saving of this particular group of lives is the great educational force which the "children's drive" is going to have.

Communities which have never before thought collectively and intelligently along lines of public health are to be awakened this year to the practical results which a little effort can bring about. Not only will this year's babies be saved, but a full measure of health and life for both children and adults will be more easily obtained in the future.

The thing to be remembered, in order to insure this far-reaching degree of success, is that the present campaign must not fall flat after twelve months and be followed by a reaction such as often comes after an effort of this kind. The interest aroused this year must be stimulated continuously through next year and the years that follow.

Smallpox Is Repulsed

but Not Yet Defeated

Last month's reduction in the smallpox total does not mean that Ohioans can sit back with a self-satisfied smile and assure themselves that the cause for worry is past. Thirteen hundred cases is an improvement over 2,000 cases, but it is nevertheless a total of which the state should be ashamed.

It is useless for us to shed tears over the past, and it is dangerous to be contented with the present. The real task is to make the future such that we can rightfully be satisfied with it. The performance of this task rests with the local health officers of the state.

"Vaccination Has Again

Been Proved Successful"

There is a lesson for every health district in Ohio in the following self-explanatory letter to the State Department of Health

from a physician at Benton Ridge, Hancock County: "I am glad to be able to report our smallpox epidemic evidently at an end no new cases for four weeks. All cases have now recovered and been released from quarantine. No smallpox or other contagious disease is now reported in Benton Ridge or Blanchard Township. We have had 27 cases since January 1 one case fatal. It was of the confluent, hemorrhagic type.

"Vaccination and isolation have again been proved successful. In homes where all were vaccinated there was no spread of the disease. Where vaccination was neglected or refused every member of every family took the disease."

Shipments of Chemicals for
Water Purification Expedited

Owing to the congested freight situation shipments of chemicals used in connection with purification of public water supplies have been delayed. In several instances the results have been very serious. One large water purification plant was forced to operate without the use of alum for a period of more than one week and it was largely due to the very favorable condition of the raw water that the city escaped without serious effect upon the public health.

When it is considered that the purification of the water supplies of more than two million people in Ohio is dependent upon the use of chemicals, the importance of maintaining adequate supplies of such commodities is evident.

Through the efforts of the State Department of Health a ruling has been obtained from the Director General of Railroads whereby the shipment of chemicals necessary for purification of public water supplies will be expedited. No general priority order has been made and it is intended to deal with each individual case as it arises. This ruling greatly relieves the situation and removes the uncertainty which has existed for several months.

Superintendents should watch their chemical supplies with care and in case a shortage is threatened the matter should be brought to the attention of the State Department of Health.

partment of Health. A call that carries with it much honor both to the Department and to the man who responded has taken away from the staff William C. Groeniger, state inspector of plumbing..

Mr. Groeniger, commissioned as captain in the Red Cross service, is now enroute to Palestine and Egypt as a member of a Red Cross health and sanitation unit which will inaugurate a "clean-up" program in those countries and develop decent living conditions for their people.

This departure adds the eleventh name to the Department's honor roll. Three of the eight divisions of the Department have contributed their heads to the national service.

The work into which Mr. Groeniger is entering is a great one. It constitutes the world's return of civilization to lands which hundreds and thousands of years ago gave civilization to the world.

His associates in the Department congratulate Mr. Groeniger upon this opportunity for service and send their good wishes speeding after him as he travels 'round the world to his new field of work.

Life of Service Ends for

Public health activities in our

Pennsylvania Health Commissioner

sister state of Pennsylvania have recently suffered a heavy

loss in the death of Dr. Samuel G. Dixon, health commissioner ever since the reorganization of the Keystone commonwealth's state department of health in 1905.

His ability as a public health administrator is seen in concrete form in the efficient, progressive department he built up. He also won renown in his busy life as a lawyer, scientific research worker and teacher.

Pennsylvania, with the passing of her health commissioner, loses a valuable citizen and public servant. Ohio grieves also and sympathizes with her in her bereavement."

Local Health Organization in Ohio

The State Department of Health recently received the following letter from the superintendent of schools in a northwestern Ohio village of approximately 1,000 inhabitants :

"In a community of some 300 pupils we have lost during this school year to date the equivalent of 875 days of school for one pupil, or about five years for one pupil, or about 35 days for a grade of 25 pupils. If we count the cost in other ways in doctors' attentions and charges, in failures of pupils, and consequent repetition of grades, in using the teachers' time in needless repetitions, in hindrance of the progress of other pupils, etc., the situation is most deplorable.

"And all this must be suffered because health officers are careless of their duties and because public attitude, fashioned in ignorance, says that chickenpox is a child's disease, all children must have it and the sooner it is over the better.

"The end is not yet. Because quarantines are not issued, more cases of chickenpox are developing and measles has secured a foothold unnoticed.

"The school has been waging the battle single-handed and unsuccessfully. One or two quarantines might have prevented the situation, and might yet save us from the epidemic of measles. What can you do to to assist the school?"

State Program for Child Welfare

Outline of Activities to Be Carried on by the State Department of Health and the Ohio Branch, Women's Council of National Defense, in Support of Federal Child Conservation Plans

OBJECT- To promote every possible type of service in the state of Ohio which shall contribute to the health and welfare of the mothers and children of the state.

MEMBERS OF STATE COMMITTEE - Director, Division of Child Hygiene,. State Department of Health, chairman. Representative women from different sections of the state doing effective work in some branch of the children's welfare work.

MEMBERSHIP IN COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL COMMITTEES

Representa

tives of all the different local agencies, men and women working together to the advantage of the local committee, the chairman of the local committee at least to keep in very close touch with the chairman of the men's committee on child welfare, if there be one. CLASSIFICATION OF WORK

1. Educational propaganda to establish an ultimate system of public health organizations which shall include all phases of modern sanitation.

2.

3.

4.

Prenatal and infant work.

Work for the pre-school child.

Health and recreation for the school child.

5. Development of county health centers.

POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES

I. Prenatal and infant work.

2.

a.

State bureau for pregnant mothers. b. Birth registration and family study.

C.

Prenatal service by visiting nurses.

d. Prenatal clinic centers for instruction of mothers.
Development of obstetrical facilities for rural women.
Local supervision of midwives.

e.

f.

g.

h.

Co-operation in enforcement of prevention of blindness legislation.

Improvement of system of licensing maternity hospitals and infant boarding homes.

i. Development of babies' dispensary and hospital service. Establishment of local milk stations.

j.

k. Adoption of local milk ordinances.

1.

Educational propaganda through talks and literature.
Activities for pre-school child.

a.

Health conferences with careful physical examinations.
Weighing and measuring test.

b. Local protection from communicable diseases, through the development of local health agencies.

C.

Demonstration of feeding for older children.

d. Playgrounds and supervised games.

e. Talks and demonstrations for mothers by doctors, nurses and kindergarten and playground instructors.

3. Activities for school child.

a.

b.

c.

d.

Physical supervision of school child.

(1) Introduction of proper physical records into the schools.

(2) Concerted effort to increase the number of physicians and nurses employed by departments of health and education to work in schools.

(3) Establishment of modern dental clinics.

(4) Development of physical education and recreational facilities; playgrounds, swimming pools, gymnasiums and garden movements.

Co-ordination of health work through junior leagues, comprising:

(1) Work for very little children.

(2) Development of children's efforts for daily health activities, health officers' duties, hygiene of school rooms, personal hygiene and study of absentee-ism. (3) Little mothers' leagues.

(4) Junior sanitary police.

(5) High school health work, hygiene of grounds and buildings, municipal studies, and lessons in citizenship.

(6) Development of social morality among all students. Stimulation of interest in children's tuberculosis program, especially open-air schools and rooms, and efforts to estabtablish children's departments in the tuberculosis hospitals of the state.

Contact with child labor problem and concerted effort to keep children in school beyond the work certificate age. Endorsement of programs for vocational guidance and continuation schools.

e. Strengthening of parent-teacher's associations or mothers' clubs.

f. Standardization of schools from the angle of public health. "Scoring" schools.

4. Development of county health centers.

a.

Selection of one or more counties where sufficient funds could be secured to establish a community health center where a fully developed experiment might be carried out, with all of the phases of children's welfare work as the initial step.