Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-04-01
Wisconsin Board Of Health.

The Fourth Annual Report Of the
State Board OF Health is before US,
and shows no falling off in the char
acter of the papers presented as
compared with its predecessors.
There is not paper of the ten
which it contains, from the General
Report CT the Board at the beginning
to the extracts from correspondence
at the end, that does not offer some
topic for careful thought or soufo
sound practical suggestion that all
would do we'll to heed. In the
modest account Of what the Board
has done during the year any one
may read between the lines the his
tory of vast amount Of conscien-
tious labor, Of which almost nothing
is said, but which must have been
done in order to reach the results
recorded.
Investigations iuto the character
Of the Kerosene used in our houses,
the reasons why Diphtheria hangs
around a city, the work done in our
schools and its effect on teachers aid
taught, the defects of our school
houses and their surroundings, the
food we eat and its authorizations;
with the means for detecting them,
the ground on which our houses
stand and how it affects our health
such are some of the labors in which
this Board has quietly been engaged
and in this report some Of the re-
suits obtained are laid before US in
language SO plain that nobody can
fail to understand it.
Our friends DIR. Witter and Prof,
Chittenden as usual have each a pa
per. The Doctor writes about
Ground, Air, and its effects upon
health and some OF his revelations
are enough to make us swear to
clean up our door yards and keep
them cleaned up for the rest Of cur
natural lives, and to use all of our
eloquence to persuade our neighbors
to go and do likewise. We advise
every body TO read what the Dr. has
to say, and if then all hands don't
turn to end put their premises in
better condition than some we know
Of are in just now, why then we'll
advocate some very strong measures.
Prof. Chittenden has been stirring
up the school-teachers all over the
State by sending tEen list Of CUES
tidns; We reckon that he got the
worst of it when they began to poke
their answers back at him: six hun
dred and more he owns up to get
ting and says that "still they come"
If, IS he tells US, those that he has
printed are not the worst, we should
like to know what the worst are
like; what he has given US are bad
enough in all conscience and are not
calculated to make us brag much
about Wisconsin school houses,
some Of which seem to be institu-
tons for the slow suffocation of their
occupants. The Professor appears
perfectly at home in this important
work and in the Secretary's report
we find very complimentary notice
of his work and its value to that Off
Ger.
DR.. Reeve, the Secretary of the
Board, has very important paper
on the work done in our schools,
which the Board has very wisely
printed along with Prof. Chitten-
den's article in separate pamphlet
for circulation an4ong our school au-
thorities. DR.. Reeve takes the
ground that we are trying to do al
together too much in our public
schools in the time generally allowed,
and advocates change in the law,
six years the minimum
school age, the substitution of Ply |