In Wisconsin the physicians, who are members of the State Board of Health, have been progressive enough to understand that plumbing in all its phases constitutes a most vital factor in health conversation. They have laid aside their academic notions and timeworn prejudices, and have cooperated heartily with the plumbing craft, even to the extent of attending the state conventions and entering into the deliberations and discussions. Other state boards of health might well follow the example set by Wisconsin, for the benefit of the public health.

PHYSICAL RECLAMATION.

Of the ten million young men who are registered as eligible for military service, as far as age is concerned, many will be disqualified for physical reasons. Some hundreds of thousands of these men now unfit to enter the army can be rendered fit by proper medical or surgical treatment. The war department is planning a comprehensive campaign of physical reclamation for these rejects and thus hopes to add greatly to the available number of recruits. A great many of the troubles are trivial and yield readily to treatment. Bad teeth is one of the commonest troubles and one that responds most readily to proper treatment. Those a few pounds underweight will be rigidly examined to ascertain what is the fundamental cause and as far as possible to have it removed and then by proper regulated diet and exercise many of these will be restored to normal weight. Those overweight will be subjected to similar diagnostic and therapeutic measure and the extra avordupois reduced. Eye and ear defects will be remedied. Flat feet receive appropriate corrective treatment. Incipient tuberculosis will be detected and by proper remedial agencies. arrested. In short there will be a general overhauling among the unfit while the men who are fit are undergoing training. By the time that these are ready for the front the majority of the unfit will be acceptible subjects for training and will form the second contingent. This is a most worthy work and is in line with what we have been advocating for many moons, that is, regular medical examinations that physical defects may be detected in their incipiency and the proper remedies applied.

In the examination of many thousands of working men it has been found that upward of 75 per cent. were suffering from some abnormal condition and only 10 per cent. of these were aware that there was anything the matter with them. The enforced military examination will thus be the means of detecting maladies that if neglected would ultimately lead to premature deaths. If this is true in matters pertaining to army life it will also hold good in civil life and should furnish an object lesson worthy of our careful consideration. Every citizen be he of army age or otherwise, should rejoice in the prospect of being restored to full health and fitted to "do his bit" in any field of service to which he may be called.-North Dakota Anti-Tuberculosis Association.

PROPOSE NEW HOSPITAL DISTRICT.

Because it is expected that many soldiers will contract tuberculosis in France the plan to establish a sanatorium for the care of tuberculosis victims in Erie county have been revived.

Dr. P. F. Southwick and Dr. Henry Schoepfle appeared before the county commissioners in behalf of the county medical society and urged that steps be taken to hasten the erection of such a hospital in this district, which includes Lorain, Huron, Erie, Sandusky and Ottawa counties.

The commissioners pointed out that they had been in favor of the plan for six years, but had been unable to obtain the cooperation of the commissioners in the district.

Dr. Southwick read a letter from a Fremont physician asking that the commissioners of Erie County meet with the commissioners of Sandusky County in Fremont on August 21 for the purpose of discussing a proposal to build a sanatorium in this district.

Erie County commissioners expressed the opinion that because they were pioneers in the movement and because of the central location of this county the proposed institution should be located in Erie. County.

Dr. Southwick in his appeal presented figures compiled by the state medical society showing that there are 150,000 cases of tuberculosis among returned soldiers.

"If Erie County sends 500, 600 or 1,000 men to France many of them will return with tuberculosis," declared Dr. Southwick. "They must be cared for and isolated or there will be a large number of others who will contract the disease. It is a matter for serious thought and one that should command your immediate attention."

The physician pointed out several Sandusky cases and told how a spread of the disease in a family could have been stopped had there been a sanatorium in this vicinity where those infected could be properly cared for.

The commissioners declared they gladly would join in any movement to obtain a tuberculosis hospital in this vicinity.-Sandusky Star-Journal.

DESTROY RATS TO SAVE FOOD SUPPLY.

The destruction of food by rats and ground squirrels is so great that the California State Board of Health urges every community in the state to engage in their extermination. Not only are these rodents responsible for plague and other infections, but they cause an economic loss estimated at from thirty-five to fifty million dollars, annually, in the United States.

Rats eat almost all of the foods that human beings eat:-fruits, vegetables, milk, butter, cheese, eggs, and an endless variety of similar foodstuffs, enabling them to thrive almost anywhere that these products are available.

Ordinarily, rats breed faster than they are destroyed. It is estimated that in most cities there are as many rats as there are people, and in the very thickly populated rural districts, it is said that there is a rat for every acre of ground. Since they seek their food mostly at night, few people realize the immense numbers of these rodents that are fed at the expense of the community. They fairly swarm along wharves and river fronts, in sewers, stables, warehouses, markets, garbage dumps, and all places where food is abundant.

The best way to destroy rats is to cut off their food supplies. This may be done by rat-proofing buildings and keeping garbage in tightly closed metal containers. They may be trapped and poisoned, but cutting off the food supply is the surest and most effective method of extermination.

Some idea of the expense connected with the maintenance of rats may be learned from the fact that a full grown rat consumes about two ounces of grain daily, from forty-five to fifty pounds a year. At the present price of wheat, it would cost a warehouse man several dollars annually for the maintenance of each rat upon his premises. Since other food supplies are now proportionately high, the expense of rat maintenance to the average householder may be just as great.

B. & O. EDUCATING EMPLOYES IN PUBLIC HEALTH.

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company is concerning itself actively with the health of its employes and has adopted a health educational program in an effort to promote the general health of its employes.

The following letter has been sent to all employes of the system. by E. M. Parlett, chief of the welfare bureau of the Baltimore & Ohio:

"In an effort to stimulate thought, action and cooperation between Company's officials, employes and various municipal, county and state health boards, it is intended from time to time to advise you as to the total number of cases, days lost and character of communicable disease affecting our employes all over the System.

"The management of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, feeling a proper sense of duty toward its employes and realizing its ambition. and obligation to make use of whatever disease preventive facilities may be warrented, nevertheless realizes that the greater obligation, in the promotion and preservation of health among its employes rests not only chiefly upon the individual employe himself but upon the city and state health boards as well. For satisfactory results there must be healthful living conditions as well as healthful working conditions.

"It is therefore with the idea that our employes and officials should hereafter take a keener interest in such matters, become familiar with disease-promoting conditions in their neighborhoods and encourage better sanitary conditions in their communities by cooperating with municipal and state boards of health, that this communication is addressed to you. ·

"The water supply, sewage and garbage disposal, milk inspection, fly and mosquito extermination, overcrowding in the home and like subjects, in every community are matters of vital concern to the individual and public from a health standpoint. No matter to what high degree of sanitary standard an industry or railroad may maintain its properties, if the home environment and community sanitary standards are objectionable from a disease-breeding standpoint, that industry or railroad, in consequence, becomes seriously handicapped in advancing the health interests of its employe.

"Health boards generally welcome your interest and support in such matters and your public and personal duty should encourage and enlist your full support, action, and constant interest in such

matters.

"We cannot hope to curtail diseases as tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid, pneumonia, intestinal diseases, etc., among our employes in the communities along the line of the Baltimore & Ohio unless all such communities, and our own shops, properties and equipment are alike maintained to a high standard of sanitation coupled with the knowledge and practice of personal hygiene on the part of our employes.

"Therefore it will be appreciated if you will make it your duty and pleasure to become acquainted with the members of your local and state boards of health; become alive to your opportunities for the protection of your own and your family's health and life.

"Among our employes in your community during the calendar year 1916 there were III cases and 1,021 days lost on account of typhoid fever."

TIPS TO HOUSE HUNTERS.

The following tips to persons moving or hunting houses are issued by Health Officer Bishop of Cleveland:

How many rooms have sunshine?

Has every room enough windows for ventilation?

Are the walls and ceilings clean and the paper and paint fresh?
Is the plumbing in good condition?

Are the halls clean and well lighted?

Is there a place for the children to play?

Are there stables or dumps close by?

Is there enough air space between the houses on the street?
Is the neighborhood clean?

"Unless the place can meet these conditions better look elsewhere,” says Bishop.

"The small increase in rent may be offset by better health, greater happiness and decreased doctor bills."

PRINTERS' INK-PUBLICITY AND PUBLIC HEALTH.*

J. R. McDowell M. D.,

Director of Public Health Education and Tuberculosis Ohio State Department of Health.

It is unnecessary in this day and age and before this section to argue as to the value of public health education and public health publicity as it is carried on by all of the means that we have available. The result obtained by some of our efficiently organized state and municipal health departments and by the campaign against tuberculosis prove this.

The campaign for the prevention of tuberculosis first brought out of the value of educating the individual citizen as to his mode of living. He was taught the necessity of building up his vital resistance, the necessity of the care of sputum, the necessity of sanitary workshops, sleeping in the open air, etc. This brought about an interest in the community problem, with the result that in Ohio alone we have 87 local organizations, 68 nursing centers employing 463 nurses, open air schools in 5 cities, and II sanatoria for the treatment of tuberculosis.

The same results are being obtained in infant welfare work through education of the mother in both prenatal and postnal care of herself and her babe. Efforts for many years were centered on securing pure milk supply, but only when the campaign became. primarily an educational one and was focused on the task of carrying knowledge of sanitation and hygiene into the individual home did it meet with any great degree of success in lowering infant morality.

The situation as regards the prevention of cancer is practically that of tuberculosis thirteen years ago. The same methods of education and publicity are being put into practice, and in this propaganda the American Medical Association and the medical associations of the different states are taking an active part.

In the campaign against the acute contagia, the checking of venereal disease, the ill effects of defective eyes, ears and teeth, and the degenerative diseases of adult life, the fight can only be won by spreading clear and definite knowledge of the ways in which disease is caused and of the means which we have at hand to prevent its spread.

The different methods of public health education and publicity available, may be well brought out through the experience of the Ohio State Department of Health along these lines. The Division of Public Health Education and Tuberculosis was created as such in 1914, although much work of an educational and publicity nature had been done before by the Division of Tuberculosis.

The Ohio Public Health Journal is the official organ of the department. It is the principal method of communication between

* Read before the section on Hygiene and Sanitary Science at seventysecond annual meeting of the Ohio State Medical Association at Springfield, Ohio, May 14, 1917.