The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-10-26
THE RECORD OF BIRTHS
A CLASH BETWEEN THE STATE AND
CITY HEALTH BOARDS.
Talk of Impeachment Because of Nom
enforcement Of the Law ne'a'nS
to Vital Statistics.

Beard Of Health over the right Oh the idt'er
board to compel the officers or the former
board to enforce the provisions OF the vital
statistics law so far as 1t pertains 10 the
recording OF births, has reached the point
where interesting developments may De ex-
pected in a few days. The dispute is not
over the utility Of the law governing TIE
collection of the data, but, 50 far as the city
board is concerned, over the method OF en-
forcing it.
Yesterday, while at the Indiana Dental
College, DR.. F. A Morrison. president OF the
city board, and DR.. ]. n. Hurry, secretary
of the State board, met and fell at once into
a discussion Of the matter in dispute and'
after a heated argument lasting seVerai
minutes, bystanders heard DR.. Morrison
say. We'll, 1 won't" whereat DR.. Hurry
replied: 1.-The law will be enforced and II
you do not do it, you and the members Oh
your board will be impeached.'
The subject matter of the discussion being
well known to those around them, 1t was
understood at once that DR.. Morrison,
speaking for his board. had refused to do
something that DR.. Hurry held TO be part
of his duty as president of the city board
and that DR.. Hurry had given him his choice
OF doing 1t or Of being impeached.
DIR. MORRISON TALKS.
DR.. Morrison was the first one spoken to
about the matter and, while he said he con-
sidered it personal matter, yet ii was one
he did not feel called upon to keep secret.
He said he had told DR.. Hurry that the
strict enforcement of the law requiring all
physicians to report births to the health
boards within fifteen days after the close of
each month would result in what would look
on the face of it as material falling off in
births and what would render the statistics
OF little or no value. II told him. said he,
that while no one disputed the value of
the statistics and the law governing them.
the matter must be considered from the
standpoint OF the physician who had TO visit
patients continually and not from that of
the statlstician, who only saw the value of
having the records in the shortest possible
time. Fifteen days grace are not enough.
II ought to be thirty. Why, in many cases
the patient Is still under treatment at the
end of fifteen days, while in many others
family physicians are requested to withhold
publicity as to births on account of the
tendency OF friends TO call when in many
cases the patients condition will not war
rant intrusion. The physician has his choice
In these cases of either offending his pa
tients and running his practice or Of being
prosecuted for failing to report the birth
within fifteen days. The State board may
me some physicians for not reporting these
Il
times. for it will result in each physician,
when circumstances prevent him from re-
porting the matter, keeping ii secret and
never making 1t matter of record at all.
In their incompleteness. / know that this
feeling is general among physicians and II
physicians against the law as it is enforced
Inc law does not or should not seek to
prosecute practitioners nor to put people in
prison II only seeks to gather vital statis-
iren should ha oil
lowed to physicians in which TO make re-
ports They know better than the State
Board of Health what their obligations are
and most OF the physicians will resent any
attempt to deprive them OF their rights or
injure their practice. They do not object to
the law, but rather to the method of its
I'm reply to all this DR.. Hurry made the
remark that This is the law and IL must be
enforced, and replied that did not know
but. on the contrary, he and / would be in
prison If they were. told him the very
physicians who were now protesting against
eordlal supporters in his efforts to pass the
law enlarging the powers of the State board
GRAFTON.
IN MASSACHUSETTS.
"Dr. Hurry replied that the same law was
IN force In Massachusetts, and worked well
there. but 1 showed MIN in a minute that
the moment the law had been enforced the
way it is contemplated here the birth rate
decreased materially. AND II has continued
to show falling off, which everyone knows
Is not a matter of fact. This, 1 told him.
indicated just what might be expected in
Indiana, physicians who are compelled TO
Keep back returns for several days will not
run the risk OF prosecution by turning them
IN after the limit has expired, and there
fore, statistics will show on paper a falling
or OF births which. in reality, has not taken
place.
DIR Hurry intimated that If physicians
talled, neglected or refused 20 make returns
OF all the births known to them 1t was the
duty or the local board of health to hunt
out these cases and prosecute them. l told
him that. so far as was concerned, oui
BOARD would do no such thing; that we
would would get all the statistics We could and
report them TO the State Board, but that we
could not and would not go into the detec-
i've business and scour the city to find
cases where physicians failed to report
births DR.. Hurry made some reply to this
put Just now l fail TO remember what ii
was. II there was disposition to relent a
a aste from the strict enforcement of the
h i days time limit, there would be no
difhculty and the statistics would be regu-
lar and complete"
DIR. HURRY DISCUSSES 1T.
DR.. Hurry, when asked about the affair,
said that the law was on the statute books
to be enforced and there was no reason
why the city Board of Health should not do
its duty and prosecute any physician who
did not comply with it. The higher the
man the better the example that may be
made of him. said DR.. hurty, land if II is
true that member of this board is delin-
quent in reporting his birth returns, he
should be the first one prosecuted. Before
THIS law was passed, last winter, / asked
PHYSICIANS all over the State about what
would be reasonable time limit and it was
on their replies that fifteen days was finally
nxed upon: Moreover, this law. as II relates
to the collection of birth returns is not a
new one. 1t was passed in 1881 and should
nave been enforced years ago. This board
VIII stick to the letter of the law, and il
| this means war, why, war il shall be-
what did you say about impeaching the
city board II IL failed TO compel physicians
| asked.
| Il told DR.. Morrison that II he did not
feel that he could regard his oath of office
and prosecute these physicians he ought to
resign, and that, If the members OF the CITY
| ooard DID not enforce the law, they would
| be impeached The state board has the
power to depose any officer OF any subordi
nate Doard, and, II necessary, ii will exer.
| else that power