The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-04-21
state Board of Health


DIR. ii. o. HITCHCOCK, President Of the State
Board of Health, presented his annual adj
dress at the meeting Of the board, at Lansing
last week. 1t treats ION the actual and possi-
BILE achievements of hygenic silence and art
their economic relations to the State, and the
means for their accomplishments" and from
it the following hints are gathered. We copy
from full report in the Detroit Post: lone
Of the most promising fields for hygienists is in
the still further prevention of sickness and
death from miasmatic causes; twenty-seven
per cent. of the 1904 deaths of 1871 are be-
lieved to have been caused by miasmatic dis
ease. DIR. Hitchcock gives the number Of
deaths by this cause at s, 1872. To put it into
money loss to the State the last sickness of
each Of these 5,332 persons must have cost, in
Guiding loss Of time, $50, the funeral expense
S25, giving ali actual loss to the State
Of S399,0OO. Then supposing the lives
ten years, the State losses 600
years Of defective life," which cannot be e.
timated at less than $3.50 per year, giving a
money loss Of SO, 999, 900. 1t is estimated that
for every death two persons are sick. Thus,
for every death from miasmatc causes there
are two years of sickness from the same cause,
showing 1864 years of sickness from this
cause alone in 1871. Counting one-half of
these years Of sickness as the defective Pc
Rod" of life, the money value at $50 per year
gives $780, 500, which is really lost to the State
to which add the cost of medical attendance,
nursing and loss of time of parents and friends
averaging 5000 per year, thus entailing an
other loss to the State Of 80, 1920 Hence
the money less to the State from these prevent
able causes OF sickness and death is: Sickness
and funeral expenses of the dead, $500, 900;
loss of time by preventable Deaths So, 999, 600;
loss of time from sickness of others, 500, 800;
expense of sickness, 80, 1872, 800. Total loss to
the State, 1881, 500, one-half of which might
be saved.
Compulsory vaccination should be carefully
carried out in every city, village and township,
complete isolation should be had in every case
of variola and varioloid. Then the mortality
from this cause would be greatly reduced.
The same may be said of scarlatina, which is
not one of the inevitable diseases Of children.
1t is dangerous and contagious disease, almost
be secured in this as in small pox.
Complete isolation would also largely reduce
the death rate in cases of measles diphtheria,
whooping-cough, typhus and typhoid fevers,
all public and private nuisances should be
abated, all public and private rooms well ven-
tilated and there will be but few cases of these
diseases.
Malarial fevers, dysentery, diarrhea, pneu-
monia and consumption offer wide field for
the hygienist, physicians, and local boards of
health Drainage should receive more atten-
tion trees should be planted, which would
render the malarial districts more salubrious.
The eucalyptus globulus, native of Australia,
now largely cultivated in Europe California
and some of the Southern States, may be cult
waited in Michigan. The tree is believed to pos
sess wonderful antiseptic properties and
powers, by the camphorous odor which it
emits, to make salubrious wet lands which
would otherwise be malarious and pestilential.
The address gives King Alcohol his full share
Of the blame for many of the ills which flesh
is heir to also treats at length ON the legitimate
and appropriate means most available for the
accomplishment of the work of the
hygienist particularly in the methods for col
lecting and tabulating vital statistics also re-
certain changes which seem desir-
able in the law Of this State for the accom-
plishment Of the same. He says it should be
made the duty of physicians and midwives to
furnish to the assessor or supervisor reports Of
all births, together with all facts desirable for
tabulation within ten days after their occur
renee.