Second, to provide a practical method for a thorough understanding of the needs of each neighborhood by the residents of that neighborhood and the solution of many problems by organized neighborly effort, with the best knowledge and service of the specialists of the city in all lines, directly available, through a system of group organizations. A neighborhood of from 10,000 to 15,000 people will be chosen for the first trial of the unit plan. Direct and sympathetic contact with the people and knowledge of their needs and problems wil be secured through representative residents of the various parts of the neighborhood chosen. Health needs, especially of mothers and children, will receive first attention. A complete registration of births and pregnancies will be a development of the work. As it progresses, full knowledge of tuberculosis and housing conditions and of unemployment and similar problems will be acquired. In a neighborhood headquarters, under the supervision of the neighborhood organization, will be centered such activities as infant welfare and other clinics, and perhaps a local branch of the Health Department, etc. Here information on infant welfare, housing, unemployment and other subjects, will be given the neighborhood workers by specialists in medicine, nursing, social service and other fields. To study the application of the plan to other sections of the city, to create a medium through which the knowledge of specialists may be had in solving any problem, and to secure city-wide support for what is a city plan, a City Committee will be formed. This committee will represent all parts of Cincinnati and also leading groups such as doctors, nurses, labor unions, business men, social workers, women's organizations and statisticians. The members representing neighborhoods will be ultimately elected by those neighborhoods, and the members representing groups will be elected by those groups. A similar subordinate organization will be worked out for the neighborhood selected for the first trial of the plan, and for other neighborhoods as the work develops. The National Social Unit Organization itself is organized along the same lines as that proposed for local organizations. The above gives the barest outline of the Social Unit plan. Further information may be secured from the Cincinnati Social Unit Organization, 621 Main Street, Cincinnati. AN ACCOMMODATING OFFICIAL. The following story is told on a Health Officer in a central Ohio city. A public health nurse and social worker in making her regular visits discovered a case of scarlet fever which was not receiving attention. Being well trained in her work she at once called the city health department and in conversation with the Health Officer told him that Mr. Blank of Blank street had a case of scarlet fever in his home. "Well," si the H. O., "does he want to be quarantined?" NOTES ON MILK SICKNESS. The reported appearance of three cases of milk sickness with one fatality in a family living near Westerville in Genoa Township, Delaware County, recently, was investigated by Dr. Frank G. Boudreau, Director of the Division of Communicable Diseases of the State Department of Health. Dr. Boudreau is of the opinion that this is not a case of milk sickness. In view of the widespread publicity given to this case and the general interest aroused, the following notes upon this rather obscure and interesting disease are here published.-EDITOR. The history of milk sickness shows that it was first reported in Ohio about 1810 by Dr. Daniel Drake of Cincinnati. At one time milk sickness was very common in Ohio and Illinois. There have been occasional outbreaks of the disease since, confined principally to localities previously affected. In cattle the disease is known as "trembles" and in man, “sick stomach" or "milk sickness." It is contracted by cattle mainly in wooded pasture that has never been cultivated and transmitted to man through milk and butter. So prevalent was the disease at one time in Ohio that it seriously interfered with the migration and the development of the state. Home seekers "going west" would avoid Ohio on account of it. Suspected areas were fenced off and abandoned. There are instances of where some farmers attempted to utilize these lands for pasture later, only to result in another outbreak of the disease. There is said to be in Ohio today still several tracts of unused lands, because it is believed to be the source of milk sickness. One of the more recent outbreaks of the disease was near Urbana, Champaign County, about five years ago, where three or four cases were reported. Chillicothe had an outbreak of the disease in 1841 resulting in 20 deaths. The mortality rate for the disease varies from 5 to 45 per cent. Symptoms.-An afflicted beast first shows signs of excitement; a tendency to fight, and may attack when it is approached. Extreme trembling following exertion is one of the most typical signs. Cattle men in order to detect the disease in their herds would drive the cattle rapidly across a field and the afflicted animals could easily be located by their nervous state, extreme trembling, followed by weakness, wry neck, and finally paralysis and coma, ending in death. Bad breath with a sweetish odor is another typical symptom. Among human beings an attack shows: I. Persistent and violent vomiting Like in animals, the breath is very bad with the same sweetish odor. Cause. Several theories have been advanced as to the cause of the disease. One is that it comes from a mineral poison in the ground taken up by plants upon which the cattle feed. Prof. E. L. Mosley, Sandusky, Ohio, who has made a rather exhaustive study of the dis ease, says that it comes from aluminum phosphate and a resin in white snake root found in Ohio and Illinois. Germ Theory. No one has found a germ which seems to be absolutely related to milk sickness, but the behavior of the disease and the fact that it is capable of multiplication leads to the belief by some that it is caused by a living virus of some kind. Prevention. The best advice as to the prevention of the disease is a change of pasture and the clearing and cultivating of the soil suspected of causing the disease. After a thorough investigation of the Delaware county case Dr. Boudreau reached the following conclusions. (1) That the illness proved to be milk sickness. Reasons for arriving at this conclusion are as follows: (a) The cow from which the milk was taken was never sick, and did not become sick when driven, nor when returned to the suspected pasture. (b) The calf fed on milk from this cow never showed any signs of illness. (c) Kittens fed on milk from this cow did not become sick. (d) Chemical examination of this milk did not reveal the presence of aluminum phosphate. (e) At least three persons who drank ths milk during the period when it should have been dangerous, suffered no bad results. (f) There is no authentic history of previous cases of milk sickness on this farm. (2) Probably nothing connected with the farm had anything to do with the present illness of the residents. There is no reason to believe that the wooded pasture is any more or less dangerous than that found on adjoining farms, the fact that a fence separates the one from the other being the only difference. (3) The source of the disease was not from the farm water supply. (4) It is possible that some article of food consumed by the patients was responsible for their illness. This is merely an observation based upon no evidence but a process of elimination. (5) The clinical signs and symptoms point to the ingestion of some toxic agent; the nature of which could not be detected. CANNOT SELL MILK FROM DISEASED COW. In an opinion to the Dairy and Food Division of the State Board of Agriculture under date of July 23, Attorney General McGhee holds that it is unlawful to sell or offer for sale milk from a tubercular cow even though such milk has been pasteurized or condensed. |