General Report.

Soon after the convening of the last session of the State legislative assembly, a case of Small-pox occurred in Jasper county-an importation from California. Soon after cases also appeared in Polk, Sac and Wapello counties. Two deaths only occurred, and the disease did not spread beyond the families originally affected in each locality.

During the Spring and Summer of 1889, cases of Small-pox appeared in Pottawattamie, Ida, Greene, Boone, Dickinson, Marshall, Clinton, Story and Ringgold counties-nearly all the result of exposure by a German immigrant woman who was removed from a railway train during the eruptive stage of the disease, and put in quarantine at Galva, in Ida county. As a result of the efficient action of the local boards of health, together with a personal visit made by the secretary of the State Board, no epidemic occurred at any point, and almost in no instance did the disease spread beyond one case in each locality.

The general health of Iowa has been exceptionally good during the last two years. No epidemic of any kind has occurred with the exception of Diphtheria in and about Rochester, Cedar county; and at Oxford Mills, and surrounding country, in Jones county.

The publication of the MONTHLY BULLETIN, five thousand copies of which are distributed monthly, though a considerable tax upon the limited resources of the Board, has been an efficient and most valuable aid to the Board in securing a more intimate relationship between the state and local boards and as a prompt and economical means of conveying needed information to such boards, and to the people generally.

The newspapers of the State, and especially of Des Moines, have greatly supplemented the work of the State Board, in promptly and cheerfully republishing liberal extracts from the BULLETIN, beside publishing from time to time interesting health items not published in the BULLETIN.

An interesting part of our report is that referring to the pollution of our public streams-which in the case of the Iowa River, has led to the destruction of the fish, and of nearly all animal life for many miles-beside endangering the health, and life of those who

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live contiguous to it, and in many ways converting a beautiful water-way into a nuisance.

Without, however, calling special attention to any other topics in the report, it is submitted in the hope that its brevity and the great importance of the subjects treated, will insure a careful perusal, and thereby secure throughout the State, a more general appreciation of the benevolent work and aims of the Board.

MEETINGS OF THE STATE BOARD.

At the semi-annual meeting of the State Board of Health, held on the 18th of November, 1887, the general condition of the public health was fully considered, and the causes for the unusual prevalence of Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria and Typhoid Fever, discussed. The Board has, in their judgment, done all that is in their power to protect the people against these and other contagious diseases, and to prevent their spread, wherever they appeared. It remains with local boards, with whom is vested ample power and authority, to accomplish results. The State Board is an advisory, not an executive body, but with co-operation of local boards, contagious and infectious diseases may be both prevented and controlled in any community. The State Board therefore urges upon local boards that more active measures be enforced to this end, and further, that upon the appearance of these diseases, notice be promptly given to the secretary of the State Board.

The subject of school text-books on Physiology and the effect of alcoholic stimulants on the human system, was fully discussed in the report of the committee appointed at the last meeting. The committee reported that inasmuch as the law requiring this subject to be taught in the public schools had been in force for two years, and that therefore nearly all the school districts were supplied with

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books, it would be injudicious to recommend a radical change of books, but that authority should be vested somewhere to supervise the text-books to be used, to prevent dissemination of error, and the next legislature will be asked to make such amendment to the law as will secure this result.

The Committee on Rules and Regulations recommended a more rigid quarantine in case of Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria; that the quarantine be extended to forty days instead of thirty-five. Also denouncing the practice of calling Scarlet Fever "Scarlatina", thereby deceiving the public into the belief that the latter is not dangerous. They also recommended a rigid enforcement of the rules of the State Board regarding public funerals of persons dying from Diphtheria and Scarlet Fever, believing such funerals to be most prolific sources for spreading these diseases.

The report of the committee was unanimously adopted, and the secretary instructed to urge upon local boards through THE MONTHLY BULLETIN the importance of prompt and vigorous action in all cases on the appearance of contagious disease.

A communication was received from Governor Larrabee announcing the extensive prevalence of Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever and Typhoid Fever throughout the State, and requesting the State Board to use all its power to prevent its further spread, and to diffuse such sanitary knowledge among the people as will tend to prevent the development of the virus in localities hitherto free from such pestilential influence. The communication was referred to a special committee, who reported that in their judgment the Board had done and was doing all in its power to accomplish the results desired by the Governor. It has prescribed rules and regulations in accordance with the most advanced ideas of sanitarians, and has distributed them by thousands wherever it was known they would be of practical use or benefit, and is continually doing so, yet the more immediate duty of enforcing the provisions of the health law, devolves upon local boards who are vested with unlimited power to do so. The State Board can do but very little without the co-operation of local boards, hence the prevalence of infectious diseases in any community, if continued, may be ascribed to the dereliction of duty by

local boards. The State Board is ready and anxious all times to perform its whole duty so far as it can.

The report of the committee was adopted unanimously as the expression of the entire Board.

At the annual meeting of the Board, May 29, 1888, a communication from Mr. J. Givin, Superintendent of the Chicago, Rock of Island & Pacific Railway, asking for a more specific construction of Rule 6, for the transportation of corpses, was referred to a special committee, who recommend the amendment of the rule so as to read as follows:

“Rule 6.—All disinterred bodies will be deemed infectious and dangerous to the public health, and if removed, the same precautions as set out in Rules and 5 must be observed."

The report was adopted.

To avoid conflict of diagnosis, and prevent misleading the people, the Board adopted the following resolutions:

Resolved, That the State Board of Health requests all physicians in this State to abandon the use of the terms Scarlatina" and "Scarlet Rash", as they are misleading, and often a great source of trouble in enforcing regulations for the prevention and spread of Scarlet Fever.

Resolved, That all local boards of health and health offieers in this State be requested and directed to disregard all distinction in forms of Scarlet Fever, and to treat all suspicious cases as coming within the regulations for quarantine of contagious diseases.

Realizing the importance of national co-operation in the work of quarantining against contagious diseases, the Board unanimously adopted the following resolutions:

Resolved, By the State Board of Health of Iowa, That we hail with joy the rapid progress of sanitary science and preventive medicine, as shown by the fact that nearly every State in our Union, as well as many of the cities, towns and townships of each State, haye organized local boards for the protection of their respective localities against the invasion of infectious and contagious diseases.

Resolved, That for the better protection of our whole land, especially against the importation of those dreaded exotic diseases, Cholera and Yellow Fever, as well of Small-pox, we earnestly urge our representatives in Congress to favor the passage of the bill now pending in Congress, entitled “A

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bill to prevent the introduction of contagious and infectious diseases into the United States, and to establish a Bureau of Public Health." (H. R., Bill 1526, 50th Congress, 1st Session.)

Resolved, That the establishment of such a Bureau of Public Health, in connection with one of the already existing departments of government, would, in our opinion, with the ample means at the disposal of the national government, be productive of great good, by affording through our consuls at foreign ports, an opportunity to obtain prompt and reliable information in regard to the existence and extent of infectious diseases, by timely notice to our government of the departure and destination of vessels from infected districts, by collecting and tabulating weekly or monthly vital and mortuary statistics from the various states and cities of our country, by issuing weekly or monthly, and furnishing to all state boards, and to the health departments of our principal cities, a bulletin, showing the existence, location and extent, as well as fatality, of any contagious diseases that may be present in any locality in the United States, and the measures adopted for their suppression, by supervising the erection and maintenance of quarantine stations at such points and in such numbers as may most successfully guard our borders against the introduction of pestilential diseases, by conferences and co-operation with state and local boards of health and with foreign powers, relative to practical sanitary work, and by scientific research and experimentation relative to climatic conditions, meteorological changes and all morbific influences, would so clearly enable the government to arrive at the causes of such preventive diseases as would lead to the adoption of the most intelligent and well-directed measures for their suppression.

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be furnished to each Iowa representative in Congress.

At the semi-annual meeting, held November 29, 1888, the following communication was received from the Governor:

"EXECUTIVE OFFICE,

DES MOINES, November 19, 1888.

DR. J. F. KENNEDY, Secretary State Board of Health, Des Moines:

DEAR SIR-In view of the recent outbreaks of Diphtheria in different parts of the State, it becomes the duty of your Board to exercise the utmost vigilance to prevent the spreading of this terrible disease. It occurs to me that a great deal of good could be accomplished if, as soon as information is received by your Board that Diphtheria has made its appearance in any part of the State, and threatens to become epidemic, one of your members would at once resort to the infected place to assist the local health officers in tracing out, if possible, the cause of the disease, and in taking prompt and proper measures to prevent its spreading. I also trust that you will not relent your