The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-02-22
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.
Annual Report Made to Governor and
Council.

Annual Report Made to Governor and
Council.
| Augusta, February 21.--The annual
report of the state board of health has
been submitted to the Governor and
council.
Of tuberculosis the report says: "Of
all the diseases propagated by infection
tuberculosis is by far the most destruc-
tive. What smallpox, cholera and the
plague have done amid reigns of terror,
tuberculosis does insidiously but too
surely. In this state pulmonary tuber-
culosis destroys more than 1900 lives
every year."
The report speaks of the methods of
preventing the spread of the disease and
adds: 'The life history Of the bacterial
cause of tuberculosis has been SO we'll
and SO widely studied that it is quite
within bounds to affirm that only igno-
rance and the incubus Of old time i'm
pressions OF the inevitable, stand in the
way of putting those measures into gen.
eral use which would effect a very
marked diminution in the tuberculosis
death rate of the state within a decade.
"By act of the legislature of 1895. pull
monary tuberculosis or consumption, was
made notiflable disease.
'.sThe average number of deaths in the
state from diphtheria and diphtheritic
Group has been 1877 for the three years
for which the reports have been COM
piled.
"Quite frequently an opinion honestly
held as to the nature of a throat disease
permits destructive outbreaks of diph-
liberia when tho child, with what ap-
pears to be simple case of sore throat,
children. The only safe way when
there is any question is to prevent the
association of such cases with other
children.
1.-THE non-observance of these precau-
tions was the cause of a serious outbreak
in Rockland.
s'Several outbreaks of smallpox have
occurred in the state in the past two
years.
"In every town vaccination of the
inhabitants should be regarded as an
indispensable security"
The report contains a number. of spec
ial papers, the first being on "Formic
Aldehyde, Its Practical Use," by Prof.
F. C. Robinson Of Bowdoin. Prof. Rob
inson's work is referred to in the intro
duction:
s'In the autumn of 1895, Prof. F. C.
Robinson was requested to carry on his
work for the board, and, if practicable,
to devise an apparatus for the genera
ton of gas in quantity sufficient for the
rapid disinfection of rooms. The formic
aldehyde lamp was exhibited at the
| American Public Health association in
October, and brief paper was read CIV
ing the results which had been obtained
with it's use.''
| In his article Prof. Robinson describes
the lamp and the results derived there
from.
| Mr.. S. H. Woodbridge has an exhaustive
article on Ventilation of school build
ings." SIT must be conceded che says'
that that to which is generally given
least importance in our thoughts, as
compared with the thought given to food
and recreation is really of the greatest
Importance to our best vitality. We
think more of our eating than of our
breathing, and more of the loss of a half
davis recreation than of a whole weeks
deprivation of pure air. Municipalities
will spend money by the million for
parkways, the meanwhile condemnihg as
wanton waste the spending of a quarter
of such sums on the sanitation of school
| houses.
ssWe have found that the impoverished
air sometimes tolerated as tolerable in
our school houses reduces the brilliancy
of a candle flame five per cent. below
normal. Some English students of
sanitation have declared that the pro-
ductive work of scholars in badly venti-
lated buildings fall rs per cent. below
the work of those in well ventilated
school rooms.''
Steamer Diament Missing.