1. To investigate or to have investigated, each case as filed with him in pursuance with the law, and any other such case as may come to his attention.

2. To report all cases of inflammation of the eyes of the new born and the result of all such investigation as the state board of health shall direct.

3. To conform to such other rules and regulations as the state board of health shall promulgate for his further guidance.

A nursing service for the prevention of blindness is maintained by the State Department of Health to assist local health authorities in caring for cases of inflammation of the eyes of the newborn. With the limited appropriations at its disposal, however, the Department is able to care for emergency cases only. A large share of the work of guarding the children of the state against preventable blindness must rest with the local health authorities.

The health officer who wishes to do his part toward making the next generation able to bear the burdens to which it will fall heir, must exert every effort to see that the law for the prevention of blindness is enforced within his district and that every case of inflammation of the eyes of the newborn receives proper attention.

Measles and Whooping Cough
Are Notifiable Diseases

*

One important source of danger to the health and lives of Ohio children is the laxity of many physicians in reporting cases of measles and whooping cough-the commonest of the childhood diseases.

A very liberal estimate places the number of reported cases of measles at about two-thirds of the number of recognized cases. The proportion of whooping cough cases reported is little higher.

It needs to be impressed upon the minds of physicians that these are reportable diseases, for despite the efforts of the State Department of Health to make this fact clear, there are still many doctors who think they need to report only those diseases in which state and local regulations require quarantine.

As Ohio laws now stand, the question of quarantining these diseases is left to the local health authorities for decision. In many communities, the health board allows them to go unquarantined, and physicians erroneously believe that they need not be reported.

The truth of the matter is, however, that measles and whooping cough, like numerous other diseases for which Ohio statutes do not require quarantine, nevertheless are on the list of notifiable diseases.

The importance of the reporting of communicable diseases is em

phasized in the statement of the United States Public Health Service that "no health department, state or local, can effectively prevent or control disease without knowledge of when, where and under what conditions cases are occurring."

The physician who fails to report measles and whooping cough is therefore hampering the state and local health authorities in their efforts to control diseases which in 1916 killed 1,456 Ohioans.

Municipal Child Hygiene
Divisions Will Help

*

One step in Ohio's campaign to conserve her children should be the organization of more municipal bureaus and divisions of child hygiene than now exist. Through such organization, giving the movement official standing in the cities, child welfare efforts can be more efficiently directed and better co-ordinated than where they are left entirely to volunteer enterprise.

This does not mean that the work of volunteer organizations should in the least be belittled. Such bodies are doing valuable work in many communities, and to eliminate them would be to give child hygiene work a serious setback.

A private association, however, though its work be ever so valuable, can never have the weight of authority which is possessed by a governmental agency — national, state or city. Neither does it always make possible such concentration and centralization of effort as does the official bureau.

The ideal plan, therefore, is to install the city child hygiene division, to direct child welfare work in the city and to co-operate with and coordinate the activities of such private agencies as are working along similar lines. Suggestions for such organization are given in Dr. Bolt's article in this number.

A half-dozen cities of the state have placed such control in the hands of their municipal health departments and have, more or less completely, organized divisions in the departments to carry out this function. In the other municipalities, however, methods to fit the local situation must be carefully worked out and put into operation before the problems of child hygiene can be most effectively met.

Baby-Saving Campaign as an Educational Force

* **

To preserve for lives of worth and service to society 4,510 babies who under our "normally abnormal" conditions of infant

mortality would be prematurely and unnecessarily taken away is an inspiring goal. But in the final analysis, even more important than the

saving of this particular group of lives is the great educational force which the "children's drive" is going to have.

Communities which have never before thought collectively and intelligently along lines of public health are to be awakened this year to the practical results which a little effort can bring about. Not only will this year's babies be saved, but a full measure of health and life for both children and adults will be more easily obtained in the future.

The thing to be remembered, in order to insure this far-reaching degree of success, is that the present campaign must not fall flat after twelve months and be followed by a reaction such as often comes after an effort of this kind. The interest aroused this year must be stimulated continuously through next year and the years that follow.

Smallpox Is Repulsed

but Not Yet Defeated

Last month's reduction in the smallpox total does not mean that Ohioans can sit back with a self-satisfied smile and assure themselves that the cause for worry is past. Thirteen hundred cases is an improvement over 2,000 cases, but it is nevertheless a total of which the state should be ashamed.

It is useless for us to shed tears over the past, and it is dangerous to be contented with the present. The real task is to make the future such that we can rightfully be satisfied with it. The performance of this task rests with the local health officers of the state.

*

"Vaccination Has Again Been Proved Successful"

There is a lesson for every health district. in Ohio in the following self-explanatory letter to the State Department of Health

from a physician at Benton Ridge, Hancock County:

"I am glad to be able to report our smallpox epidemic evidently at an end- no new cases for four weeks. All cases have now recovered and been released from quarantine. No smallpox or other contagious disease is now reported in Benton Ridge or Blanchard Township. We have had 27 cases since January. I one case fatal. It was of the confluent, hemorrhagic type.

"Vaccination and isolation have again been proved successful. In homes where all were vaccinated there was no spread of the disease. Where vaccination was neglected or refused every member of every family took the disease."

Shipments of Chemicals for
Water Purification Expedited

Owing to the congested freight situation shipments of chemicals used in connection with purification of public water supplies have been delayed. In several instances the results have been very serious. One large water purification plant was forced to operate without the use of alum for a period of more than one week and it was largely due to the very favorable condition of the raw water that the city escaped without serious effect upon the public health.

When it is considered that the purification of the water supplies of more than two million people in Ohio is dependent upon the use of chemicals, the importance of maintaining adequate supplies of such commodities is evident.

Through the efforts of the State Department of Health a ruling has been obtained from the Director General of Railroads whereby the shipment of chemicals necessary for purification of public water supplies will be expedited. No general priority order has been made and it is intended to deal with each individual case as it arises. This ruling greatly relieves the situation and removes the uncertainty which has existed for several months.

Superintendents should watch their chemical supplies with care and in case a shortage is threatened the matter should be brought to the attention of the State Department of Health.

Department Man Will Help

Clean Up Holy Land and Egypt

Another opportunity to serve the

nation's cause of liberty and de

mocracy has come to the State De

partment of Health. A call that carries with it much honor both to the Department and to the man who responded has taken away from the staff William C. Groeniger, state inspector of plumbing.

Mr. Groeniger, commissioned as captain in the Red Cross service, is now enroute to Palestine and Egypt as a member of a Red Cross health and sanitation unit which will inaugurate a "clean-up" program in those countries and develop decent living conditions for their people.

This departure adds the eleventh name to the Department's honor roll. Three of the eight divisions of the Department have contributed their heads to the national service.

The work into which Mr. Groeniger is entering is a great one. It constitutes the world's return of civilization to lands which hundreds and thousands of years ago gave civilization to the world.

His associates in the Department congratulate Mr. Groeniger upon this opportunity for service and send their good wishes speeding after him as he travels 'round the world to his new field of work.

Life of Service Ends for

Public health activities in our sister state of Pennsylvania have recently suffered a heavy

Pennsylvania Health Commissioner

loss in the death of Dr. Samuel G. Dixon, health commissioner ever since the reorganization of the Keystone commonwealth's state department of health in 1905.

His ability as a public health administrator is seen in concrete form in the efficient, progressive department he built up. He also won renown in his busy life as a lawyer, scientific research worker and teacher.

Pennsylvania, with the passing of her health commissioner, loses a valuable citizen and public servant. Ohio grieves also and sympathizes with her in her bereavement.

Local Health Organization in Ohio

The State Department of Health recently received the following letter from the superintendent of schools in a northwestern Ohio village of approximately 1,000 inhabitants :

"In a community of some 300 pupils we have lost during this school year to date the equivalent of 875 days of school for one pupil, or about five years for one pupil, or about 35 days for a grade of 25 pupils. If we count the cost in other ways in doctors' attentions and charges, in failures of pupils, and consequent repetition of grades, in using the teachers' time in needless repetitions, in hindrance of the progress of other pupils, etc., the situation is most deplorable.

"And all this must be suffered because health officers are careless of their duties and because public attitude, fashioned in ignorance, says that chickenpox is a child's disease, all children must have it and the sooner it is over the better.

"The end is not yet. Because quarantines are not issued, more cases of chickenpox are developing and measles has secured a foothold unnoticed.

"The school has been waging the battle single-handed and unsuccessfully. One or two quarantines might have prevented the situation, and might yet save us from the epidemic of measles. What can you do to to assist the school?"