MODIFICATIONS OF REGISTRATION LAW, Chapters 92 and 236 of the Statutes of 1907 make certain modifications of the law for the registration of vital statistics first enacted in 1905. The changes meet the difficulties encountered in the operation of the law during the past two years and serve to make the law as it now stands less rigid in operation than before and also more uniform in minor details. Temporary Removal of Body.-The rigidity of the law is lessened especially by amendments to sections 4 and 10 of the law for the registration of deaths. Section 4 now provides that for the purpose of being prepared for burial or shipment a body may be removed without formal permission from the registration district where the death occurred, to another registration district in the same county, or to a contiguous registration district in a different county. Thus, without a formal permit, a body may be removed temporarily from a residence in the rural portion of a county or in a separately incorporated suburb to an undertaker's establishment in a city where proper facilities are available for preparing the body for burial or shipment. Of course, before making the final burial or shipment, the undertaker must, as in the past, first secure a permit for the interment or removal of the body from the registrar of the registration district where the death occurred. Permit for Burial in Contiguous District.-Section 10 of the death registration law, as amended, authorizes the registrar of the district where a death occurs to issue a burial permit, which is legal authority for an interment not only in the district where the death occurred but also in a contiguous registration district in the same or an adjoining county. Thus, the registrar of deaths in a city where no burials take place may now issue a burial permit authorizing an interment (or cremation) at a cemetery in a contiguous registration district, as in a neighboring city, in the rural portion of the same county, or even in a different but adjoining county. The formality of issuing a removal permit and of attaching to it a complete copy of the certificate of death is now required only in case the interment is to be made in some registration district not contiguous to that in which the death occurred, as, for instance, where a body is to be shipped by any transportation company or common carrier for interment at a distant point in California or at some place in another State. Time for Reports-Local Records-Numbering Certificates-Supplying Blanks.-Uniformity in details is secured by the amendment of sections 3 and 9 of the death registration law, so that certificates of deaths or reports of no deaths must now be transmitted to the State Registrar on or before the fifth day of each month, the fifth day being the date heretofore set for the transmittal of certificates of births and marriages. By the amendment of section 3078 of the Political Code the local record of births and marriages, as of deaths in the past, is required to be kept upon a form identical with the original certificate. Similarly, the local registrar must begin new numbers each calendar year for birth and marriage certificates, as for death certificates, and must also sign his name as registrar in attest of the date of filing in his office in all cases. Section 9 of the death registration law, as amended, specifically requires the board of supervisors of the county to supply local registrars with blank forms of death certificates, as well as of blank birth and marriage certificates as specifically required before. Fund for Fees-Subregistrars' Compensation-By the amendment of section 14 of the death registration law it is definitely provided that a county recorder's fees for registering deaths in the unincorporated portion of a county shall be paid out of the funds of the county, just as the fees for registering births and marriages are expressly payable out of the county funds. Provision is also made for the compensation of subregistrars, who are now entitled to be paid the sum of not exceeding fifteen cents for each death certificate properly and completely registered and filed with the local registrar before the fifth day of the month. All amounts payable to subregistrars shall be paid to them by the local registrars appointing them, from the amounts received by the local registrars from the funds of the county. Affidavits of Correction.-Section 3083 of the Political Code and section 13 of the death registration law, as amended, simplify the procedure of correcting errors in certificates of births, marriages, or deaths by providing that the change necessary to make the record correct may be made upon authority of the affidavit under oath of the person asserting the fact of an error, to be supported by the affidavit of one other credible person having knowledge of the facts. VITAL STATISTICS FOR FEBRUARY. Summary.-For February there were reported 1,779 living births; 2,310 deaths, exclusive of stillbirths, and 1,607 marriages. For an estimated State population of 2,001,193 in 1907, these figures give annual rates per 1,000 inhabitants, as follows: Births, 11.6; deaths, 15.0, and marriages, 10.5. The corresponding rates for January were, respectively, 10.4, 14.6, and 10.3. The number of marriages was highest for San Francisco, 362, and next for Los Angeles county, 352. The counties next in order were: Alameda, 197; Santa Clara, 58; Sacramento, 54; and Orange, 50. The birth total was greatest for San Francisco, 377, and next for Los Angeles city, 359. The freeholders' charter cities with the next highest totals were: Oakland, 129; Sacramento, 45; Fresno, 35; Pasadena, 32; San José, 28; Berkeley, 27; and Stockton, 21. The death list was greatest for San Francisco, 553, followed by Los Angeles city, 356, and Oakland, 145. The cities next in order were: San Diego, 57; Sacramento, 52; Stockton, 40; Berkeley, 39; Alameda, 31; Pasadena, 28; San Bernardino, 25; San José, 21; and Fresno, 20. It may be noted that the births reported exceeded the deaths in the cities of Los Angeles, Pasadena, San José, and Fresno. If physicians were as sure to register births as undertakers have to be to register deaths, or even if physicians in all parts of California attended to the registration of births as well as they do in some cities, the State total of births would doubtless equal or exceed the aggregate number of deaths. The deaths reported for February were distributed by geographic divisions, as follows: Northern California-coast counties, 105; interior counties, 135; total, 240. Central California-San Francisco, 553; other bay counties, 344; coast counties, 137; interior counties, 317; total, 1,351. Southern California-Los Angeles, 508; other counties, 211; total, 719. State total, 2,310. Causes of Death.-There were 386 deaths, or 16.6 per cent of all reported for February, from tuberculosis of the lungs and other organs, and 376, or 16.3 per cent, from pneumonia and other diseases of the respiratory system. In January there were a few more deaths from pneumonia, etc., than from all forms of tuberculosis. Third in order, as usual, are diseases of the circulatory system, heart disease, etc., causing 306 deaths in February, or 13.3 per cent. Typhoid fever, as before, was the most fatal epidemic disease, causing 30 deaths, against 20 for diphtheria and croup, 14 for measles, 13 for whooping-cough, 12 for influenza, and 14 for various other epidemic diseases. However, the per cent of all deaths due to typhoid fever was only 1.3 for February, against 1.9 for January, 3.5 for December, and over 4.0 for November and October. Detailed figures on causes of deaths in California appear in the table below, which shows the number of deaths due to certain principal causes for February, as well as the proportion from each cause per 1,000 total deaths for both February and January. CALIFORNIA PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION. As announced in the January Bulletin, the California Public Health Association will meet at Del Monte, Monterey, at 2 P. M. April 15th, with the following PROGRAM. 2:00 P. M. Greetings by the President, DR. WM. SIMPSON, San José. 2:30 P. M. Geology of Underground Waters and Mineral Springs, 3:30 P. M. The Effect of School Life on Children's Health, PROF. HENRY JOHNSON, Palo Alto. RECESS. 7:30 P. M. DR. A. E. OSBORNE, Santa Clara. 8:30 P. M. Questions and discussions on any subject desired pertaining to sanitation or health of mankind. At the time of going to press the subject of Dr. Osborne's paper had not been received, but from the Doctor's long experience with children, and his careful study of their mental, nervous, and physical conditions we can be assured that whatever the branch of the subject of child life he may select its treatment will be vigorous, scientific, and interesting. The President of the Association, Dr. Simpson, of San José, has made a strong effort to insure an interesting meeting, and it now depends upon the health officers of the State, and all others interested in good health, and especially in the well-being of the children, to turn out and make it a success. Although not entirely given over to the study of child life, the intention is to make that the main topic of discussion, and certainly there is none which needs to be discussed more than this. PURE FOOD AND SANITARY LEGISLATION. The Legislature which has just adjourned enacted several laws which are of great importance to the State, looked at from the standpoint of public health. First among them are undoubtedly the Pure Food and Pure Drug laws. These laws were passed only after long and frequent hearing and consultations in the Public Health committees of the Assembly and Senate hearings in which all industries affected by the laws were given full opportunities to express their views. As far as definitions and requirements go, these laws are nearly identical with the national law. The standard of purity and strength in that law was adopted in these, and the rules and regulations adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture for its enforcement will undoubtedly be adopted in this State. The advantage of this uniformity must be apparent to all, as it would be much more difficult to enforce a law where two standards of purity existed. The enforcement of the Act is put upon the State Board of Health, which is required to establish a laboratory and appoint a director, who must be a skilled pharmaceutical chemist. Agents can be appointed as necessity requires, and every sheriff in the State is made an agent of the Board, and must collect samples for analysis whenever called upon to do so. The interests of the manufacturers and dealers are safeguarded against any unjust attempt to do them injury; but the punishment by a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or by both, and the certainty of getting an undesirable advertising, should deter them from inflicting impure adulterated food and drugs upon the public. Another law which was enacted in the interest of sanitation makes it a misdemeanor "to discharge mucus from the nose or mouth, or spit upon any sidewalk of any public street or highway, or upon any part of any public building or railroad train, street car, stage, ferry-boat, steamboat, or other vessel or vehicle used for the transportation of the public." The value of this law will be appreciated by all who have observedand who has not?-the terribly foul condition of all the places enumerated caused by the filthy and dangerous habit of public spitting. In the past there has been no State law requiring physicians and others to report communicable diseases. Local ordinances required it, but a person outside the jurisdiction of that local ordinance was under no such obligation to do so. This is remedied by a law requiring the reporting, by physicians, nurses, and others, of all communicable diseases, including pulmonary tuberculosis. This should be strictly observed and enforced throughout the State, for it is impossible to successfully combat a contagious disease, the location of which is unknown. There is now in the Governor's hands awaiting his signature a bill passed by both houses of the Legislature, appropriating $2,000 to be used in disseminating knowledge among the people of California as to the best means of preventing the spread of tuberculosis. As more than four thousand die each year in the State from this disease, $2,000 is not much with which to attempt to save them. It is less than fifty cents each; but where so many are dying from a disease which might have easily been prevented had they only known how, untold good can be done with this small amount. HUNGRY SCHOOL CHILDREN. "After bread, education is the first need of the people.' So runs Danton's fine phrase which has been inscribed upon one of the finest public monuments of Paris, and which the visitor frequently sees displayed in the public schools of France. More than two thousand years before Danton, Aristotle had said the same thing in a phrase not less luminous or striking than that of the French revolutionist. 'First the body must be trained, and then the understanding,' declared the great philosopher. "That education is a social necessity is no longer seriously questioned, but the other idea of the French revolutionist and the older philosopher, that education must come after bread-that it is alike foolish and cruel to attempt to educate a hungry child-is often lost sight of. In the early days of the agitation for free and compulsory education it was not infrequently urged that before the state should undertake to compel a child to attend its schools and receive its instruction it ought to provide for the adequate feeding of the child to enable it to receive the education. That argument, happily, did not prevent the establishment and development of public education, but now that the latter institution has been firmly rooted in the soil of our social system, there is an increasing belief in the inherent wisdom and justice of the claim that the state has no moral right to attempt to educate an unfed or underfed child. "Apart from the question of moral right is the unwisdom of such a policy. All practical educators agree that the money and effort spent in the endeavor to instruct hungry or underfed children are largely wasted. Superintendent Maxwell of the New York public schools sums up the experience of the ages when he says, 'Education, whether physical or mental, is seriously retarded, if not practically impossible, when the body is improperly nourished.' Horace Greeley expressed the same truth many years ago, when he said in a lecture to teachers: 'In vain shall we provide capable teachers and comfortable school-rooms, and the most admirable school books, apparatus, libraries, etc., for those children who come shivering and skulking in rags-who sit distorted by the gnawings of hunger or suffering from the effects of innutritious or unwholesome food. *Nothing more grotesque or shortsighted can well be imagined than our present policy of lavishing money upon * * |