HEALTH OFFICERS' ROUNDTABLE The practice of local magistrates remitting fines due the state of Ohio for violation of state health laws and other penal statutes has been a very common one despite reported rulings from the attorney general's office that this is without authority. Justices of the peace have frequently remitted fines assessed for violation of section 1248 G. C., which makes it the duty of physicians and midwives to use a prophylactic in the eyes of the new born where the birth occurs in a maternity home, hospital, public or charitable institution and to report all cases of inflammation of the eyes of the new born. The State Department of Health recently requested a ruling as to the legality of this practice from Attorney General McGhee. In reply the attorney general cites a number of rulings made by his department on this question. On October 24, 1907, Wade H. Ellis, former attorney general. rendered an opinion to the Bureau of Inspection and Supervision of Public Offices, in which he held that mayor may not remit a fine imposed in prosecution for violation of state law or of municipal ordinance. In this opinion Mr. Ellis said: "There is no expressed authority inferred by the statutes of this state upon such officers to remit any fines due the state of Ohio." On April 10, 1915, Edward C. Turner, then attorney general, rendered an opinion to the Industrial Commission of Ohio, in which he upheld the opinion of Attorney General Ellis. Again on May 8th, 1915, Mr. Turner rendered another opinion. to the Industrial Commission of Ohio, in which he held: "Mayors of municipalities and justices of the peace may not remit a part of fine or part of costs when once assessed for violation of statutes. In this opinion, Mr. Turner, referring to the powers of magistrates or mayors, said: "In no case can he remit a fine due the state of Ohio, neither can the magistrate or mayor impose or collect a fine less in amount than the minimum fine fixed by statute. The magistrate or mayor has no authority to disregard expressed provision of the statutes as to the amount of the fine he shall impose. * * It is the duty of the magistrate or mayor to administer the law as he finds it and not to make authorized substitution therefor!" In conclusion Attorney General McGhee states: "While this question could be considered more fully, I do not believe such further consideration necessary and upon the position taken by this department, as outlined above, I would advise you that a justice of the peace, or mayor, in such prosecutions as you refer to, has no authority to remit all or any part of a fine or other penalty assessed against the defendant." TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Are Developing Serums - "Do Your Bit to Make Sammy Fit" - Smallpox Gaining; Look for Mild Cases - Display Your Service Flag - Protecting Children from War's Ravages The Stars in the Depart- ment's Flag - The Careless Die Young.. Safeguarding Our Soldiers from Venereal Diseases - The Government Plan War Problems of the Public Health Nurse, by Helena R. Stewart, Ph. B., R. N., Supervising Public Health Nurse, State Department of Health.. Common Colds, by W. C. Rucker, United States Public Health Service.... 509 The Child Labor Problem, by Frances M. Hollingshead, A. M., M. D., Director of Division of Child Hygiene, State Department of Health.... Insurance Statistics Show Growth in Death Toll of Lobar Pneumonia. A Program of Public Health for Cities, by W. C. Rucker, United States DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS FOR OCTOBER- Division of Communicable Diseases.. The Ohio Public Health Journal VOL. VIII NOVEMBER, 1917 No. 11 Pneumonia Deadliest Infectious Disease EDITORIALS People in general seem not to appreciate two facts about pneumonia: its seriousness as a menace to health and its infectious nature. The present month, when the disease is due to start its annual winter drive, is a fitting time to sound a warning. During the next four months pneumonia can be expected, if one judges from the experience of previous winters, to collect by far the greater portion of its yearly toll of 6,000 or 7,000 lives in Ohio. In this state and in the country at large pneumonia is running neck. and neck with tuberculosis for rank as the most deadly of the infectious diseases. The present year's or the next year's statistics can be expected to find pneumonia with a commanding lead, if the present increase in its death rate and decrease in that of tuberculosis, which have brought their lines in the last year to the crossing point, are continued. Comparison of death totals and death rates for the state of the two diseases gives the following results: Pneumonia (Number deaths per 100,000 population.) 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 108.72 107.57 87.80 112.96 111.55 109.97 122.92 141.21 143.72 150.76 146.50 137.94 132.34 130.58 131.04 132.77 In 1916, as these figures show, the steadily gaining pneumonia death rate passed the falling or comparatively stationary tuberculosis rate. Pneumonia as a menace to Ohio life for the first time left tuberculosis behind. In other words, pneumonia is now the most dangerous enemy Ohioans have among the infectious diseases. It is gaining strength, while tuberculosis is gradually coming under control. The situation in the country-at-large is similar. The only disease which compares with pneumonia as a menace, aside from its strong competitor tuberculosis, is organic heart disease, whose death rate has been increasing in a lightning-like manner in recent years. Pneumonia is not a disease which, as many suppose, attacks for the most part only the very young and the very old. Its ravages among these classes are heavy, but, as Dr. Rufus Cole of the Rockefeller Institute points out in a recent paper, "over half the cases occur between the ages of 20 and 50, during the period of greatest activity," making it "therefore of great economic importance.' Recent Studies Are The knowledge of the infectious nature of Developing Serums pneumonia has been supplemented recently by studies which have developed the fact that there are four distinct types of the disease, each with its own kind of germ. The development of serums for the cure and prevention of the disease is in progress and satisfactory results have already been achieved in the case of one of these four types. This work is well under way with a third and only one of the four appears not to be amenable to this method of treatment. In the paper referred to. Dr. Cole suggests methods which health authorities, taking cognizance of the infectious character of pneumonia, should follow in dealing with it. He recommends requirements for the reporting of cases, limited isolation of patients and thorough cleansing of rooms occupied by patients, observation of modes of infection and study of epidemics, extension of laboratory facilities to provide for prompt determination of the one of the four types to which a given case belongs and (after all these steps have been taken) provision for serum treatment, under careful supervision, of cases of the first type referred to before. * * "Do Your Bit to The mobilization of an army always brings a Make Sammy Fit" heavy increase in venereal disease. The American people must face frankly the problem presented by that statement, and must make up their minds to co-operate with governmental efforts already under way to fight this lamentable but nevertheless existing menace. It is a question now of military efficiency as well as of morality and public health, and its solution becomes doubly urgent. Elsewhere in this issue of the Public Health Journal are described steps taken by the military authorities and affiliated organizations and by health authorities of the state and local governments. As indicated in these outlines, the army authorities are striving vigorously to protect. the soldier in the camps and in the immediate neighborhoods of the camps. But in the wider area into which the war department's arm may not reach, the civil authorities and the civilian population in general must assume the responsibility for conditions. It will be their fault if, when the situation is thoroughly understood and the machinery for improving conditions is provided, conditions be permitted to exist which will menace America's military strength far more than can any battalion of German storm-troops. Smallpox Gaining; facts: * The people of Ohio and the officers charged with the protection of their health are warned by the State Department of Health to note these That smallpox is on the increase in Ohio. That the prevalent type is particularly mild and therefore difficult to diagnose. That chicken-pox in adults is extremely rare and should be looked on with suspicion. The increase in smallpox is due largely, it is believed, to the recent heavy influx of negro laborers from the South. The germs they have brought with them have been scattered broadcast over the state. Several cases have been reported to the department which followed exposure of patients to an earlier victim who was suffering from what was diagnosed as chicken-pox. In calling attention to the mildness of the smallpox noted, the department notifies physicians and health officers to be on the watch for such mild cases and to be suspicious of chickenpox symptoms in adults. Unless careful precautions are taken by health officers and physicians throughout the state, a serious condition may develop in the industrial centers and hamper munition production. * Display Your "Tuberculosis," says William Allen White in one of Service Flag his recent series of articles on wartime conditions in France, "is the most gaping wound in bleeding France. Tuberculosis is for the French the greatest and most awful by-product of the war. Tuberculosis, if it is not checked, will conquer France after the German guns have been forced across the Rhine. For during the |