The Portland daily press., 1886-03-04
the PUBLIC HEALTH.
The First Annual Report of the State
Board.
A Work of Great Interest and Value.

The wisdom of the State in establishing
this Board has been demonstrated even the
first year of its existence. Before us we have
the manuscript of the first annual report Of
the Secretary, DR.. A. G. Young, soon to be
published, from which we will make an abb
stract OF great interest to all our readers.
The report begins with the publication of
the act establishing the Board, and It's organ
ization, which was effected last April. The
Board has published and distributed extern
siyely series of circulars relating to the
prevention and restriction of contagious
diseases The first related to school house
construction, issued at time when the build
ING of MANY school houses was going for
ward. This was followed closely by circu-
lar ON cholera, which gave the public correct
views regarding this disease, and assurances
that it is amenable to preventive measures
Fortunately. however, America was not vis-
tied by this disease Many ports of South
ern Europe are affected with the germs Of
the disease, and there will be still required
great watchfulness to guard American ports
against the danger of infection. The cireu-
lar sent out in reference to earth closets was
most important one, and also that In re-
gard to vaccination.
While the small pox ragged in neighbor-
ing province we have escaped with very Jew
cases within our borders. The origin OF the
disease, as it developed in Montreal Is given.
The first death from small pox in the city
was on April 1st, and the total number OF
deaths there during the prevalence OF the
disease was 3,164. During that time the dis
bursements of the Health department of the
city were S137, ,770.6O. While the disease as
an epidemic has subsided in Montreal, it has
been scattered over this unlucky Province
from Ontario to the Gulf of st. Lawrence.
The neglect to promptly isolate the first cases
clearly caused the spread Of the disease in
Montreal The absence of small pox from
the city for four or five years was not an
unmixed blessing Besides the municipal
dereliction of duty, vaccination had come to
be neglected, and the material was at hand
for easily starting an epidemic. By some
strange fatality Of ignorance or race the
French inhabitants among whom the dis
ease chiefly prevailed refused vaccination
and resisted the law which offered protec-
time and again that the virulence of small
pox has not deteriorated in the least from
the time when it was every year Staying Its
thousands in every civilized country IN the
world, except it has been modified by vac
cination. The calamity in Montreal should
be lesson to us in Maine.
The report then deals with the precau-
tionary measures taken to prevent the spread
of the disease among us. Application Tor
aid was made to the general government.
An inspector was put on the Grand trunk
Railway at Island Pond, Vt, and an inspee-
tor was sent to Moose River, where the prev
alence of the disease would have inflicted
severe blow on the lumber interests. A cir
cular on the subject was sent to the lumber
men of the State, which met with GLAD re-
sponse from the municipalities of the lum-
bering districts. An agreement was entered
into by most of the lumber operators In the
State, not to hire any men for the woods
unless they had been vaccinated. Cir
culars urging vaccination and other
precautionary measures were also issued
to the various manufacturing eompa-
MES in the State. Personal visits were made
by members of the Board to localities in
which there seemed to be the greatest dan
ger, for the purpose of urging immediate
preventive measures. In almost every case
the towns promptly acted upon the sugges-
tions of the Board. The value of the coop
Grafton of the Board with the town autbori-
tics was shown by the treatment of the first
case of small pox in the State, that at West
Harpswell. A detailed statement is here
given of the inspection service which was
Instituted here, and the effective measures
which were carried forward.
Soon after the board began its work, cir
cular letter of enquiries was sent out to all
the physicians in the State, comprising ques-
tions on various matters-topography, cpl
demiological record, scarlet fever, diphtheria,
typhoid fever phthisis, and schools. In an
swer to these inquiries, the Board received
communications from large number of
physicians; and these, with reports from
medical correspondents, will form some two
hundred pages of the forthcoming report,
containing matter of great value which the
people will be glad to receive. Since the
wisdom of the future is drawn largely from
the errors of the past, the Board has wisely
utilized the information it has gained. From
the older members of the medical profession,
there are interesting accounts Of the preya-
lence of cholera in Maine, and the yellow
fever, which has few times touched our
shores. OF these two diseases we learn that
when they find the filth and other conditions
congenial to them they are even here capable
of a frightful temporary mortality,
With scarlet fever and diphtheria, howev-
er we have to deal with foes which always
lurk in our midst, ready to avenge any de-
linquencies in our observance of sanitary re-
quirements The deaths annually so caused,
very largely exceed the numbers by excep-
tional pestilences. We acquire familiarity
with these diseases, and get the impression
that they belong to the inevitable order of
things. But nothing could be farther from
the truth We must breathe pure air, eat
and m drink good food and pure water, and
keep ourselves and our children from the
sources and causes of contagious and infect
ious diseases, or suffer the penalty of DISC
bedience. Those diseases which most swell
our death rates, in Maine, are just those dis
eases which are the most easily comfortable
by sanitary precautions. A very large part
of our mortality comes from consumption,
typhoid fever, diphtheria and scarlet fever,
and similar zymotic diseases, and 1t is known
that these are in large measure preventa-
Bile.
In scarlet fever, the general conviction of
physicians is that it is due to infection de-
rived directly or Indirectly from other cases
of the same disease 1t is not necessary to
go into the presence Of the disease; it may
be brought to us in the clothing or the effects
of those who have been where it is. A very
small quantity of this specific cause is some
times sufficient to produce the disease, even
what may adhere to the surface of letter
may suffice. The letters from c0rrespon-
dents also show that scarlet fever contagiOn
may retain its vitality for,some time In cloth
ing or other articles Cases are narrated in
which the infection was preserved for from
six months to year; one gives case in
which three years had elapsed one four
years; two five years; and one a case in
contracted from an old shawl after a period
of seven years. If the vitality of grains of
wheat has been preserved thousands of years
in Egyptian sarcophagi, why may not the
life of disease germs be retained five or sew
en- years in barrel of rags? Several times
an old shawl has borne the fatal infection
for months or years; twice it was set free
from rags when the rug-making impulse
seized the household; once it was doll
which little hands stricken with the fatal in
fectious malady, had fondled in her last
hours.
Regarding the causation of diphtheria we
do not find the same concordance as in the
case of scarlet fever. Some even hold to the
belief that it is incapable of spreading by
contagion or infection. This is dangerous
teaching, and the Secretary goes on to give
positive testimony, in the citation of cases,
TO show that diphtheria is dangerously con-
tagious 1t is shown that from a case of
slight sore throat a widespread and severe
outbreak of genuine diphtheria may arise,
and that diphtheric patients are dangerous
to the community for some time after re-
covery, if allowed to run about without any
consideration for the safety or the rights of
others. Many of these cases of "slight sore
throat are in reality cases Of mild diph-
liberia, and are doubly dangerous, for the
reason that while they bear the infectiye
capabilities their true nature is often over
Tho cpaOnd Of in