Extracts from Correspondence.

thence into the street, and thence wherever chance might take them. Another sample nuisance, which had existed at least five years, was produced by the custom of emptying the contents of privy vaults into a marshy piece of land bordering on the south line of the 1st ward. A district in this immediate vicinity, known as the Pearl Street district had for a long time been infected with Diphtheria and Scarlet Fever, and death had held high carnival, though no exact figures can be given. The same thing may be said of the district in the neighborhood of the stable above mentioned. Since the improvement brought about by the removal of these conditions there has been a corresponding diminution of both diseases. These instances are only samples of a number, some twenty-five in all in which the Board of Health has acted.

The requirements of the law with respect to contagious disease and its report have been closely followed; houses are placarded when such disease is reported in them, and proper precautions are taken. The result of efforts for the restriction of contagious disease has been quite good.

The keeping of pigs, cows, poultry, etc., and the toleration of slaughterhouses within the city limits, together with the absence of any system of scavengering make up the worst of our unsanitary conditions. It will hardly be credited that when it was proposed to license a public scavenger and invest him with sanitary police powers, that the action was opposed and defeated on the ground that it would be constituting a monopoly and might shut out some poor drayman who might have a chance to remove garbage. Comment might be made but it isn't necessary.

L. H. EATON, M. D.

WOOD COUNTY.

Auburndale, town.- A Board of Health has been organized as required by law, and has held three meetings since organization, though not at stated times. The Health Officer's compensation is per diem for services actually rendered.

The improvements in sanitation have been of a kind that are effective, but do not tell for much in a report of this kind. They are such as are concerned in private dwellings, for example, the better drainage of cellars, the detaching of barns, stables and similar out-buildings from dwellinghouses, etc., of which sort of work a great deal has been done, though there is yet room for much more.

It appears to me that undrained and unventilated cellars in which large quantities of vegetable matters are stored each year to remain from four to six months and even longer, with the living rooms stopped up so that no breath of fresh air can get into them, are the conditions that most need rectifying in this vicinity. Of eleven cases of Diphtheria that occurred here during the year, all in two families occupying one small house, were in such an unventilated place as is above described. Strangely enough, there was but one death.

The law respecting contagious cases of disease is generally complied with, and report is made to the State Board of Health in so far as renewed outbreaks are concerned. Each case of a given outbreak is not reported to the State Board, although it is made known to this local board. When such report is made the family is isolated, the house is placarded and all persons are warned off. The results of such measures have been very good, and the spread of contagious disease has been restricted without difficulty.

Few obstacles of any weight have been met, and in those that have been encountered, the best way as yet discovered is that of setting forth the reasons for what is required. When people understand just what is wanted and know that it is nothing but what is fair and that all are ex

Extracts from Correspondence.

pected to do the same thing under like circumstances, there is no difficulty. We are all too ignorant in many respects.

J. M. TUTTLE,
Health Officer.

Centralia.-- A Health Board has been organized in this city and has held four sessions, though not at stated times. The Health Officer has a per diem compensation for work actually done, at the rate of $10.

Considerable work has been done in the way of drainage, etc. I cannot give the cost, but the work was done at the suggestion of the Health Officer, based upon a careful inspection of cellars, wells, etc. In addition to this work, wells have been condemned and filled up, privy vaults have been cleaned and disinfected, pig pens have been removed and contagious disease has been quarantined and kept under control.

Of unsanitary conditions the worst is the marshy land bordering on the town, from which, in my opinion, we may expect trouble in future.

I do not think that over one-half of all the cases of contagious disease that occur are reported, but when reports are made the houses are placarded, proper quarantine precautions are taken, and the premises are disinfected as far as possible. Owing to the lack of reports already mentioned, efforts for the control of contagious disease are not so successful as they might be. In the failure to report I believe lies the reason. why Scarlet Fever obtained such a foothold in the place.

An obstacle of some importance was the unwillingness of many people to keep their children at home when Scarlet Fever or like sickness was in their families, and the only means by which they could be made to do so was by threatening to place an officer to keep all the family confined.

A. L. RIDGMAN, M. D.

Grand Rapids, city.- A Board of Health has been organized here, but does not hold regular meetings. The Health Officer has no compensation whatever. About $400.00 has been expended for drainage, sewerage, etc., in a way that was decidedly in the interests of the public health. The chief work done under the immediate auspices of the Board of Health has been in connection with the restriction of Scarlet Fever. There has been a very commendable degree of co-operation with the local board in its efforts for this end, and the Health Officer has been sustained in every instance in his action for quarantining cases of the disease in question, while the city marshal has been equally prompt in executing orders given him.

There are many unsanitary conditions within the jurisdiction of the board, among them marshy holes which are the receptacles of filth of all kinds, foul privies too numerous to mention, a few pig-pens, stables and barns which are anything but creditable to the place.

I do not believe that more than two-thirds of the cases of contagious disease that occur are reported. There appears to be an inexcusable indisposition to make reports on the part of some of our resident physicians.

We have had many cases of what I must call Typho-Malarial Fever in default of a better name, but which I believe to be largely due to a bad water supply. Some time ago a survey of this city was made with a view to ascertaining the relations of the occurrence of sickness with the character of water supply, the results being marked upon a map of the city. In just the localities where Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria were most frequent, and where the fatality was most marked then, there is to-day the most difficulty with the peculiar form of fever just mentioned.

I am convinced that there must be more attention given to the matter of disposal of refuse generally, to the better construction of privies, to the location of barn-yards, stables, pig-pens, etc., and to the better and more extensive drainage of low and filthy localities, than has as yet been the case before our city can take the place it might hold in a sanitary point of view. G. F. WITTER, M. D.

Extracts from Correspondence.

Marshfield.- A Board of Health has been organized in due form, and holds meetings as occasion requires. The Health Officer is paid in proportion to the work done.

Cess-pools have been filled up; a slaughter house was declared a nuisance and was closed, and the meat from it was confiscated and burned. Every effort was made to restrict the spread of contagious disease, of which more will be said hereafter.

There are still many foul privies, alleys, and the like that could be much improved, but there is no general condition that could affect the public health.

I think that all cases of contagious disease are reported. The Health Officer inspects each case in person, and uses all possible means to prevent the disease from spreading, and I think with success when orders are followed. On one occasion we called in officers to prevent a public funeral service in a case of death from Diphtheria.

Generally no trouble has been experienced apart from that caused by ignorance and neglect; in our community as in many others, there are many who are careless and who give trouble in that way, but there are few who are wilfully disobedient. Children allowed to run about when they should be kept strictly within doors, are a prolific source of difficulty. During the past year we have had an unusual number of cases of Diphtheria, more than in any single year since 1883, and many have occurred in houses where the sanitation was certainly much better than in some that were not affected at all. Scarlet and Typhoid Fevers have also been of frequent occurrence.

W. H. BUDGE, M. D.

Richfield. The board of supervisors resolved itself into a Board of Health and appointed a Health Officer, but has held no stated meetings, there seeming to be no special reason therefor. The Health Officer has $5.00 per annum as compensation.

Orders have been made and published requiring the destruction of all refuse or offal by fire. There was some difficulty in making a part of the people understand that the Board of Health had any powers to enforce directions given, but the plan of imposing a fine and costs was effectual in convincing them. Of course this was only done in extreme cases.

J. C. DAVIS,

Secretary of Board of Health.