four vats, of the same dimensions as those above described, and which are placed at a lower level for convenience in filling, where it is temporarily stored until removed from the premises. The vats are constructed of one-inch boards and they are not water tight. Liquids slopped over in handling the cooked garbage and those which escape from the leaky vats at the time of this inspection, were flowing in a stream over the surface of the ground into an overflow vat sunk beneath the ground surface about eight feet from the water in the brook and of the same dimensions and construction as those already described. This overflow vat was full and its contents, in a high state of decomposition, was overflowing directly into the brook. About eight or ten cubic yards of uncooked garbage was strewn upon the ground near the rendering plant. Two loaded garbage carts, and one rubbish cart, with no animals attached and with shafts resting upon the ground, stood on the premises. The cooked garbage, from which the grease has been removed, is disposed of, as above stated, for hog food. Some farmers come long distances for the material, and I was informed that on some farms, located near by the plant, several hundred hogs are kept and fed exclusively upon refuse from the Redfern plant. I was informed by one purchaser that the price paid for the cooked garbage ranges, according to supply and demand, from a few pennies to twenty-five cents a barrel; and at this season of the year there is a ready sale for all produced. This person also stated, that the cooked garbage, particularly when loaded into barrels, hot from the cooking vats, keeps a remarkably long time, even in warm weather, without noticeable decomposition and that it gave rise to less odor than when uncooked garbage is fed to hogs. He also stated that while the hogs did not appear to grow and fatten so well when fed upon cooked garbage they appeared to be less subject to diseases than when fed raw garbage. There were but two persons employed about the plant at time of this inspection. The foreman, who had been there but two days, could give no information as to the amount of fat obtained from a vat of garbage nor of its value. There was very little objectionable odor about the plant considering the indifferent manner in which the place is conducted. The odor given off from the cooking garbage was but slightly offensive and appeared to have no attraction for flies. Dry ashes had been liberally spread about the place absorbing moisture and diminishing odors. Rubbish is dumped in from the edge of a knoll upon a low ground, on the south side of Corlies avenue, and within one hundred feet of the brook above referred to. Attempts which have been made at irregular intervals to burn this material have not proven successful owing to the wet condition of the accumulation. I was informed by an Italian laborer employed in culling bottles and other articles of value from the dump, that no burning had been attempted for at least four weeks. There was evidently several hundred cubic yards of the unburned rubbish, giving rise to considerable odor, the washings from which drain into the brook, stored on the ground at the time of this inspection.

Montclair.-The health officer writes as follows:

During the past year the work of this board has been conducted along lines similar to those followed in previous years with the following exceptions: (1) A more strenuous endeavor has been made to provide the public with a pure milk-supply. In addition to the regular dairy inspection, the board has engaged a veterinarian to make a physical examination of each cow from which milk is produced for sale in Montclair. As a result over 2,000 cows were thus examined and fifteen were found to be affected with tuberculosis to such an extent that the disease was detected without the tuberculin test. These cattle were excluded from the herds, together with

about as many more which were suffering with cow-pox to such an extent that pus would readily drip into the pails during the process of milking. Two of the worst herds were tuberculin tested by the State Tuberculosis Commission, and nine cattle out of fifteen reacted in addition to those excluded as tuberculous on a physical examination only. Of course it is not to be assumed that this ratio would hold if all the herds had been tuberculin tested, for these particular herds were decidedly suspicious, but, at the same time, these figures do show that there is urgent need of a thorough inspection of the cattle from which milk is produced, and that no municipality can feel that it has a safe milk-supply until such an inspection is made the basis of its milk inspection work. It is undoubtedly true that many other cattle would have reacted had they been tested, and, in the present state of knowledge regarding the intercommunicability of tuberculosis between cattle and human beings, it is highly desirable that the tuberculin test be resorted to more frequently. About 240 samples of milk have been analyzed during the year. Three of our dealers were found to be delivering watered milk, and samples were subsequently collected in the manner provided by law, forwarded to the State Laboratory of Hygiene at Trenton for analysis, and fines of $50 collected in each case. Two of these dealers have given up the milk trade in Montclair, while the third has shown marked improvement in the quality of the product which he is delivering. All samples of milk have been tested for formalin and borax. A trace of formalin was found in one sample. Samples of cream have been collected from the various dealers from time to time and examined for percentage of fats, thickeners, formalin and borax. One sample was found to contain formalin in considerable quantities. (2) A house-to-house inspection and canvass of the Fourth ward has been made to ascertain the following facts in addition to those generally noted in such an inspection: (a) Whether birth certificates for all children under five years of age had been filed. (b) Housing condition; that is, the percentage of the population living in one, two or three rooms, &c. (c) Population; colored, Italian and others. The Fourth ward contains a large majority of the Italians in town, and the population is largely made up of the laboring class. Although the work of checking the birth returns has not been entirely completed so that we can definitely say what percentage of the births have never been reported, enough has been done to show that we are more than justified in the expense and time that the work has required. A few of the physicians have failed to report a small number of births, persons acting as midwives have failed to report a larger number, and parents have neglected to make returns when there has been no professional attendant. We anticipate much more complete returns in the future as the result of this inspection, for the physicians and midwives know that we are checking over their records and the parents know that their children must be registered. If delinquent returns are made in the future prosecution will follow. (3) The testing of gas piping is now being done by our own force of inspectors. This work is under municipal supervision in many places, and the character of the work done by some of the gas fitters demands close supervision. During the year there were 113 cases of scarlet fever, 51 cases of diphtheria and 18 cases of typhoid fever. This is an unusually large number of scarlet fever cases and the epidemic was due to the extreme mildness of the attack, our medical inspectors finding no less than thirteen children in the class-rooms in varying stages of the disease. It is very evident that one desquamating child might, through his presence in school, infect many others, and that nothing could bring a sudden termination to an epidemic of this character. The schools were not closed at any time on account of the scarlet fever, but the children from the infected portion of the town were examined daily either by the medi

cal inspector or by the teacher, and excluded at the first suspicious symptom. The children belonging to the poorer class, twenty-three in number, were cared for at the expense of the board of health, as proper quarantine could not be maintained in their homes. As we had no contagious disease hospital we hired two tenements, fitted them up with cots, placed nurses in charge and cared for the patients in these temporary hospitals. At one time during the epidemic the board engaged physicians to visit every Italian house in the infected district in an effort to discover any concealed or unrecognized cases. Strict quarantine was maintained in all cases, watchmen being secured in several instances. In fact, none of our cases were due to the neglect of any known precaution, but to the wide-spread infection from ambulating cases. We have had two cases of small-pox, and both patients arrived from the South about two weeks before coming down with the disease. They were cared for by the town at an expense of $730. In one instance the patient traveled in the trolley cars on the day she was pronounced infected with small-pox, and while badly broken out with the disease It was evident that there had been wide exposure and that drastic measures should be taken. All of the cars in which there was the least chance that the patient might have traveled were ordered out of service and disinfected and their crews vaccinated. Fifty notices were posted in conspicuous places about Montclair warning all who used the street cars between stated hours that they might have been exposed to small-pox and that the board of health would furnish free vaccination to all who applied. No further cases resulted Two cases of rabies and one case of glanders are all the communicable diseases of animals that have been reported. Medical inspection of the schools has been established now for about a year and a half and the results obtained more than justify the expense and labor involved in carrying out this branch of our work. While the board of health has charge of this work, the expense is met by a separate appropriation from the town council for this particular purpose. Until June 1st, the collection of garbage and ashes was in the hands of individuals who were licensed by the board of health. On that date a municipal system of collection was inaugurated which has given satisfaction. Under the terms of the contract, garbage is to be collected three times a week during the summer months, and twice per week during the remainder of the year. The ashes are to be collected once each week during the summer and twice each week through the winter months. During the year ending October 1st, there was a total of 263 deaths, corresponding to a death-rate of 15.72, figured on an estimated mid-year population of 16,732. Of these, fifty-four deaths were non-residents who died in the Mountainside Hospital at the St. Vincent Foundling Asylum. If these deaths are excluded we have a corrected death-rate of 12.49 for the year. 37.2 per cent. of the total number of deaths were under five years of age, and 29.6 per cent. of the resident deaths were under five years of age. In the last annual report of the State board of health, Montclair is credited with having the second highest infant mortality rate in the state, and no explanation is made. As a matter of fact the infant mortality rate was brought up to the abnormal figures given in that report by the deaths at the Foundling Asylum. Foundlings are brought to this institution from all parts of northern New Jersey and from New York, and an erroneous impression is given if the resulting deaths are credited to Montclair with no word of explanation. In the same way the gross death-rate is greatly increased by deaths at the Mountainside Hospital, as patients are taken there from all parts of the county. The following are the deaths from communicable diseases during the year: Tuberculosis of the lungs, 27; pneumonia, 23; scarlet fever, 5; whooping cough, 4; diphtheria, 3; typhoid fever, 2; measles, 2; erysipelas, 1.

Legal Decisions and Opinions.

LODGING-HOUSE KEEPERS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES.1

A claim brought by a young lady musician against a lodging-house keeper at Scarborough to recover her luggage was met recently by a counter-claim of a very unreasonable character, which fortunately was not allowed to succeed. The plaintiff took rooms with a view to occupy them during an engagement at a local place of entertainment and three days afterwards learnt that there was a case of measles in the house, when she naturally left at once. The landlady, however, refused to give up her lodger's boxes, and when the latter brought her action to recover them counter-claimed for payment for the lodgings in lieu of notice. His Honor Judge Raikes, made short work of the landlady's case, pointing out that a common misfortune had put an end to the contract, a misfortune of which lodging-house keepers must run the risk and of which they must take the consequences when it occurred. In other words, an event beyond the control of the parties had made it impossible for the lodging-house keeper to carry out her bargain by supplying a lodging of such a character as the plaintiff must be taken to have bargained for and the plaintiff could not be made to pay for one which might render her liable to the infection of measles. The judgment was for £4, to be reduced to 18. on the return of the box, and for 88. 8d. due in respect of the accommodation which the plaintiff actually enjoyed, the costs in each instance to follow the judgment.

AUTHORITY TO LICENSE MILK DEALERS.

Judge Charles B. Storrs, in the Orange district court, handed down a decision in favor of the board of health, upholding its contention that it had legal authority to require milkmen to take out a permit before doing business in the city. The board brought suit against Charles J. Hamilton and Walter Laracy, who had failed to take out permits or licenses. The facts in the case were admitted, but it was maintained by Daniel A. Dugan, who appeared for the dealers, that the board had no legal authority for requiring milkmen to take out licenses, but that the licensing power rested with the common council. Arthur B. Seymour, as counsel for the board, took the opposite view and decision was reserved in order to afford the counsel opportunity to file briefs. Judge Storrs decided that the board had ample powers in the matter and gave a judgment of $10 against each dealer for failing to take out his license.

London Lancet, June 30th, 1906.