Entered October 21, 1901, as second-class matter, Post Office at Brattleboro, Vt., CONTENTS: Address at Opening of School for Health Officers, June 29, 1908, by Charles S. Address by Governor F. D. Proctor. Page 6. Address by Hon. W. J. Bigelow, Mayor of Burlington. Page 8. Address by Judge Edward C. Mower. Page 10. Slaughter-House and Meat Inspection, by R. O. Brock, V. S., United States Ideal Dairying and Ideal Milk, by Charles Harrington, M. D., Secretary Massachu- Report of Examinations at the State Laboratory. Page 46. News Items. Page 63. BRATTLEBORO, VT. JUNE 29, 1908. BY CHARLES S. CAVERLY, M. D., PRESIDENT STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. Concerted work for the public health in Vermont, with modern facilities, dates back ten years. The State Board of Health-with powers more or less advisory simply-is twelve years older. The legislature of 1898 established a "State Bacteriological Laboratory," to quote the Act, "for the chemical and bacteriological examination of water supplies, milk and food products, and the examination of cases and suspected cases of diphtheria, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, malaria and other infectious and contagious diseases." The language of this statute was specific in respect to the purposes for which the Laboratory was founded, and it further specified that its use was to be free to the people of Vermont. Certain definite objects were in view, looking to the betterment of health conditions here, and the Laboratory was designed to benefit all the people. It is perhaps impossible at this time to measure the full significance of this law, or to estimate the effect it has had on our people. If its success can be gauged by the amount of work it has turned out, by the character of that work, or by the number of those who have used it, the legislature of 1898 acted wisely. The Laboratory has surely made a place for itself among our state institutions, and we believe it is filling that place in a creditable manner. It has done the work it was set to do. It has examined our water supplies, milk and other food products, cases and suspected cases of contagious disease, and it has done more of these examinations with each succeeding year. The Laboratory, designed for hygienic work alone, has had its work and responsibilities increased by succeeding legislatures, and it is now not only a laboratory of hygiene, but a general chemical and pathological laboratory for the state. As a factor in official and practical sanitation, the Laboratory is now everywhere recognized as a prime necessity. Our Vermont Laboratory, a pioneer in state laboratories, has served a most useful purpose along all the lines intended by its early advocates, and has reflected credit upon the state. It is not my purpose, however, to laud the Laboratory. This is unnecessary here at home. This Health Officers' School and the Vermont State Laboratory of Hygiene are twin institutions. The same movement for better health conditions here produced both. The School came with the Laboratory: the one was planned to give force and direction to the other. The suggestion of the School came from a desire to widen and increase the use of the Laboratory among all our towns. It was thus desired to familiarize the health officers with the work which the Laboratory was designed to do, and to demonstrate to them its possibilities. So should all our people reap its full benefits. The Laboratory was established in 1898; this School held its first session the following summer. The program of the first School included four sessions devoted to demonstrations of the work at the Laboratory. The functions of the public health laboratory ten years ago were not as well understood as at the present day. Many of our health officers and many physicians were then unfamiliar with the bacteriological findings in diphtheria, typhoid fever, malaria and even tuberculosis, or the importance of the Laboratory in water and food analyses. So Dr. Linsley, whose enthusiasm in the work we must always remember, made this really a "school of instruction," and was himself its energetic teacher. The School was an innovation in practical sanitation; it was an experiment. No other state had then taken such a step. The experiment was a success from the first, and its success was so evident that the succeeding legislature legalized the School, in an amended Laboratory Act, and provided for its maintenance. It is proper that at the opening of this, the Tenth Annual School of Instruction, we should take this hasty glance at its history. This School has done what it was intended to do, and more, for our public health work. We have had, as many of you are aware, the best instructors the country afforded. Specialists in some lines of public health work have been here every year, and the local health officers of Vermont have generally profited by their teachings. The technical instruction we have received has been valuable, and perhaps as valuable have been the opportunities the School has furnished for conference and comparison of notes. We have all done better work along these lines, and our work has been more uniform. We have learned here that town lines are imaginary lines where unhealthful influences and contagious disease are concerned, and that collectively we are responsible for the health of the state. We have, I believe, steadily become less selfish in our zeal for the good of our individual towns, and more neighborly as we have become acquainted with each other. So much for the past. What of the future? Our Vermont sanitation is not yet perfect. Our sickness and death rates from preventable disease are still too large. It is not enough that these rates have in many instances been cut in two, that our people suffer less from nuisances injurious to the public health, that we have better schoolhouses, purer water, and cleaner and more honest foods. We all know the limit is not reached in these directions. Perhaps the greatest need of the time in furthering public health work in Vermont and elsewhere, is the active sympathy of the public; a sympathy which will not only tolerate health regulations, but insist on them. This School should be a fountain-head for sanitation, whose teachings should reach, through us, every hamlet in Vermont. Even as the Laboratory was formally dedicated by law to the people, so this School is for their benefit. Both are public health institutions. The spirit of sanitation is abroad in the land. It is a cheering sign of the times that the press and social and literary clubs and societies are oftener lending their influence to the diffusion of authentic sanitary knowledge. Popular sentiment, popular demand in this country are the supreme law. These are potent spurs to official vigilance and activity. They cannot be ignored. Health laws are less unpopular than formerly, if not really more popular. The same public sentiment that renders our school laws, our liquor laws, our game laws effective, is bound to demand the enforcement of these health laws that more than all others vitally affect our homes and persons. Just so far as we are able to demonstrate to the public that preventive legislation does prevent those ills which are the common foes of humanity, shall we be able to enlist that public in our cause. The health laws must be founded on a popular demand else they are bound to be a dead letter Our present health laws are much the same as those of our neighboring states. These laws have multiplied rapidly during the last two decades, for modern sanitary science is the product of these twenty years. We have laws enough, and our energies should now be directed to perfecting these and securing their enforcement. This School should foster obedience to law. It is a poor law that is binding on our neighbors, but exempts us. There is no surer test of good citizenship than one's willingness to submit gracefully to health regulations, to suffer temporary hardships for the common good. In the universal crusade for pure water, clean milk and honest foods, we in Vermont must do our part. Regulations dealing with these subjects are an innovation and are apt to jar our preconceived ideas, as an invasion of individual or corporate rights. Yet we know, from the teachings of this School, that these are matters of public health, and that our private business interests are of secondary importance to the health of all. Each advance in sanitary administration is bound to meet strenuous objections. Each such advance requires patience and tact on the part of the officers of the law. Such patience and tact should result from our intercourse at these Schools. The public is entitled to our confidence in all these matters; our official acts should bear the fullest publicity. The present Laboratory law authorizes the State Board to publish "a periodical giving the results of the work done at the Laboratory and the approved methods for the protection of the public health, and such publication shall be furnished free to health officers." This periodical, The Bulletin, is utilized for the purpose of |