Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-03-17
NAMES HEALTH.
Twelfth Report Of State Board
Just Issued.
Prevalence Of Smallpox Has Delayed
Publication Beyond Usual Time.
Many Subjects Of Importance Treated
in Comprehensive Manner.

of health for the two years ending
Dec. 81. 1901, has been issued, and is
now ready for distribution. The fol-
lowing abstract summarizes the re-
port in a brief ana comprehensive
manner.
The tardy appearance of this report
is due to the fact that the danger from
smallpox has constantly threatened
our State and that outbreaks of that
disease have been quite frequent thus
necessitating the absence of the sec
rotary from the office much of the
time and increasing the office work
very much. During the latter of the
two years covered by this report there
were an unusual number of outbreaks
but in the year 1902, not included in
this report, much more frequent and
serious outbreaks occurred and the
time available for the preparation OF
the report has been exceedingly frag-
mentary.
In preparing the reports of this
board it has been the policy of the sec
cretary to occupy as little space as
possible with the general correspon-
dence of the office or in recording
events which are merely of local OF
passing interest. Appeals are, howev-
er, frequently made to the secretary by
local boards of health or by citizens
for advice on matters of very diverse
character. Some of the questions thus
presented are of general interest, as is
shown by their reputation by differ
ent correspondents. A new feature
has therefore been introduced into this
report, Subjects of Correspondence
in which the answers to many in
quiries have been classified under diff
ferent headings.
One class of these questions is purely
legal The answers to some of them
are explicitly defined in the provisions
of the public health laws, while under
the contingencies indicated in other
letters the absence of any clearly de-
fined statutory provisions or of prece-
dents or legal decisions in our State
render a positive opinion impossible.
Another class of questions relates to
the best and most efficient methods of
doing public health work, or often
what is the best or most eXpedient
thing to do under the particular cir
cumstances. A wide experience with
work of this kind facilitates the ans
wering of these questions or the doing
of the work. but does not necessarily
ensure the doing of it in the most eff
ficient manner practicable. For in
stance, basing the work of disinfec-
ton on a mere assumption that given
disnfecting agent used for a
given purpose in a given way
frees articles from infection is not
scientific work. 1t may or it may not
produce efficient results. The only
positive answer to such questions can
be based only on the results of the re-
peated subsection of infection to the
action of the given disnfectant under
conditions similar to those met in the
actual work of diSinfecting rooms;
clothing, and other articles, and then
determining by the modern laboratory
methods whether the vitality of the in
fective agent has been destroyed. The
experimental work already done in the
la laboratories of the world enables us to
generalize and to answer many OF
these questions with a considerable
degree of positiveness, but much more
work remains to be done.
In another class of cases, subjects OF
frequent inquiry, generalization is
risky and may be costly. local
board of health inquiries how long a
person who has had diphtheria should
be quarantined. We may answer
four weeks. but in laying down fixed
rule tc be applied to all cases, we beg
the indulgence of the health officers III
our neighboring states who have
graduated from that antiquated meth
cd, and who now determine bacteri-
ologically for each individual case
whether the germ of diphtheria re-
mains in the throat ten days or thirty
days.