REPORT The limit of size of our biennial report makes it impossible to give all the labors of the board for the period. All extraneous matter has been excluded and only such as might be considered of general interest has been given a place. The work of the State Board of Health has grown steadily from year to year. This is due to a number of causes and in the nature of things is only what might be expected. The rapid development of our state; the great increase of our population; the advancement in municipal improvements; the organization of new counties; the enactment of sanitary and vital statistic laws by the legislature, and a widespread appreciation of the services rendered by the various agencies that have to do with the preservation of public health, are factors that have made increasing demands upon our time and resources. The somewhat limited appropriation at our disposal has hampered considerably the work of the department, but notwithstanding this handicap much has been accomplished, and decided gains have been made along certain lines of sanitation as may be seen by referring to the matter contained in the body of this report. North Dakota has now reached that stage of its development where its various institutions are well established and its machinery of government running without much friction. It must take its place as one of the older states. The department of health should not be allowed to take a secondary position. The health of a community, state or nation is its greatest economic asset. We must not only build a wall to protect the people from foes without, but we must guard them from enemies within. Hitherto the office of Superintendent of Public Health has been looked upon as a sort of side issue and as a consequence it has been passed around; while the amount available for the use of the department has been entirely inadequate to meet its most urgent demands. The time seems ripe for a change. The health officer of the state should be given a salary sufficient to make it an object for a competent man to devote his whole time to the work, and with a sufficient appropriation at his disposal that he may be able to carry on an aggressive warfare against disease. In this way only can we hope to raise the department to that standard of efficiency commensurate with its importance. I wish to express my thanks to those health officers throughout the state who have intelligently and harmoniously worked with the department in bettering the sanitary conditions of their several localities. It is only by co-operation that the best results can be obtained. The moral and material influence that a faithful and efficient health officer is capable of exerting in his community can hardly be overestimated. It is therefore of the first importanceif the best work is to be done-that these positions of trust be given to men who are qualified and who take a keen and lively interest in the work of the office. Banner Publishing Co., stationery. 60.25 100.00 Edith Andrews, salary, August. 9-5-1906 H. H. Healy, stamps $10; rent $10; sundries, $5.25 10-5-1906 H. H. Healy, stamps $10; rent $10; express $1.30 11-5-1906 25.25 31.30 50.00 12-4-1906 Edith Andrews, salary, September and October.. 100.00 12-4-1906 H. H. Healy, rent 12-4-1906 H. H. Healy, rent $20; sundries .25. 12-20-1906 H. H. Healy, expenses to Washington, D. C... 30.00 20.25 152.63 12-21-1906 Prof. Bannon, water analysis.. 20.00 12-21-1906 Herald, stationery and printing 25.00 1- 1-1907 Cancelled balance 1,275.30 5-8-1907 Edith Andrews, salary, March and part of April COMMUNICABLE DISEASES. The field of preventive medicine during the past few years has been very much widened. Sanitary, research has resulted in ascertaining the causes and methods of transmission of many of our diseases, and with this knowledge has come the demand from the public for its practical application for the benefit of humanity. Before much can be done it is imperative that a complete record of each case of a communicable disease occurring in the state be supplied to the health department. It is not enough to report the death alone; our work is practically with and for the living. All the cases that are infected as well as all those that have died must be reported. With this information at our disposal we are in a position to deduce rational and intelligent methods for its control. The importance to the department of having a correct and full record of all such diseases as an aid to its efforts to prevent their spread cannot be over estimated. This applies with special force to tuberculosis. There is probably no disease in which there is such a widespread ignorance of its contagiousness and no disease in which this fact has been more clearly demonstrated. There is no disease where it |