FLY TIME. Although, owing to our mild climate, which is almost perpetual spring, flies are always with us, during the summer months there are more of them, hence the greater need of care. The fact that flies are one of the greatest causes of the spread of disease can not be too strongly impressed upon both health officers and people. There is nothing too filthy for them to wallow in, and, covered with the dirt and disease germs, they seek human companionship and insist on most intimate associations. They delight to bathe in our milk and scrape their feet on our food, leaving not only the accumulated filth, but other more nasty "spots. Lighting, as they delight to do, upon open sores on man or beast, and covering themselves with the discharges and the excrement of the sick and then coming to us, is it any wonder that disease spreads? Why should we tolerate the fly? Why not banish him from our towns? Why furnish him a convenient breeding place? We know they breed in manure. Why allow it to be piled up, for no other apparent reason than that the flies can breed? Every city and town should have ordinances requiring all manure to be put in tight receptacles and removed at least every two or three days, and the health department should see that they be enforced. If this could be, a great step would be taken toward preventing the spread of disease. Professor Woodworth, Entomologist of the State University, is anxious to have some town pass ordinances against flies, and allow him and his body of able assistants to study the situation and help to make a "flyless town." What a popular place it would be! SICK RABBITS. The public press gives information that the rabbits of Oregon are dying off with some infectious disease, and that some of them are being taken to Australia with the hope that they will give the disease to their kin in that country, and so relieve it of what has been a veritable pest. The United States Department of Agriculture is also reported as investigating the disease to find out its cause and history. That the rabbits on the Pacific Coast and in Australia have been a drawback to agriculture there is no doubt, and their riddance would be a blessing, unless it comes at too great a cost. The rabbit is a rodent, and like others of its kind is subject to plague, and while the probabilities are against it, it is possible that this disease is no other. Should it prove to be plague, or some other disease that is fatal to man, the greatest care would have to be exercised or the human family would become infected. For this, as well as purely agricultural reasons, the nature of the trouble should be studied. While the Department of Agriculture is investigating the cause of death in the rabbits of Oregon, we would call its attention to the fact that the squirrels of California are as much of a damage to agricultural crops as are the rabbits, and that in parts of the State they have died off completely from some disease. Large tracts of country are now free of them which a few years ago were overrun. The gain to farmers has been great, but several cases of plague were traced with great certainty to the squirrels, so the relief is not an unmixed blessing. While at present the disease is not active, it may flame up at any time, when we shall hope for the same activity on the part of the United States Department of Agriculture in studying the disease as is shown in the disease among the rabbits of Oregon. RAT-PROOF BASEMENTS. We would like to suggest to the city government of San Francisco the advisability of passing an ordinance requiring that all business blocks be made rat-proof. It will pay by saving the immense destruction they cause, and we must not forget the danger of the rat as a carrier of disease. A HINT TO CALIFORNIA MILLIONAIRES. Senator Redfield Proctor, of Vermont, is reported as spending $100,000 to build, and another $100,000 to endow, a tuberculosis sanatorium in that State. For the good of mankind, the expenditure of a fortune in teaching how to cure, and better, how to avoid, tuberculosis, is far ahead of endowing an institution where arts and sciences can be learned. Education without health is of little use, and our country is already crowded with institutions for higher education. With one in every seven dying of consumption, a disease which can be avoided and sometimes cured, there is certainly great need of properly conducted sanatoria where the infected ones can go, both for treatment and for instruction. Senator Proctor deserves, and will doubtless receive, the highest esteem of his State, for in no way could he use his wealth to such good advantage as in combating a disease that is more terrible in its effect than any other with which we have to deal. May the Senator live long to see the good results of his charitable work. Vol. 3. MONTHLY BULLETIN. Entered as second-class matter August 15, 1905, at the post office at SACRAMENTO, AUGUST, 1907. No. 3 STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. F. K. AINSWORTH, M.D. MARTIN REGENSBURGER, M.D., President, HON. J. E. GARDNER, Attorney. O. STANSBURY, M.D. STATE BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS. San Francisco Watsonville N. K. FOSTER, M.D., State Registrar. Sacramento | GEORGE D. LESLIE, Statistician...Sacramento STATE HYGIENIC LABORATORY. University of California, Berkeley ARCHIBALD R. WARD, D.V.M., Director.... VITAL STATISTICS FOR AUGUST. Summary. For August there were reported 2,176 living births; 2,501 deaths, exclusive of stillbirths; and 1,760 marriages. For an estimated State population of 2,001,193, these figures give the following annual rates: Births, 12.8; deaths, 14.7; and marriages, 10.4. The corresponding rates for July were: 12.9, 14.9, 12.6. Marriages were reported for the principal counties as follows: Los Angeles, 377; San Francisco, 348; Alameda, 219; Santa Clara, 86; Sacramento, 77; San Diego, 60; and Fresno, 52. Births, so far as registered, were as follows for freeholders' charter cities: Los Angeles, 399; San Francisco, 380; Oakland, 181; Sacramento, 59; Fresno, 46; Pasadena, 42; Berkeley, 35; San José, 31; and Alameda and San Diego, each 30. Deaths occurred as follows in the leading cities: San Francisco, 490; Los Angeles, 329; Oakland, 154; Sacramento, 58; San Diego, 41; Berkeley, 37; San José and Stockton, each 28; and Alameda, 26. Causes of Death. There were 367 deaths, or 14.7 per cent of all, from tuberculosis, 313 being from tuberculosis of the lungs and 54 from tuberculosis of other organs. Diseases of the circulatory system (heart disease, etc.) caused 346 deaths, or 13.8 per cent of all. In July there were 285 deaths from diseases of the digestive system, 119 being deaths of infants under 2 years of age from diarrhea and enteritis. There were 233 deaths from diseases of the nervous system, 53 being from meningitis; and 163 from diseases of the respiratory system, 107 being from pneumonia and broncho-pneumonia. Typhoid fever, as usual, was the most fatal epidemic disease in the month, though the per cent of all deaths due to this disease was only 1.9 for August against 2.1 for July. The deaths from epidemic diseases in August were as follows: Typhoid fever, 47; diphtheria and croup, 29; whooping-cough, 16; measles, 14; malarial fever, 9; plague. 6; scarlet fever, 5; and all others, 10. The following table gives the number of deaths from certain principal causes for August, as well as the proportions from each cause per 1,000 total deaths for both August and July: Geographic Divisions.—The table below shows the number of deaths from main classes of diseases for the several geographic divisions of the State in August: 56 22.4 26.0 247 98.7 96.5 164 65.5 53.5 PLAGUE. It is greatly to be regretted that such unwarranted and seemingly malicious reports have been published regarding the plague in San Francisco. If not published with the express purpose of injuring that city they are the result of gross misinformation, which should not be expressed on such a serious question. The fact that plague is widespread over the world, especially in the far East, that it is a rat disease, and that rats will travel wherever commerce goes, are pretty well understood. That any city, however small, that has any pretense to being a commercial port is liable to infection is admitted by every one who has studied the disease. This liability, of course, is in proportion to the amount of trade, and if the latter is at all extensive, the city will some time have the infection, but there is a great possibility that it will be unrecognized. The only safety of any city is being constantly on guard and absolute truthfulness as to the existence of the disease. Both of these conditions pertain at present in San Francisco. The city is divided into districts, each of which is under the direction of a trained physician with inspectors, and no case escapes and every one discovered is reported and published. At this time (September 21st), there have been 36 verified cases, with 22 deaths since August 12th-certainly not enough to constitute an epidemic, nor to cause undue anxiety when it is known that everything possible is being done to eradicate the disease. Rats are being trapped and poisoned and all infected localities disinfected. No ship is allowed to leave the city without fumigation for the purpose of killing vermin, and it is highly improbable that the disease will leave that port by that means. The river steamers are also being fumigated to protect the inland towns. The United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, and the State and City Boards of Health are working in absolute harmony, with Dr. Blue of the United States Service in command. The Bulletin will continue to tell the exact truth about the situation, believing that the people have a right to know it, and that it is best that they should. They should remember, however, that they have a duty to perform in the eradication of the disease. It is spread almost entirely by rats, the watchfulness of the health departments preventing infected persons exposing others to any great extent. It is no small task to kill the rats of a city, and can only be done by the united effort of every one. If each householder will see that they are killed on his premises there will soon be none and the disease will stop. The expense is light to each one, but for a city to do this work will cost a great amount and the results will not be equal to those attained if every one takes a hand. To be successful in either trapping or poisoning, food must be kept from them. In other words, all garbage and swill must be kept in covered receptacles where rats can not get at it. This should be done in any case, but when it is desired to catch rats it is imperative. The following is from the United States Public Health Reports: THE CAUSATION AND PREVENTION OF PLAGUE. The following extracts are from a series of lectures on plague delivered June last before the Royal College of Physicians of London by Dr. W. J. R. Simpson, pro |