Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-04-01
NO. 80.
3Mistell,lnrous.
VILLAGE BOARDS OF HEALTH.

Writing in Scribner for April OF DIR.
Roosa'S recent address before the New
York state medical Society on the ''Rela-
tons of the Medical Profession to the
State, Or. Holland thus discusses very
important topic;
Doctor Roosa very wisely says that there
should be a Board of Health in every coun-
try and every town, and that there should
be no man upon it who has not a scientific,
medical, or legal education He further
more says that mot ,choolhouse, not a
jail, not a hospital. not sewer, should be
built unless competent sanity advice, with
power to enforce it. be given This is
all RIGHT as far as it goes but it does not
90 hall far enough. The tcuth is that
every private house that goes up should
he bult under public sanity supervision.
Men are dying every day because
houses are hultimproperly The arrange
ments for plumbing and ventilation are
not only incompetent but utterly vicious
and murierous. Men put up buildings all
over the country just a. they please. We
have built hoU-es for hrman dwellings,
and we have not yet been questioned by
any public officer as 10 how many fatal
traps we had set for human life. House
poisoning has now become the most COM
mon form of poisoning. Diphtheria,
pneumonia. and typhoid fever are the con-
slant daily demonstration Of vicious modes
of building, and there is no authority. APP
parently TO prevent the formation of the
sources of these diseases 4 builder puts
up a block, and offers his houses for sale.
HE buyer sees everything fair, for the
sources OF disease are covered from sight
but he moves in, and one after another of
his family sickens aud dies. and he learns,
at last that he has dealt with criminal
and that the municipality or the state has
aifo' dcd him no protection.
The truth is that we not only need 10
have Boar's of Health established in many
places where they are not, but we need to
have their powers much enlarged where
they exist. No one, we suppose, can
doubt the 9reat usefulness t our New
! otk BOARD of Health, but if they could
be armed with powers that would enable
Them 80 act more directly upon the prever-
ton oi disease they could be muchI more
useful. II they could have authority 10
dicta,c the plumbing and ventilation of
every structure private as well as public,
erected in this city. they could save the
city Il large percentage of its cruelest NOR
tality. II they could have the con,rol of
of the streets. does any one doubt that they
would greatly improve the health of the
city? We talk about the aduteration of
food rs il that Were great thing, and our
Board of Health busies itself about it in
the absence Of other work but the ad;lte-
ration. The absolute poisoning. of the air
We breathe. is Of almost infinitely more
Importance.
Doctor Roosa speaks of what is done in
thc way Of preventive medicine by our
wise system of quarantine, by which the
city has been saved by destructive epi,lem-
les. With our yellow fever lesson of last
year fresh in memory. it really seems as
ftowrs should learn something. There
is no question chat all these epidemics be-
come fatal in the degree in which the air
IS yi,ialed by poisonous odors. When yell
low fever or cholera visits place. it be-
comes terrible or Il mild visitation. ac-
cordjng to the conditions which it finds.
II it finds people already poisoned with
tou streets and bad drainage, it finds food
ior Il great and grave mortality. IT it
finds place where everything is pure and
sweet, it does not stay long or work such
mischief. The t. are some states which
have Board OF Health, or may have one,
in every town. armed with a considerable
amount Of povef-with 'hc power, at least.
OF holdiHg inquest, on private premises,
and determining what shall be done to
remedy evils: bat what we really want
most is wider power Of prevention, such
rs shall make it incumbent upon every
builder 20 secure the approval of such II
board nc'ore he can live in his house HIM
self, OF offer ii for sale or rent.