INTRODUCTORY. GENERAL REPORT. To the Honorable the General Assembly: In behalf of the State Board of Health, the Twelfth Annual Report of the Board is herewith respectfully presented in compliance with the Public Statutes. The report is for the year ending December 31, 1889. It is with great satisfaction that the board can allude at this time to the fact of an increasing recognition, on the part of the people, of the importance of health and of the means of preserving it, as indispensable requirements for the enjoyment of private and personal happiness, and for the best moral welfare and fullest material prosperity of the State. The fact of the gradual progress and decided advance in the sanitary sentiments of the general public, is evinced by the action of the various town authorities, (who usually have the people behind them), in the enactment of sanitary ordinances, with increasing stringency and better enforcement from year to year; by the demands of the people for pure or good water, as shown by the eager inquiries as to the means of obtainment by water works and otherwise; by the more universal demand for the abatement of nuisances believed to be prejudicial to health; by the more general practice, in most of the compact localities, of the prompt removal of garbage and house refuse; by the largely increased number who seek after and read the various sanitary publications of the day; by the greater attention to personal cleanliness, as shown by the larger purchase and larger inquiry as to appliances for household ablutions; and by greater attention to drainage and other methods of the disposal of household and other sewage. The public conception of the value of health, and the means of preservation, is undeniably much higher at the present time than it was ten years ago. PERSONNEL OF THE BOARD. The term of membership of Henry W. Rose, M. D., of Westerly, having expired by limitation on the first of July, 1889, Gov. H. W. Ladd appointed Herbert J. Pomroy, M. D., of Westerly, as his successor. Dr. Pomroy having removed from the State before the end of the year, the Governor appointed Alvan H. Eccleston, M. D., of Richmond, to fill the vacancy, and the appointment was approved by the State Senate at the January Session of the General Assembly, 1890. Otherwise, during the year 1889, the personnel of the board remained the same as at the time of making the last report. WORK OF THE BOARD. It is not deemed essential to report in this connection, in detail, the work performed by the secretary as the executive officer, under the direction or with the approval of the board during the year 1889, as such report would add largely to the size of the volume, and as the particulars of such work have been fully considered at the different meetings of the board during the year. At the meetings the object has been to take cognizance of the interests of life and health among the citizens of the State; to provide for investigation into the causes of disease when deemed to be advisable; to take such measures for the prevention of disease in man and beast as circumstances seemed to require and the power and means at command of the board would allow. The proceedings of the board have been, in relation to the above, the condition of the water supply of villages and shore resorts; the removal or abatement of public nuisances believed to be detrimental to health, wherever found; the proper drainage of compact collections of houses as to sink and laundry water; the disposal, in such compact localities, of the house refuse and excreta of whatever kind liable to putrefactive decomposition; the measures needful to be taken to prevent the transmission or spread of contagious diseases, from exposure to the emanation from the dead bodies of such as have died from such diseases; the distribution of tracts and circulars in localities where contagious diseases break out, urging isolation of the sick and other methods of restriction of the disease; the collection of vital statistics; the adulterations of articles entering into the composition of food and drink; the means needful in the discharge of |