The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-07-14
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH
ANNUAL lIEETING HELD YESTER-
Day AFTERNOON.
for Ensuing Year-Committees APP
pointed-The Report of the Secretary,
DIR. Lindsey, In Full.

seven members were present excepting
Prof. Brewer, who is in the west, anC
DIR. G. Fl. Wilson, who is in Maine.
The election of officers took place an6
resulted as follows: President, Prof
w. H. Brewer of New Haven, re-elect
ed secretary and treasurer, Dr. c.. A
Lindsey of New Haven, re-elected au-
diting committee II. H. Mckenzie OF
Southington and H. G. Newton of New
Haven.
new board of managers was elect
ed as follows: Hartford county, Dr. e
K. Root, who was lately appointed tC
the board New Haven county, Prof
w. H. Brewer; New London county
| Dr. j. G. Wilson; Fairfield county, Dr.
c. A. Lindsey; Windham county, H
| G. Newton; Litchfield county, DR.. r.
S. Goodwin; Tolland county, DR.. T. H.
Mckenzie; Middlesex county, DR.. E.
K Root.
| A committee composed of DR.. Linds-
ley, DIR. Root and DR.. Mckenzie were
appointed to investigate the drowned
lands in Durham and Middlefeld,
which are thought to be malarious.
A committee composed of Dr. Lnds-
ley and DR.. J. G. Smith was appointed
to investigate an ice pond in Bridge
port. Complaint has been made that
| the ice taken from that pond is I'M
healthy and a thorough investigation
will be made
Several reports were read including
the secretary's, treasurers and report
of inspections made during the year.
The meeting adjourned about O'clock.
The report for the last six months of
the secretary, DR.. C. A. Lindsey, is as
follows:
SECRETARY'S REPORT.
The Health of the State
On this point the report covers the
six months from January 1, 1899, to
June 80.
Excepting the month of January of
this year the mortality reports receiv-
ed from the registrars do not indicate
any unusual prevalence of disease. But
the reports of cases of sickness with
infectious maladies do indicate an I'M
usual prevalence of measles and scarlet
fever
The excessive death rate in January,
1899, was due to the prevalence of la
grippe and its sequels, the acute af-
fections of the lungs. The annual rate
for that month was oil per 1000. That
death rate has never been exceeded in
any winter month except in January,
1890, in December, 1891. and January,
1892, in all of which months la grippe
was epidemic. On those occasions the
death rate was respectively 26.2, 279,
and 31.4 Again in April, 1898, la grip
pc prevailed and the death rate reach
ed 21.2 Even in the summer months
when infantile diarrhoea is so preva-
lent, the mortality has never reached
80 per 1000. La grippe was thus prov
ed to be the most dangerous epidemic,
to which our communities are exposed
of late years The epidemic of scarlet
fever and measles have been of an ex-
ceptionally mild type. In the six
months ending June 80 there We're re-
ported S13 cases of scarlet fever with
only 81 deaths. Probably scarlet fever
is more promptly and fully reported
than any other disease, because of it's
easy diagnosis and the popular fear of
it. OF measles in the same time there
were reported 1,150 cases. but the pre-
sumption is fair that there were double
that number in fact. Yet only II deaths
We're ascrbed to that cause Probably |
some of the deaths attributed to pneu-
monia had their origin in measles. 1t
is so little dreaded by the general pub
lie that it is difficult for health officers
to get the cooperation of the commu-
nifty in their attempts to conrol it,
Diphtheria and croup.-Of these dis |
eases so often indistinguishable if they
are not Identical there is marked de-
crease in prevalence during the |
last eighteen months. During the ten |
years preceding 1898 the average an
nual deaths numbered 507 While for |
the year 1898 there were only 2SS and |
for the six months of the present year
there have been only So, which is at the
rate of only ITO for the year. A re-
markable reduction from the average
of 507 in the ten years preceding 1898
Typhoid notwithstanding the
influx of soldiers last summer and au-
tumn suffering from this disease, the |
total death registered numbered only
1879, against an average of 253 for the
previous ten years. The reduction be-
gan in 1896, where there We're only 207
deaths, and in 1897 there were but Isl.
The increased mortality to 1S9 in 1898
from this disease was wholly due to the
of cases with the soldiers
from the Cuban war. Since January l
only thirty-five deaths in the state are
reported. The lessened fatality of
these very infectious Diseases being
coincident with the reorganization Of
health administration in the state, and
with more enlightened and cheerful
cooperation of the people with the To-
cal town health officers, it is reason !
able and just presumption that their
influences have been potent factors in
this happy result.
Cerebro spinal fever.--An increasing
prevalence of this very fatal disorder
has been noted in many parts of the
United States for more than a year.
has shared the inflction
with other parts of the countdy. It's
etiology and mode of infection are not
well understood, and the means of pre-
vention and restriction are correspond
ingly uncertain This Office has no re-
liable information as to its prevalence
other than the death certificates afford
1t is only required to be reported as a
by local sanitary regulations of
towns, and is not in the list mentioned
In the statutes. In consequence the re-