the city. I wish you would advise me in reference to this-what the city could or ought to do, and greatly oblige,

October 15, 1892.

Mr. J. O. BROWN, Chief of Department of Public Safety, Pittsburg, Pa.: DEAR SIR: Referring to your favor of September 20, which would not have remained so long unanswered but for excessive pressure of duties in connection with the cholera excitement and lack of clerical assistance. I would say with reference to the question suggested as to the present manner of disposal of the garbage, cesspool matter, etc., of your State, that I consider the dumping of such material into a dam with a very slow current extremely dangerous. I took especial pains to observe the current in the Allegheny river on the occasion of my last visit to Pittsburg, and I should say that at the point at which I observed it instead of half a mile an hour it could not have been the twentieth of a mile an hour. Under these circumstances the opportunity for exudation amounts to almost nothing. The material must become more or less decomposed and putrid, and although the water supply of Pittsburg is so far up the stream that it is probably out of danger proper as far as this coast is concerned, yet the entire mass of water in the dam must become contaminated, and the emanations from it must be imminently unwholesome.

In my judgment, therefore, the present disposition of the filth of the State must be absolutely condemned. It should either be removed below the dam where a swift current will afford an opportunity of gradual oxidation, or subjected to rapid oxidation in the crematory.

With the facilities which you already have in Pittsburg for the cremation of such material, I am surprised that the other method should ever have been adopted.

Mr. Gray writes me that the blank orders for abatement which I sent you did not have my signature as I intended. I therefore ordered some more sent you at once.

Yours very truly,

BENJAMIN LEE,

Secretary.

(t.) Sanitation in Railroad Construction.
FROM WILKES-BARRE AND EASTERN RAILROAD COMPANY.

October 11, 1892.

Dr. BENJAMIN LEE, Secretary State Board of Health, 1532 Pine Street,

Philadelphia:

DEAR SIR: Your favor of October 5 in relation to sanitary arrangements connected with the construction of the Wilkes-Barre and Eastern

17-16-92

railroad, is just at hand. I have already had some correspondence with Dr. Charles McIntire, of Easton, Pa., on the same subject, and sent him a list of all the contractors along the line of this road and their addresses some time ago. I have not since heard anything from him. I do not know any physician along the line of the road whom I would care to name for appointment as special medical inspector. I have had some talk with Dr. Taylor, the representative of your Board in this city, who seems to think that the principal danger now would be a contamination of sources of water supply with typhoid fever germs. The only place that I can now think of where this trouble is likely to occur would be on the Spring Brook Water Shed, about thirteen or fourteen miles from here. It has occurred to me that Dr. Taylor would be best able to make the necessary examinations there. I would be glad to co-operate in any way I can to aid you in this matter, though I am inclined to think it is a subject that should be brought directly to the attention. of the contractors along the line of the road, as we have no power to control their actions in matters of this kind. I send you herewith the names and addresses of all the contractors along the line of this road. Very sincerely yours, W. P. RYMAN, President.

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS.

PHILADELPHIA, October 26, 1892.

DEAR SIR: I desire to call your attention as a contractor on the Wilkes-Barre and Eastern railroad to the importance of unusually strict sanitary precautions in regard to the habits of your workmen and laborers in consequence of the danger of the arrival of cholera in this country from Europe. At every point where your men encamp for any length of time you should have garbage pits and cesspools distant at least a quarter of a mile from any running stream. These should each day have fresh, clean earth mixed with quicklime thrown upon the deposit of the previous day, and when the entire deposit has reached within six inches of the surface should be covered completely with fresh earth and lime up to the surface level. You should insist on these conveniences being made use of by the men, and discharge upon the spot any who are careless in these respects.

Yours very respectfully,
(Signed)

BENJAMIN LEE,
Secretary.

APPENDIX D.

REPORTS OF CONFERENCES AND CONVENTIONS.

1. Report of a Conference of State and Municipal Boards of Health held at Chicago, January 14, 1892, with a View to Arranging for an Exhibit of the Official and Sanitary Work of the Country at the World's Columbian Exposition.

2. The Opening of the Institute of Hygiene at the University of Pennsylvania, February 22, 1892.

3. Proceedings of the State Sanitary Convention held at Erie, March 29, 30, 31, 1892. 4. Conferences of Boards of Health held at Lansing, Michigan, June.

5. Report of the Secretary as Chairman of the Section on State Medicine of the American Medical Association, held at Detroit, Michigan, June.

6. Conference of the State Boards of Health of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, held at Pittsburg.

7. Conference with the Philadelphia Board of Trade.

1. MINUTES OF A CONFERENCE OF STATE AND MUNICIPAL BOARDS OF HEALTH, HELD AT CHICAGO, THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1892, WITH A VIEW TO ARRANGING FOR AN EXHIBIT OF THE OFFICIAL SANITARY WORK OF THE COUNTRY AT THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

In

vania,

response to a suggestion of the State Board of Health of Pennsyla conference of representatives of State and Municipal Boards of Health was held at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago, Thursday, January 14, at 10 a. m. There were present the following secretaries or representatives of State Boards of Health, viz:

Dr. H. B. Baker, Michigan; Dr. F. W. Reilly, Illinois; Dr. J. T. Reeve, Wisconsin; Dr. H. H. Clark, lowa; Dr. C. McClellan, Provincial Board of Health of Ontario; Dr. John H. Rauch, representing the American Public Health Association; Dr. C. D. Smith, Maine; Dr. M. O'Brien, Kansas; Dr. C. N. Hewitt, Minnesota; Dr. S. P. Wise, Ohio; Dr. C. N. Metcalf, Indiana; Dr. Benjamin Lee, Pennsylvania

The following representatives of Municipal Boards of Health: Hon. Peter Rush, Controller of the city of Detroit; Dr. J. H. D. McShane, Health Commissioner, Baltimore; Dr. John D. Ware, Commissioner of Health, Chicago; Dr. D. S. Shellabarger, Health Commissioner, Sioux

City; Dr. U. O. B. Wingate, Commissioner of Health, Milwaukee; Dr. Jamin Strong, Board of Health, Cleveland; J. H. Kellog, Esq., Secretary, Department of Health, Chicago.

Letters or telegrams, expressing sympathy with the movement, regretting inability to be present, and promising the hearty co-operation of their respective Boards in any plan of exhibit which the Conference might devise, were received from the following Secretaries of State Boards of Health:

Dr. J. H. Hamilton, Vermont; Dr. N. D. Baker, West Virginia; Dr. J. Y. Porter, Florida; Dr. C. A. Lindsley, Connecticut; Dr. T. F. Wood, North Carolina; Dr. Jerome Cochran, Alabama; Dr. C. N. Fisher, Rhode Island; Dr. J. H. McCormack, Kentucky; E. B. Frazer, Esq., Delaware; Dr. C. W. Chancellor, Maryland; Dr. J. A. Overstreet, Oklahoma Territory; Dr. E. Pelletier, Province of Quebec; Dr. L. F. Salomon, Louisiana; Dr. C. N. Hammett, District of Columbia; Dr. S. W. Abbot, Massachusetts.

And from the following representatives of Municipal Boards of Health: Crosby Gray, Esq., Bureau of Health, Pittsburg; Dr. Ernest Winter, Board of Health of Buffalo; Dr. J. W. Prendergast, Health Officer, Cincinnati; Dr. H. B. Horlbeck, Commissioner of Health, Charleston; Dr. S. J. Finney, Commissioner of Health, St. Louis; Emmons Clark, Esq., Secretary Board of Health, New York; Dr. William H. Ford, President Board of Health, Philadelphia; Dr. James W. Keeney, Health Officer, San Francisco; Dr. Welsh, President Board of Health, Grand Rapids: W. P. Dunwoody, Esq., Secretary National Board of Health; Dr. R. Harvey Reed, Health Officer, Mansfield, Ohio.

On motion of Dr. Benjamin Lee, Dr. John H. Rauch was called to the chair. Dr. Lee was elected Secretary.

The Chairman called upon the Secretary to state the object of the meeting. The Secretary accordingly read a copy of a letter from Dr. Rauch to the Director General of the Exposition, as follows:

"COLONNADE HOTEL, PHILADELPHIA, PA.,

"Hon. GEO. R. DAVIS, Director General Columbian Exposition, Chicago,

"Illinois:

"DEAR SIR: His Excellency the Governor of Pennsylvania, desiring to have the interests of his State presented in the fullest manner at the World's Columbian Exposition, communicated with Dr. Benjamin Lee, Secretary of the State Board of Health, requesting that the work of the Sanitary Department of the Commonwealth should be brought to the attention of the public on that occasion in some fitting manner.

"Dr. Lee, feeling that the exhibit or presentation of the work of a single State or Board would not be of sufficient interest and importance to attract general attention, considered it expedient to communicate with the Secretaries of State and Municipal Boards of Health, and with my

self, as Chairman of the 'Committee of the American Public Health Association, to co-operate with the Exposition Commission,' with a view to obtaining such a general presentation of the organization and methods of the various sanitary bodies of the country, as would be both interesting and profitable.

:

As a result of this interchange of views, it has been decided to hold a Conference of Sanitarians, generally representatives of official bodies, at Chicago, on Thursday, January 14, 1892. I feel it to be important that your commission should participate in this meeting, and trust you will be represented. It will be held at the Grand Pacific Hotel and will convene at 10 a. m.

"Very truly yours,

"(Signed) JOHN H. RAUCH."

To the above letter the following reply was received:
"OFFICE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION,

"Dr. JOHN H. RAUCH, Springfield, Ill.:

"Chicago, Ill.

"SIR: I am in receipt of your favor of January 7, advising me of the proposed Conference of Sanitarians at Chicago, January 14, and I shall take pleasure in arranging to have some representative of the Exposition present at the meeting.

"I have referred your letter to Dr. S. H. Peabody, Chief of the Department of Liberal Arts, with the request that he give it his personal attention.

"Thanking you for your interest in this branch of the Exposition. work, I am,

"Very respectfully yours,
"(Signed)

GEO. R. DAVIS, "Director General."

The Secretary considered that the above letters stated succinctly the objects of the Conference

When called upon by the Governor of his State for a sanitary exhibit, he had felt entirely at a loss as to what suggestions to make. Since coming to Chicago, he had conversed with members of other Boards, and found that they had experienced the same difficulty. Interviews had taken place between Dr. Rauch and himself and the President of the Executive Department of the Exposition, the President of the Department of Liberal Arts and the President of the Department of Auxiliary Congresses, which showed that while those who were commercially interested in sanitary appliances, had been prompt in their applications for space, so that there would be a complete and valuable exhibit of such articles, the scientific aspect of sanitary work had as yet received little attention. He felt convinced that the officers of the Exposition would be only too glad to have the aid of this Conference in arranging that branch of the exhibition.