DEPARTMENT OF VITAL STATISTICS.

GEORGE D. LESLIE, STATISTICIAN.

VITAL STATISTICS FOR FEBRUARY.

Births. For February there were reported 2,021 living births, as compared with 2,065 for January. For an estimated State population of 2,019,519, the February total represents an annual birth-rate of 12.6, against 12.1 for January.

The February totals were highest for the following counties: Los Angeles, 478; San Francisco, 390; Alameda, 238; Fresno, 102; Santa Clara, 78; Sacramento, 59; and Riverside, 50.

Births for February were registered in freeholders' charter cities as follows: San Francisco, 390; Los Angeles, 355; Oakland, 134; Sacramento, 51; Berkeley, 43; Fresno, 38; Pasadena, 34; San Diego, 29; and Riverside, 26.

Marriages. The marriages reported for February number 1,532, against 1,720 for January, and represent an annual rate of only 9.6, as compared with 11.7 for the preceding month.

The February totals were greatest for the following counties: San Francisco, 332; Los Angeles, 286; Alameda, 178; Santa Clara, 85; Marin, 61; and Fresno, 54.

Deaths. Altogether 2,759 deaths, exclusive of stillbirths, were reported for February, against 2,920 for January. The annual death-rate for February is 17.2, as compared with 17.1 for January.

The February death totals were highest for the following counties: San Francisco, 552; Los Angeles, 535; Alameda, 278; Santa Clara, 111; Sacramento, 101; San Bernardino, 80; San Diego, 77; San Joaquin, 73; Sonoma, 63; Fresno, 62; and Contra Costa, 50.

Deaths for February were reported as follows for the leading cities: San Francisco, 552; Los Angeles, 358; Oakland, 163; San Diego, 71; Sacramento, 62; Stockton, 43; San José, 42; San Bernardino, 31; Berkeley, 28; Fresno and Pasadena, each 26; and Vallejo, 25.

Causes of Death.-In February there were altogether 414 deaths, or 15.0 per cent of all, from various forms of tuberculosis; 405, or 14.7 per cent, from pneumonia and other diseases of the respiratory system; and 366, or 13.3 per cent, from diseases of the circulatory system.

The next most prominent causes of death were diseases of the nervous system, violence, diseases of the digestive system, cancer, Bright's disease, and epidemic diseases.

The leading epidemic disease in February, as in January, was diphtheria. February deaths from epidemic diseases were as follows: Diphtheria and croup, 44; influenza, 31; typhoid fever, 29; whoopingcough, 13; measles, 8; scarlet fever, 7; and all others, 13.

Further details appear in the following table, which gives the number of deaths from certain principal causes reported for February, as well as the proportions from each cause per 1,000 total deaths for both February and January:

Geographic Divisions.—The table below shows the number of deaths from main classes of diseases reported for February for the several geographic divisions of the State, including the metropolitan area, or Greater San Francisco," in contrast with the rural counties north Tehachapi :

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DEPARTMENT OF BACTERIOLOGY.

DR. A. R. WARD, DIRECTOR.

DO YOU USE THE LABORATORY FOR DIPHTHERIA?

The very small amount of use that is made of the State Hygienic Laboratory in cases of diphtheria is becoming a matter of serious concern. During the month of December, 1907, we were called upon to make but forty-nine examinations for diphtheria. When we compare this with the amount of help which state laboratories in other states are being allowed to give to the physicians throughout their states, we are forced to the conclusion that there is something wrong. To take two examples at random, the state laboratory of Indiana made 115 examinations for diphtheria in the month of October, 1907, and the state laboratory of Vermont, 487 during November, 1907. On the other hand there are, of course, other states where the same indifference to the usefulness of the laboratory is exhibited. In one case the laboratory reports but fifty-two examinations made in three months.

Before this we had believed that it was merely because the laboratory was young and because physicians did not know about it that it was so little used, but we are fast losing that impression. During the past year we have made examinations for 108 physicians in the State, and of these forty-seven were in Berkeley. The others represented fifty-four towns. The fact that the laboratory is used by such a large proportion of Berkeley's physicians, who have it constantly called to their attention, and by so very few of the physicians from the rest of the State, makes us feel certain that it is only through ignorance of the advantages coming from a free use of a laboratory that material is not sent to us from out of town.

During the month of December we have been informed through newspaper clippings that diphtheria epidemics of greater or less seriousness existed in eleven towns in the State. During that same time we received cultures from two of these towns. What is the trouble with the others? Of course the distance is great from most of the State to the laboratory, so that our report can not be made of much value in diagnosis in urgent cases. But even at a distance of hundreds of miles, with the consequent delay in report, the laboratory's findings are of value in determining diagnosis in doubtful cases, in demonstrating the necessity of quarantine, in determining the length of quarantine, and in controlling diphtheria in institutions and public schools. These are the cases in which the laboratory will most often be of use to the community that is too far away to use it for diagnosis. More than one of our newspaper clippings has stated that the physician in charge of the case and the Health Officer disagreed about the question of diagnosis. The laboratory could, of course, be appealed to in cases like this, and settle all difficulties within forty-eight hours, at the most.

So, many of our newspaper clippings have stated that on the appearance of one case of diphtheria in a town the public school has been

closed for a week or so.

This means a great and unnecessary loss to the children of the community. Taking a culture from the throat of every person who had been exposed, or from every school child, if necessary, and sending it to the laboratory, would make it possible to separate the infected from the uninfected quickly, and the school could be kept open quite safely for the uninfected, and the others readmitted as subsequent cultures showed their throats to have become clean. We have been able to keep one school with an enrollment of 575 children open in the face of an epidemic causing several deaths, and by keeping the school open, so to control the infected persons that the epidemic was checked most speedily. Similar work is in progress at present in two

towns.

Every physician in the State is at liberty, and is urged, to make use of the laboratory freely. Any sore throat may be a mild diphtheria, which will become more serious if communicated to another individual. The germs do not disappear from some throats after clinical recovery as soon as from others, and those cases that are infected for a long time, though well and about, are a fruitful source of new cases of the disease. On the other hand, the germs disappear very quickly from some throats, and the extension of quarantine through the usual three weeks is an unnecessary hardship. One case of diphtheria in a community is not a good reason for excluding all the children from the school. In all of these contingencies, the laboratory's report will help, and yet there are but fifty-four towns in the State that have sent specimens to the laboratory during the past year.

DEPARTMENT OF PURE FOODS AND DRUGS.

PROF. M. E. JAFFA, DIRECTOR.

FOOD AND DRUG INSPECTION.

During the past month many more samples of food materials have been received by the State Laboratory, increasing the total number to 381. Of these upwards of 60 samples are vinegars, representing the different commercial types. The work done so far indicates considerable mislabeling, and in view of this it might not be out of place to reprint, for the proper guidance of those interested, the definition of the different vinegars. It should be distinctly understood by manufacturers and dealers that all misbranding or mislabeling are violations of the law.

VINEGAR.

1. Vinegar, cider vinegar, apple vinegar, is the product made by the alcoholic and subsequent acetous fermentations of the juice of apples, is laevo-rotatory, and contains not less than four (4) grams of acetic acid, not less than one and six tenths (1.6) grams of apple solids, of which not more than fifty (50) per cent are reducing sugars, and not less than twenty-five hundredths (.25) of a gram of apple ash in one hundred cubic centimeters (20°C.), and the water-soluble ash from one hundred (100) cubic centimeters (20°C.) of the vinegar contains not less than ten (10) milligrams of phosphoric acid, and requires not less than thirty (30) cubic centimeters of decinormal acid to neutralize its alkalinity.

2. Wine vinegar, grape vinegar, is the product made by alcoholic and subsequent acetous fermentations of the juice of grapes and contains in one hundred (100) cubic centimeters (20°C.) not less than four (4) grams of acetic acid, not less than one (1) gram of grape solids, and not less than thirteen hundredths (.13) of a gram grape ash.

3. Malt vinegar is the product made by alcoholic and subsequent acetous fermentations, without distillation, of an infusion of barley malt or cereals whose starch has been converted by malt, is dextro-rotatory, and contains in one hundred (100) cubic centimeters (20°C.) not less than four (4) grams acetic acid, not less than two (2) grams of solids, and not less than two tenths (.2) of a gram of ash; and the water soluble ash from one hundred (100) cubic centimeters (20°C.) of the vinegar contains not less than nine (9) milligrams of phosphoric acid, and requires not less than four (4) cubic centimeters of decinormal acid to neutralize its alkalinity.

4. Sugar vinegar is the product made by the alcoholic and acetous fermentations of solutions of sugar, sirup, molasses, or refiners' sirup, and contains, in one hundred (100) cubic centimeters (20°C.), not less than four (4) grams of acetic acid.

5. Glucose vinegar is the product made by the alcoholic and acetous fermentations of solutions of starch, sugar and glucose, is dextro-rotatory, and contains in one hundred (100) cubic centimeters (20°C.) not less than four (4) grams of acetic acid.

6. Spirit vinegar, distilled vinegar, grain vinegar, is the product made by the acetous fermentation of dilute distilled alcohol, and contains in one hundred (100) cubic centimeters (20°C.) not less than four (4) grams of acetic acid.

A large number of "soda waters" or carbonated drinks have been examined and found to contain artificial coloring matter, without the use of such being declared on the label. The manufacturers of such beverages should bear in mind that such practices are violations_of sections four and five of the Pure Foods Act, March 11, 1907. For information concerning the use of the coal-tar colors allowed by law, reference is suggested to the monthly bulletin of this Board of January, 1908.

The United States Department of Agriculture has recently issued a decision on the labeling of bitters, which, as it answers some questions submitted to the State Laboratory, is here reprinted in full.