The record-union., 1898-01-16
STATE HEALTH BOARD MEETS
THE USE OF ANTI-TOXINE rs
DEMANDED.
San Franchises City Hospital and
PeSt-House Condemned
Other Matters.

meeting of the State Board of
Health was held in Secretary Mathews
office in the Capitol building last night,
there being present Drs. Ruggles,
Mathews, Crowley, Henderson and
Morse.
The Secretary, DR.. Mathews, read a
| communication from DR.. NJ. Gardner.
Medical Director of the Southern Pa
eric Company, announcing that the
recommendation of the board that pas
senger and sleeping cars entering the
State be disinfected with formalahide
gas as soon thereafter as possible had
been accepted, and that cars were being
disinfected accordingly.
At recent meeting of the board in
San Francisco a resolution was adopt
ed imposing a quarantine on vessels
arriving from the ports of Guaymas
and Mazatlan in Mexico, on account of
smallpox, which was reported to be cpl
demlc at those points. A San Fran
cisco paper published an account, sub
stftuting yellow fever for smallpox and
the Mexican authorities at once took
the matter up, and through their Con-
sul-General at San Francisco informed
the board that there had been during
September and October of last year
only six cases of yellow fever at Mazat-
Ian and none at Guaymas, and that
there We're no other infectious diseases
at either port
A resolution was accordingly adopt
ed raising the quarantine of Gil vessels
arriving from the Mexican ports.
The board commended the action of
the San Francisco Board of Supervis-
ors in authorizing the erection of
garbage incinerating plant by the adop-
ton of the following resolution:
Resolved, That we commend the ex
ample set by the Board of Supervisors
of San Francisco in awarding a fran
chise for the destruction Of refuse and
garbage in this manner to the favora-
BILE consideration of the authorities in
other cities of this State where the
material, when left to decay upon the
surface of the ground is calculated to
breed disease and menace the health of
their inha bitants."
At a recent meeting of the board
communications were dispatched to the
superintendent of the several insane
asylums, requesting that reports be
made of known and suspected cases of
consumption in the institutions, so that
the Board Of Health in making investi-
cations as to the actual number so af
fiieted would thus be materially as
sisted
Replies were received from the sew
eral superintendent and these created
considerable comment. The Stockton
asylum, with nearly 1000 patients, was
reported as having only fourteen cases,
While the Southern California institu-
ton, with less than 500 patients, re-
ported fifty positive and several doubt
full cases.
The question of battling diphtheria,
which in some cities is almost epidem-
lie, was discussed at length During
the holidays DR.. Crowley had notified
the Secretary that the disease in Wood
land was reported to be past the con-
troll Of the health authorities. Secre-
tary Mathews consulted with the Gov
ernor, and DIR. Henderson Of this city
was authorized to proceed to Wood
land to investigate.
DR.. Henderson reported to the board
that at least one Woodland physician
had failed to report diphtheria cases,
and had in a number of cases reported
pronounced cases to be tonsilftis and
membranous Group. Accordingly,
cases had not been quarantined, and
the disease had spread. After inves-
tigating he had ordered that tonsilitis
cases be quarantined, and the result
was that the spread had been checked.
In view Of the fact that some of the
physicians of Sacramento and other
cities refuse to give anti-toxine to
diphtheria patients the following res
olution, drawn by DR.. Henderson, met
with the unanimous approval of the
board:
Resolved, That we unqualifiedly in
dorse the use of anti-toxine in all cases
of diphtheria, and in such suspected
cases as have been exposed to the dis
ease, and, during an epidemic, in all
suspected cases; that we consider adj
vice against the use Of anti-toxine in
cases of diphtheria in absolute defiance
to the most positive scientific evidence,
and dangerous not only to the persons
so advised, but also to the community
at large, likely to be infected where
such advice is followed
The board recently visited the City
and County Hospital and the Twenty
sixth Street Hospital (pesthouse) in
San Francisco, and the inspection was
NJ otoiiiLS0 Wy liz 10AAO"ALS iSoOAo-
tons by DIR. Crowley, which We're uani-
mously adopted:
Resolved. That the City and County
Hospital of San Francisco has been
found by this board to be unsanitary
and in every respect unfit for the re-
tention of the sick, and we recommend
its condemnation and removal, and fur
Their recommend the authorities to build
new and modern hospital"
The resolution respecting the pest
house was as follows:
Resolved, That the so-called TWEEN
ty-sixth Street Hospital is unworthy Of
the name of hospital, and is a dis
grace to the community which main
tains it, as it is utterly unfit for hu-
man habitation and should be con-
demned and destroyed"
A communication from the Governor
of Michigan, extending an invitation to
the board to attend the National Board
of Health Meeting and Quarter Cen
tennial at Detroit, commencing July
18th, was read, and on motion OF Dr.
Henderson, DR.. Crowley was author
lied to attend and represent the board,
and afterward proceed to Washington,
.. c.. to confer with the Secretary of
Agriculture on the subject OF quaran-
timing against splenic fever in cattle.
Owing to the fact that many cases
of leprosy have recently appeared In
the State, on motion of DR.. Crowley,
Dr. Morse was authorized to proceed to
the Hawaiian Islands, study the dis
ease and the best methods OF treating
it, and report at his earliest convent
enee the result of his Investigations