and Belmont counties. The county medical societies are also interested in the plans and are aiding to carry them out.

The State Board of Health at a meeting June 22 endorsed the appeal of the Ohio State Medical Association urging tuberculosis hospitals to enlarge their facilities to care for tuberculosis patients in anticipation of an increase in the disease during the war.

CONSCRIPTING TUBERCULOSIS BEDS.

Governor Whitman has written to the boards of supervisors in nineteen counties of New York state calling their attention to the bill passed during the recent legislature providing that every county of more than 35.000 population not already having a hospital for its residents suffering from tuberculosis shall erect such an institution and have it ready for occupation not later than July 1, 1918.

That the state is determined to care properly for its tuberculous patients is evident from the mandatory character of this new law. Writes Governor Whitman:

"In order to insure prompt action in this matter and to meet the demands which will probably be imposed within a year for the care of tuberculous soldiers the law provides that if the board of supervisors of any such county shall have failed to secure the site for a county tuberculous hospital, and to have awarded contracts for the erection of suitable buildings thereon by the 1st of January, 1918, it shall be the duty of the state commissioner of health to forthiwth proceed to locate, construct and place in operation a tuberculosis hospital in and for such county, and all expenditures incurred by the said commissioner of health in this connection shall be a charge upon the county, and provision shall be made for the payment thereof by the board of supervisors of such county in the same manner as in the case of other charges against the county."

The immediate urgency of this measure is the likelihood that American soldiers and sailors may becom infected with tuberculosis as those of other armies have, through the peculiar conditions of the present war and the serious exposures to which the men are subjected in trenches and dug-outs. But the gain in tuberculosis work in the state of thus having adequate provision for tuberculosis patients will extend beyond the necessities of wartime, and make possible a strong program of control and prevention in the future.

Such a program will doubtless provide some means of consolidating into hospital districts the remaining fourteen counties, each of less than 35.000 population and hence not affected by the present law. even though they have no provision for tuberculosis hospitals. The total population of these fourteen counties is 340,364, according to the state census of 1915. The State Charities Aid Association estimates that 275 beds are needed for this population. Of this number, fifty-six have been authorized by local authorities. The Survey.

MORTALITY STATISTICS IN OHIO FOR 1916.

FURNISHED BY J. E. MONGER, M. D.,

State Registrar.

Total Number of Deaths in Each County of the State For the Year 1916, From All Causes, and the Various Diseases, With Rates.

The number of deaths in ten cities of the State for years 1915 and 1916 with rates for the following diseases:

(Rate per 100,000 population.)

The number of deaths in ten cities of the State for years

1915 and 1916, from all causes and the various diseases with rates:

The total of 6,865 reported cases of notifiable diseases for June, 1917, as recorded to date of July 10th, is lower by 3,000 cases than the total reported for May, 1917, and lower than any recorded total for the month of June during the past five years, with the exception of June, 1914, having a total of 4.380 cases, 2,500 cases less than June of this year.

Cerebro Spinal Meningitis.

Last month attention was called to the increased prevalence of epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis during April and May, a total of 150 cases having been reported in April and III cases in May. The June total of 58 cases shows a marked decrease from the figures for

the two previous months, but is more than twice larger than the total for this disease during any month for June for the past five years of more accurate reports. The totals for June, 1915, and 1916, as shown in the table following, were 16 and 6 cases. For June, 1912, 1913 and 1914, 6, 26, and 17 cases were recorded. The figures for April, 1917, 150 cases, reached the exact total of all cases reported for this disease during April of the four preceding years.

Poliomyelitis.

Acute poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis) shows an increase for June over May of 3 reported cases, 23 compared with 20 cases. The highest recorded total for June of the past five years was the monthly total in 1915 of 8 cases, 5, 6, and 5 cases having been the figures for the month in 1912, 1913 and 1914. In 1916 the number of reported cases for the year reached 546, a higher figure by 100 cases than for any previous year of record, but the total for June of last year was only 7 cases, less than a third of the cases reported for June of this year. The 23 cases reported to date for June, 1917, occurred in the following health districts: Martin's Ferry, 9; Akron, 4; Morristown, 2; Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo, Massillon, Circleville, Huntington Township in Gallia county, and Bridgewater Township in Williams county, I case each.

Diphtheria and Scarlet Fever.

Diphtheria and scarlet fever continue to reach higher monthly totals than for the same months of other years on record. The distribution for June for these diseases was similar to that of May, diphtheria being fairly well scattered over the entire state, while scarlet fever is confined chiefly to the northwestern half. Higher case incidence rates for diphtheria are noted, however, in Summit and Cuyahoga counties, the clty of Akron having reported 102 cases and Cleveland 129 cases.

Smallpox.

Reported cases of smallpox recorded for June from reports received by July 10th totalled exactly 400 cases, 89 less than the total for May. As has been stated for several months, smallpox has been unusually prevalent in Ohio for the first part of the year, 2,048 cases having been reported for the first six months with delayed reports for June to be expected to raise the figure. The total for the whole year 1916 was 2,085 cases, only exceeding the total to date for the first six months of this year by 37 cases, with prospects of this difference being more than equalled by late reports. Of those health districts reporting a large number of cases in May, Akron alone showed an increase for June, 34 cases in May compared with 50 cases in June. In Middletown the total of 74 cases for May fell to 29 in June, in Cleveland, 57 in May to 47 in June, in Springfield, 15 in May to 10 in June, in Sidney, 10 to 9, in Barberton, 10 to none, a total for May of 200 cases and for June of 145 cases in the six cities. Bergholz, Jefferson county, reported 16 cases for June; Ada, Hardin

county, 14 cases; and Shadyside, Belmont county, 13 cases. From Greenville and four townships in Darke county a total of 17 cases were reported. Xenia and the remainder of Greene county reported

II cases.

Typhoid Fever.

It is to be hoped that the continued decrease in typhoid fever is actual, in that health officers are securing reports of all cases.

Health officers are urged to send in at once any late reports for the first half of the year in order that the summary for the six months may be completed and the report of notifiable diseases for the fiscal year just ended submitted.

Reported Cases of Notifiable Diseases, June 1915-17, Showing Distribution June 1917, For Cities and For Villages

and Townships.