He gave an elaborate and detailed account of the quarantine laws of Charleston, and showed how rigorously the health of Charleston was guarded in colonial days against the importation of disease. Yellow fever, its origin and how it became prevalent in Charleston, were thoroughly discussed by Dr. Horlbeck. He gave a graphic account of the plagues of Charleston and the Mississippi valley. The plague of 1864 was introduced by intercourse with the West Indies at that time.

Dr. Horlbeck gave a complete and detailed account of the workings at the quarantine station over which he has direction.

At the evening session the following papers were read:

"The Hygienic Value of Rational Irregularities in Habits of Living," by James F. Hibbard, M. D., of Richmond, Ind.

"Land Monopoly to Population Health," by George Homan, M. D., secretary state board of health of Missouri, St. Louis, Mo.

"Climate in Phthisis," by W. H. Geddings, M. D., of Aiken, S. C.

"House Drainage," by Albert L. Webster, Sanitary Engineer, New York.

"Trap Siphonage," by Prof. James E. Denton, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N. J.

The following resolution was adopted:

Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed, of which Dr. John H. Rauch, of Chicago, shall be chairman, to inquire into the expediency of having a sanitary exposition at the International Fair in 1893.

Report from the state board of health, South Carolina, by J. R. Bratton, M. D., president.

"Leprosy and its Management in Minnesota," by Charles N. Hewitt, M. D., secretary of the state board of health, Red Wing, Minn.

The following resolution was adopted:

WHEREAS, Owing to the fact that cholera has prevailed during the past summer in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and

WHEREAS, There is a possibility that it may be introduced into this continent during the coming year; be it, therefore,

Resolved, That all maritime quarantine authorities be urged to continue special care to prevent its introduction, and that all other health authorities continue to do everything in their power to improve the sanitary condition of the country.

MORNING SESSION, — FRIDAY, Dec. 19, 1890.

The programme was made up largely in matters pertaining to unfinished business reports of committees and the election of officers.

The reports of the standing committees were received and ordered published, and a number of papers were read by title and ordered published. The reports and discussions on the Coney Island system of drainage were ordered published in the proceedings.

In response to an inquiry from Mr. Griffith, of Chicago, Dr. Horlbeck gave a sketch of the method of drainage used in Charleston, which was heard with great attention.

The report of the advisory council was presented and ordered published, and the election of officers was then held, with the following result:

President, Dr. Frederick Montizambert, Quebec, Canada. First vice-president, Dr. T. F. Wood, North Carolina. Second vice-president, Dr. H. B. Horlbeck, Charleston. Secretary, Dr. I. A. Watson, Concord, New Hampshire. Treasurer, Dr. J. B. Lindsley, Nashville, Tennessee. Executive committee Dr. George Homan, St. Louis; Dr. A. W. Cantwell, Iowa; Prof. W. W. Daniells, Wisconsin; Dr. L. F. Salomon, Louisiana; Dr. Wm. Bailey, Kentucky.

VISIT TO AIKEN.

The invitation of the citizens and chamber of commerce of the city of Aiken, to the association to visit that renowned

sanitarium, was accepted by over sixty members who were provided with a special train and a bountiful lunch.

On the arrival of the train at Aiken we were received by a large committee of the city officials and others, who escorted us to the Highland Park Hotel and most royally entertained us with a reception and banquet.

It is a delightful city and geographically is finely situated for a resort for invalids, being located upon a plateau over 700 feet above tide water, it is free from dampness and malarial influences so common within so short a distance from the

coast.

Those who were so fortunate as to be able to enjoy their hospitality, will long remember the good people of Aiken and their kindness to the members of the American Public Health Association.

HISTORICAL AND OTHER FACTS REGARD

ING VACCINATION.

BY IRVING A. WATSON, M. D.

In this age we know very little of the frightful and fearful epidemics of small-pox that have desolated whole countries and left behind only death, poverty, and sorrow in their withering trail, except as we read the terrible revelations of history. The epidemics from this disease for more than a generation, though in some instances very severe, like that of Boston in 1872, and that in Montreal in 1885, in which some three thousand human beings were needlessly sacrificed, are no more to be compared to the epidemics of former times, than the gentle breezes of a summer's evening are to the devastating cyclone.

In earlier times this disease was the cause of one tenth of all the deaths in Europe. It is estimated that in all Europe 450,000 died annually from small-pox; 30,000 died each year in France; 27,000 died in Prussia in a single year out of a population of seven millions.

The Europeans carried the disease, by commerce and explorations, from the equator to the frigid zones. The Danes imported it into Greenland; the Spaniards planted it in unhappy Peru, and its ravages were more terrible than the atrocities of their arms; in the single province of Quito 100,000 persons were swept away on its appearance in that country. In the colonial days of our own country it destroyed almost entire communities; as late as 1721 one half of the population of Boston were affected with it at one time.

Its contagiousness, its great fatality, and the horrible disfigurements that were generally stamped upon the faces of those that recovered, made it a disease "more to be dreaded than the plague."

Inoculation was frequently practiced to limit in a degree its ravages, or in other words, the poison of the disease from a fresh case was introduced into the arm of the person. This produced the true small-pox, but usually in a milder type than followed when taken in the natural way. This method, however, was attended with great danger, as the inoculated person not unfrequently died from the disease thus induced; the liabilities to contagion from such a case existed as in an ordinary case; the person inoculated had to be isolated in a "pest house" or hospital. Still with its objections it was, in the days immediately preceding the discovery of vaccination, very generally resorted to, because it was so certain that the disease could not be avoided, and many assumed the risk of inoculation immediately upon the appearance of a case in their locality.

This method, however, was under the regulation of rigid laws, and seemingly left as a monument in history, such an enactment existed in the General Laws* of New Hampshire, until the year 1887, and possibly has not been repealed in other States where it was once legalized.

In 1798 Edward Jenner announced to the world the discovery of vaccination. In 1801, in answer to numerous inquiries, he said,† "My inquiry into the nature of cow-pox commenced upwards of twenty-five years ago. My attention to this singular disease was first excited by observing that, among those whom in the country I was frequently called upon to inoculate, many resisted every effort to give them small-pox. These patients I found had undergone a disease they called the cow-pox, contracted by milking cows affected with a peculiar eruption on their teats. On inquiry, it appeared that it had been known among the dairies time

* Chapter 112, section 5.

+ Medical and Physical Journal, vol. v., p. 505, London, 1801.