Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-10
BOARDS OF HEALTH.
What Illinois Has Done in the Matter What
Texas is Doing for Her Health
Department
FoEr WORTH, TEX, Sept. 3. 1890.

wealthS. Now let US see what Illinois
has to say on the subject. In his mes
sage TO the general assembly, January,
1889, Governor Oglesby says:
cit ia q matter of record that the Ia
bors of the state board of health resulted
in saving of nearly So, 500, 900 to the
people of the state in 1881 and 1882 when
| smallpox was epidemic. Through the
preventive and protective measures then
established and since enforced, there has
been no repetition of that disease III an
epidemic form. The wise and intelligent
policy of the board on the subject of
quarantine has been of great value to
the material interests, not only of Hi
nois, but of the whole Mississippi valley.
While vigilantly guarding against the IN
PRODUCTION and spread of the dan
gerous contagious and infectious
| diseases, it secures the least
interference with commerce and
travel, and SO averts unfounded panics
| ana prevents loss and interruption OF
business and industry.
In 1888 the board began q sanitary
| survey of the state with an object OF pre-
pairing it against threatened invasion
| of Asiatic cholera. This work, which is
still being prosecuted, embraces house
abatement of private as well as public
nuisances, in the sanitary defects and
| unhealthy conditions. 1t is claimed that
| in consequence of this work the cities,
towns and villages of Illinois have stead
| lily improved in their sanitary conditions,
until the state Is now one of the health
| lest and most favorable to long and Wig
orous life OF any in the Union. A seper-
ate and distinct duty and responsibility IS
devolved upon the board by the "medi-
| cal practice act. During less than
| twelve years of its existence this act has
done much to protect the sick and atflict-
ed from charlatans and quacks; 1t has
| driven out of the state most of the igno-
| rant, unqualified and unprincipled men
| who are preylng upon the miseTies Of
| their fellows, and 1t is not too much say
| that it has elevated and ennobled the
| practice of medicine both in the state
| and throughout the country. The meth
| DDS of medical education have been i'm
| proved as a consequence, and the stand
ard of attainments required of the phYsi-
| clan who is to deal with the weighty
| questions of health and disease, and of
life and death is Deing steadily raised.
The Illinois state board of health is
| now regarded as the pioneer IN this work
country and abroad. Since the passage
| of the amended actin force July /,
l887-the board has refused licenses to
| itinerant vendors of Gostrums with show
| accompanlments; the amount of these
licenses would aggregate over $40, 900,
! but the sum which the itinerants would
| fiece from the credulous figure
up hundreds of thousands q year.
TObserve it is no enviou5 or jealous doc
| tor who says this, but a man of the
people-the governor of a state-who has
no object in view save the good of the
people j. L. G.
That the board has been prudent and
| economical in the expenditure of appro-
priations subject to its order is manifest
from the fact that the contingent sum of
$40, 900 for one year was conveyed back
into the treasury untouched. l recon-
mend the usual appropriations to sustain
the board and continue Its use fuIness to
the state, and have no doubt that it will
be wise to continue the usual contingent
appropriation. -
That the people Of Texas may know what
Texas is doing for her health department
quote from the following letter which
is in my possession:
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.
OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER, :
AUSTIN, July 30, 1890. }
DR.. ]. L. Cunningham, Fort Worth. Texas.
!. DEAR SIR-Yours of 10Th inst was referred to
Itthis department by the secretary of state.
enclose you statement of appropriations for and
expenditures by the health department for the
past two years. The two years will close on
''' -''' -'''- -- JNo B. MCCALL,
Comptroller.
Appropriations for two years, commencing
March l 1883, and ending February Is 1881:
Officers and men,. %, 600
Purchase of steam vessels. ............- %, 500
Purchase of tents and rent of houses 5000
sli2, 500
Amount dish ursed from March 1889, to July
| 30, 1880:
Pay of officers and men-....... -..--' IS, 2O6 %
BBePahTs, - steam, vessels 81 SSs
Purchase of tents and rent OF houses. al s.
$50, On 81
HOfioers and men, means the state
health officer and his subs in the quar-
anrine business. Think of it We tax
paying toilers! $50, 206. 81 for seventeen
months or S4l 1872. "a for twelve months
service-for what?-aye for whatp What
showing Is there for this princely sum
expended in the name of the health de-
partment? How many lives have been
preventable diseases? What return for
the $50 ,O4l. 81? No one can accuse
Texas of want of liberslity in providing
for the health of her people, whatever
may be said of her wisdom and states
| manship.
With less than one half of whist has
been appropriated for quarantine pur-
poses alone, an efficient board of health
with Complementary local boards, would
have accomplished for quarantine all
| that has been done and more; and be-
sides would have added thousands upon
| thousands of dollars to the exchequer OF
! tine state by strict enforcement of in
| telligent, comprehensive and practical
| sanitary regulations.
With all the lights before us-with the
actual experiments of other states staring
US in the face, can there be any room
for doubt or hesItency as to the proper
course for the state to pursue? Then let
the clans rally, and let the slogan be
fsdown with the spendthrift hermaph-
| rodits monstrosity known as the
| quarantine system and in its place
] substitute an economical board of health
| system that will deal honestly and
squarely with quarantine and santa
ton. J. L. CUNNINGHAA. II. D.