attending places of public amusement, worship and from visiting other private houses." They are not to be admitted into public or private schools, and parents, guardians, tutors or other persons having control of children in such households are made responsible for their isolation. Public funerals in such cases are forbidden. Disinfection is required after death or recovery. In case of threatened epidemic, schools must be closed and in extreme cases church services suspended and public assemblages prohibited. The local health authorities are in all cases to confer with the State Board of Health, and in case of neglect on the part of the former, the latter is to assume control of isolation. In several other states minor rules and amendments were passed, in some instances relating to minute details. Thus in Vermont ['01 ch.66] it was enacted that retail milk dealers using milk tickets should have them printed in coupon sheets, and so furnished to their customers, and the coupons when taken off are to be destroyed immediately. A penalty of $5 is imposed for using them a second time. This is to prevent the transmission of infection through the use of such tickets. In Massachusetts a possible means of spreading certain communicable diseases which has recently been ascertained, has for the first time been recognized by statute ['01 ch.138]. Shell *Kan. ’01 ch.285; Mon. ’01 p.80; N. H. 01 ch.13. Public health fish living in sewage polluted waters are known to be impreg nated at times with typhoid bacilli. The State Board of Health of Massachusetts may investigate such contamination and the commissioner of inland fisheries and game shall on their request forbid the taking of shellfish from polluted waters. Although smallpox has been unusually prevalent during the past few years there has not been any great addition to vaccination legislation. This is perhaps due to the fact that most states now have some law on this subject, which in many cases needs only a more rigorous enforcement to secure a very complete vaccination of the population. In New Hampshire the act requiring the vaccination of pupils in public schools was amended so as to apply to private and parochial schools also ['01 ch.19]. In Montana ['01 p.80] the State Board of Health "may adopt such measures for the general vaccination of any city, town or county in the state as they shall deem proper and necessary to prevent the introduction and arrest the progress of smallpox." Persons who refuse to be vaccinated or who prevent persons under their control from being vaccinated, or who fail to present themselves for vaccination when required, are subject to fine and imprisonment. A backward step has been taken in Utah ['01 ch.18], where vaccination is not to be required of teachers and pupils. An important factor in checking the spread of communicable disease is the isolation hospital. A good many cities are by charter or special act authorized to build such hospitals; in Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota and Wyoming such hospitals are required by statute. The Montana law of 1901 provides that municipal or county authorities may build such hospitals either singly or jointly, or may enter into an agree ment with existing hospitals for the care of contagious cases. Tuberculosis is a communicable disease which has of late received a great deal of attention from all persons interested in public health. While its contagious character has become generally recognized, it has by most been deemed unwise to place much restriction upon those suffering from the disease. The only act of the kind during the year was that of New Mexico ['01 ch.43] which forbids the employment of tuberculous teachers in the public schools. One way of fighting the health disease is by the erection of sanatoriums where patients in the Public early stages of the affection may often be restored to health. Massachusetts was the first state to build such a hospital, completed in 1898. During the present year New York ['01 ch.691] has appropriated $100,000 for such a hospital and New Hampshire, Minnesota and Rhode Island1 have appointed commissioners to consider the subject. Trades and business. There has in recent years been a good deal of legislation for the regulation of certain professions and trades, ostensibly in the interests of public health. Among the group of laws here considered are acts passed during the past year concerning embalmers, barbers and plumbers and to regulate "baby farms" and maternity hospitals. Beginning with Lowell Mass. in 1878, codes of plumbing regulations have been successively adopted in most of our larger cities. Such codes have sometimes been adopted under the general powers of public health acts, but about a dozen states provide by general laws for this local regulation of the business of plumbing. A somewhat smaller number of states provide for the examination and licensing of plumbers. Michigan and Nebraska ['01 ch.21] have been added to this list during the year. The Michigan ['01 ch.222] act applies only to cities of 15,000 inhabitants, in each of which there is to be a board consisting of five persons appointed by the board of health or the mayor. The members are to be plumbers or experts in such matters and are to receive $4 a day for actual service. They are to examine and license all plumbers; but plumbers engaged in business prior to the passage of the act may be licensed without examination. The fee for a license is $2. The board is also to appoint an inspector of plumbing for the city, and to adopt a code of plumbing regulations. Bodies of persons dead of communicable disease have always been objects of popular dread, and health officials. themselves have often considered their proper disposal a matter of great importance. It was to secure the suitable care of such bodies that the examination and licensing of embalmers was first suggested. Acts providing for this are of recent origin and are found in Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina, New York, South Dakota and 1N. H. '01 ch.120; Minn. '01 ch.300; R. I. '01 p.270. Public health West Virginia, of which those of Indiana, Michigan and North Carolina1 were enacted this year. The North Carolina act creates a State Board of Embalming appointed by the State Board of Health and consisting of three members of the State Board of Health and two embalmers. Every person now engaged in or intending to engage in the practice of embalming must apply to the board for examination and license. He must, among other things, exhibit a knowledge of sanitation and the disinfection of bodies, apartments and clothing. The fee for examination is $5, with a fee of $2 annually for the license. In Michigan the State Board of Health is made the licensing board. A still more recent trade regulation is that of barbers. Minnesota in 1897 was the first state to adopt one of these laws. This was followed by Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska and Oregon in 1899, and California, Connecticut, North Dakota and Washington in 1901. In the latter year this law was repealed in Nebraska ['01 ch.48]. The California law provides for a state licensing board to consist of three competent barbers, appointed by the governor. The members are paid $4 a day for actual service and 10 cents a mile for traveling expenses, but the sum available for this is only the amount of fees received. They are to hold examinations in three cities three times yearly. The applicant must pay a fee of $5, must be 18 years of age and of good moral character and either (a) have served as apprentice for 3 years, (b) been 3 years in a barbers school, or (c) practised 3 years in another state, and must know how to care for his tools and "to avoid the aggravation and spread of skin diseases." Each barber is given a card to be posted in his shop. The state board is to determine what schools shall be recognized. Barbers in business at the passage of the act may register within 30 days and receive a license by the payment of $1. "To shave, trim the beard or cut the hair for hire or reward" is the definition of the business. Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island had previously enacted laws for the protection of infants who are placed out to board, and in 1901 Minnesota was added to the 1Ind. '01 ch.246; Mich. '01 ch.233; N. C. '01 ch.338. Cal. '01 ch.25; Ct.'01 ch.132; N. D. '01 ch.30; Wash. '01 ch.172. legisla list. In Minnesota ['01 ch.106] whoever engages in the business Food of boarding more than one child under two years of age must tion obtain an annual permit from the health officer for which a fee of $2 is to be paid. The licensee shall report to the health officer all children received and removed. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania had acts requiring that maternity hospitals should be licensed, and during the present year a similar law was passed in Michigan ['01 ch.105] and Minnesota. The Minnesota law ['01 ch.106] provides that no person shall receive “ into their premises for pay more than one person in six months to be cared for during childbirth without a permit from the local health officer or the county physician. Such permits are issued annually to persons competent to practise midwifery for a fee of $2. All births are to be reported, and the health officer is always to have access to the premises. No person shall offer by advertisement to dispose of the child of another, such advertisement being an inducement to "come to their premises for childbirth.” FOOD LEGISLATION1 W. D. BIGELOW PH.D. BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY, UNITED STATES DEPART- A great diversity exists in the provisions of the food laws in force in the different states. This lack of uniformity is deplorable from the standpoint of manufacturer, dealer and consumer. The manufacturer finds it necessary to use several entirely different labels for the same product, and to use a special label for articles sold in each of a number of states. The dealers and consumers of one state are often unable to use to advantage the reports of control laboratories of other states. On account of these difficulties a strong effort has been made for a number of years to secure the passage of a law which would regulate. interstate traffic, and which might be used as a model in future state legislation. The present tendency of food legislation is to forbid the addition to foods of substances known to be deleterious to health, and to require that all labels indicate the exact character of the 'See also Comparative Summary and Index, 1901, no. 4810-47, 5429-57. |