of ill health. Even if circumspect and informed himself, he can not apply the facts to the case of his neighbor. Yet in no other line is the mistake or carelessness of the neighbor so apt to tell upon the adjacent household. Many of the evils are of that nature that they attach to no one vicinage, but are such as relate to an entire street or water course, or section, or to some great highway of conveyance, and must have legal regulation. Much, too, of the value of law in these regards is that it is informatory and educational, far more than it needs to be compulsory. The reports of the English Health Board for the last twenty years have by the diffusion of intelligence done far more for the benefit of public health than have any penal enforcements to which they have given rise.

Large and telling facts have been elucidated, and the press has been engaged until sanitary papers are as common in the London Times as the reports of educational or literary associations. One is even surprised at the intelligent lay discussions found in numerous journals as to local and general health interests. The necessity of law thus comes to be recognized so that what otherwise might be regarded as a trespass upon private rights is welcomed as an offshoot of that olive branch of protection which extends peace from pain and deliverance from death, and so gives to the citizen ease instead of disease.

Law, to say the least, is bland and beneficent and conservative when, in such a noble work, it is no more aggressive than that under which this board is organized. It has asked no attribution of power and seeks no jurisdiction such as that which often needs to be conferred on local boards. Its sphere is to collect and presen: each year the best ascertained evidence there is as to preventable causes of disease, as to the effects of localities, employment, conditions and circumstances on the public health, and to diffuse it in such practical form among the people as shall add to popular information in these regards.

It will be necessary for us to inform ourselves as to any local causes of disease or as to the course and circumstances attending any epidemics that may invade our State, and by correspondence and observation to seek to assure ourselves of the connection of any existing or abatable evils with such sickness or mortality as may occur. In this we will, no doubt, at times need to invoke the aid of local authorities, and especially the aid of those

who, as medical practitioners, are most observent of the state of public health.

Our experience has been that some of our most reliable physicians, as well as various laymen, such as teachers, druggists, chemists, engineers, et cetera, are responsive to such requests. We think we shall not fail in the securement of a valuable. amount of reliable facts and careful opinions.

It will also be well for us to look carefully at all existing laws bearing on public health and after all those defects in legislation which might be supplied without infringement on any individual rights and to the advantage of all. As such suggestions would come before the legislative and executive branches of our State, they would have only that force of advocacy to which clear facts and open arguments might entitle them, and are in no danger of being prematurely enforced.

It will naturally be our aim to seek the aid and co-operation of all local boards, not so much expecting to enlighten them as that they, in the common interests of sanitary knowledge, shall acquaint us with all local facts bearing on health interests, and so enable us, by the collection and presentation of the records of various localities, to render available to our citizens at large the information which cannot be equally serviceable in any other way. A misapprehension of the design of such boards led to a clause in this bill which was intended to restrain its jurisdiction. over cities or local boards of health. It is already understood by most of the city boards that no jurisdiction is aimed at or provided, and that, in order to an intelligent presentation of the interests of the other districts, a knowledge of local and aggregated population is needed. We doubt not, with the urbanity of citizens and the devotion of local sanitarians, they will unite with us in conserving interests so far removed from partisanship. and so vital to the people of the State at large. It is chiefly by the co-operation of local authorities and of those whose professions and fields of observation direct their attention to health matters, that we are to hope to render most effective co-operation for the physical welfare of the people.

Very many subjects will readily suggest themselves to the members of our board, and it will require much thought so to outline and conduct our work, both of investigation and of imparting information, as to lead the people and our rulers to in

telligent conviction of what is needed, and to such action as shall be spontaneous and acceptable.

For several years many of our most thoughtful citizens have realized that there was call for a more extended presentation of the interests of public health. Our relations as the great highway to, and as the suburbs of, large cities makes us especially exposed to epidemics, without the protection which great cities are · apt to provide. Nuisances expelled outside of city limits are sometimes thrust upon us, which have, in many cases, led to serious results. Our able State Geologist and others have set forth the evils caused by drowned lands, and the advantages to be had in some parts by improved water supply. Statistical defects have been to some degree recognized, and cities like Newark and Paterson have perfected methods of their own.

Our board commences its labors at a most opportune time. In our own country and abroad for the last two years there has been an unusual awakening to the interests of public hygiene, and to the necessity of the fostering care of the State therefor.

There is a large accumulation of facts and of principles to govern us in our work, and a literature rich in illustration and evidence of the practicability of sanitary administration.

I may thus, while declining to be other than your temporary chairman, be permitted to express the congratulations of each one to the other that it is our privilege to labor together in a field in which there is more of usefulness thau of reward and more of labor than of honor.

The best acknowledgment we can make to the honorable Legislature which has passed this law, and to his Excellency the Governor, who has honored us by associating us in this work with members of his staff, is to faithfully detect and expose the evils which burden the public health, and impart such information as shall guard against avoidable invalidity. So in our sphere, by contributing to the welfare of our fellow citizens, we may seek to honor God in serving mankind. With these remarks, I beg to announce that the board is organized sufficiently to proceed to business.

The board was then permanently organized by the appointment of Elias J. Marsh, M. D., as President; Ezra M. Hunt, M.

D., as Corresponding Secretary, and E. A. Osborne, C. E., as Recording Clerk.

The board proceeded to a consideration of those subjects which most urgently seemed to call for their attention.

As only about six months would elapse before the first report is required to be rendered, it was thought best to study and outline the work to be done, rather than enter at once upon an extended series of investigations.

The following subjects were chosen and committees appointed to make thereupon preliminary reports:

On registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths-Messrs. Kelsey, Marsh and Bodine.

On the duty the State owes to children as to their protection from impairment of health in the Home, at the School and in the Workshop-Messrs. Hunt, Dennis and Brackett.

A brief summary of directions to families as to the more. common domiciliary influences and surroundings productive of disease, and the means of detecting, neutralizing or preventing the same-Messrs. Ridge, Osborne, Taylor and Marcy.

A brief statement of endemics or epidemics that have occurred since 1870 in the State, and their causes, so far as ascertainedMessrs. Varick, Culver and Gauntt.

A brief paper of information which shall point out such localities in the State, as from their topographical and geological position and condition, stand in special need of sanitary improvement-Prof. George H. Cook.

A statement of the climatology at various points in our State for five years past, and of diseases apparently dependent thereupon-Messrs. Brackett, Osborne and Dennis.

The diseases of animals, although not placed in charge of a committee, were directed to be inquired into by various members, and the Corresponding Secretary directed to collect information as to any epidemics that had occurred within the last five years, as preparative to further investigations.

The secretary was also directed to secure a codification of all laws bearing upon or relating to State hygiene, which are to be found on our statute book, and to furnish a list of the same to facilitate reference. The papers which have been prepared by these several committees, will be found to be a valuable part of this report.

Many other matters of sanitary interest have come before the board at its various meetings, but it is not thought necessary to report to your excellency, details, except so far as they relate to the present outlining or execution of work.

VITAL STATISTICS

The first subject to which your attention is invited is that presented in the paper on vital statistics.

It has not been considered by the committee necessary to reason in detail the necessity which exists for a careful registry and return of the births, marriages and deaths in every State and city. Our State was among the first to settle that question by a definite effort in that direction. The improvements made in the methods of studying and tabulating such records, the greater knowledge of the course and causes of disease, the results attained from the systems already adopted in many countries, the necessities of such tables for the study of the laws of population and of life insurance, and the ability which has been shown to limit epidemics, to prolong life, to prevent outbreaks of contagions, and even to abate crime, by the study of these vital tables, has undeniably attested their indispensable importance. As they indicate the rise and ebb of population, the laws which govern it, and the best legislative methods of conserving the interests of the citizen, these results are sought by the political economist, not less than by those who seek to know the science. and the art of preserving life. All arguments which obtain for the procurement of any census returns, apply with more force to these than to any other, because they embody more of the objects of a census than any other class of statistics. Our error as a State has not been in entire neglect, but in a failure to change and improve the law, and to bring it in accord with more modern. and perfected systems of return. Our present law is not only that of 30 years ago, but even that is mostly a copy of the original law of the eighteenth century. Since then such has been the increase of knowledge as to the interest and significance of statistics, that present methods have become impracticable and misleading.

The chairman of the committee herewith presents his report and advisement as to desirable changes. The New Jersey State