Waterbury Democrat., 1901-12-20

officer, having held the position fol the past four years, when he succeed ed Dr E. W. Mcdonald with the ad- vent of the Barlow administration. The board managed to get along very nicely. although they had some lively scraps about hen GOODS, hog pens, blowing of whistles, playing music on public streets. fumigating houses in which people died who happened to be suspected of sneezing before pass ing out of this world, and lot of other things. some good, more bad and oth- CTS indifferent. The last thing that came from that board to the aldermen and was adopted by that body, mainly through the instrumentality of Com missioners Cross and Frost, was the ordinance relating to tuberculosis. 1r provides that houses where consump- tives die shall be fumigated, and If the board of health thinks well of it, the paper torn off the walls and the furnl- ture carried away and cremated. When this ordinance was before the alder men, Mr Callan inquired who would pay this expense, and was answered by MT Cross, who said the owner of the building would have to come down with the dust. Some of the members of the board of health, notably Com missioner Finn, was at loggerheads with his colleagues over most of tho measures passed by that body since the retirement of Dr Holbrook, but they went through in spite of his op- position. If all the provisions of this ordinance should be carried out thers will be fun galore and the sanitary ins spector will need the assistance of Q body guard to help him perform his duties. If the city destroys such traps as there happen to be in the home of a poor family who will be unable to replace them. The owner may not be able and it Is not likely that the law will allow the city to pauperize people who might be able to shift for them selves if let alone. All the doctors, most of them anyway, say ittis good thing. The insurance men are well pleased with if, too, because they see in it an opportunity to get inside in- formation regarding family history which they have hitherto been una ble to pick up and connect In tangible form so that they could use 1t to their own advantage. The undertaken will be- brought into 1t, too, and. if they fail to come forward and put the au-
  about cases of that kind that come to their notice, they'll find themselves In peck. of trouble, so that between pre- pairing the body for burial, writing frl- neral notices and getting out state- ments for the health board, the under takers will have their hands full whenever they have few jobs to at. tend to that requires the additional labor. Most people fight shy of her. aiding the fact that any member of their family had died of the dreaded disease, consumption, but perhaps af- ter we get used to it nobody will mind it and if the precaution minimizes the number of deaths from that cause 1t will be worth what it will cost in the way of housekeeping and wounded feelings on the part of the friends of 1, those who succumb to the maIady.
 But this is not to the point. Whom be appointed on the board? Nobody knows and very few appear to care, although it Is very important de. partment of the city government, deal- ing as it does with all that pertains to good sanitation and the general health of the community. The. principal point of interest in connection with that board is the appointment of d health officer. The appropriation made for the salary of that official, 5000, is small compared with the amount of work he will be expected to perform. The board should have put it up to $1.00O at least and then if 8 competent man did the job properly 1t wouldn't any more than pay him a reasonable sum for his services. But meagre as the salary is there are sev- eral candidates in the field for tue po- sition and the man who could tell at this time who will win out would be- wise, indeed, although many seem to think that the plum, if such 1t migh~ rightfully be termed, will fall into the lap of Dr Kilmartin. But t1fere are others, and in scramble of this Kind 1t is mighty hard to tell with any de- gree of certainty how things will wind up.