Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1904-11-10
Health Boards.

In The annual report OF the MaTyianu o'"'c
Board of Health the board makes plea for
more efficient local organization, and upon
this point draws the following conclusion:
"Many of the incorporated towns have
good charter provisions for boards Of health,
so that there are now tiftythree local boards
of health in the State. The best of them are
very good, and the poorest are very poor,
some of them 80 inefficient that the money
spent upon them is little better than wasted.
Now is the time to mend this fault. If the
principle of local government Of counties is
not to develop now, we shall In few years
find the State covered with numerous town
boards of health acting under charter pro-
visions, working independently of each 9TH
or, often at variance among themselves, with
out definite responsibility to any central au-
thority, and practically incapable Of the
coordinated activity upon which the safety
of the State depends.
-Four Maryland counties have each had in
one Iyear more smallpox than the city Of
Baltimore has had III five years. Smallpox
visits US but occasionally, and the damage
inflicted by this disease Is not worth one
moments consideration beside the harm done
by common infections against which the
county boards make no effort whatever The
county boards must be strengthened, and
their supremacy In their political limits must
be maintained. The existing method Of Or
ganisation Of county boards OF health is good
and should not be disturbed.
"ln practice, however, one finds that
county commissioners, who compose boards
of health are often quite ignorant of sanitary
operations, and cannot during their short
terms, become informed upon these subjects,
They must appoint physician as health Of
ficer, and they often prefer that the office
shal be accepted and administered. The
county commissioners very rarely meet as
boards OF health. Many of them do not de-
sire or expect any report from their health
officers, and some Of them refuse to sit at all
as boards of health. The men selected as
health officers are, as a rule, respectable ply
scans but they seldom have any practical
familiarity with their official duties. Ahcr
his appointment the health officer usually
waits for an emergency to begin his practi-
cal education. He learns nothing about the
restriction of the common diseases always
prevalent about HIM, for the county commits
sioners have not authorized him, and per.
haps have even forbidden him to do the sim
pie things which are required by law.
unless the public mind grows excited
about an unusual kind or amount or sick
ness, the county health officer may conclude
his official term without having done his
community penny's worth Of professional
service and without having gained apenny's
worth of knowledge or skill in sanitation.
Such is the status of sanitary administration
in oneth'rd of the counties of Maryland, and
it is very expensive. Let US emphasize the
point that this neglect Is expensive. The
expense as expressed in the waste OF money
on the maintenance of such boards is very
slight. " hen these idle boards are confront.
ed with what they consider to be emergen'
cies, it simply means that they have been
caught asleep Moreover, when they do pro.
coed they incur much Unnecessary expense
aud all the injurious accompaniment OF
haste and alarm. Even in the presence of
familiar diseases, such as measles, scarlet fe'
yer, dphthera, whooping cough, typhoid
fever, local health officers sometimes grow
suddenly very active under the stimulus OF
popular excitement and do very extravagant
and unnecessary things.
at would be hard to estimate the annual
loss to the State from closing public schools
on account of infectious diseases, but the loss
Is certainly greater than the amount of mon
ey paid in salaries to all the health officers In
the State. 1t IS an irrational and unneces.
sary practice, and would disappear If health
officers were instructed IN the more definite
and less expensive methods of controlling
transnissible diseases. This is but an illus
tration of common sort Of hygienic error
"Unwise and costly restrictions of personal
liberty, disturbances OF private business,
sometimes of the peace and comfort of whole
communities, add to the cost Of inexpert san
itary government. The law never intended
that preventive measures should cost as much
OF 1early as much In time or money or dis.
comfjrt as the diseases against which they
are directed.
"Under the false idea that prevails, some
boards of health exist only for the purpose
of suppressng epidemics, whereas their true
function is to prevent epldemics. This no.
ton that boards of health are merely of occa.
sional utility is also very expensive. Our
experience included the history of one small
epidemic costing county over $500, which
beyond oil doubt would never have occurred
if the local board, actually in possession of
exact and timely information, had spent the
one dollar which the emergency called for.
This is very definite instance, but we know
of others where onetenth or onetwentieth OF
the amount eventually spent, if applied at
the right time and place, would have met
every need of the situation.
"All this waste grows out of ignorance,
and much of 1t could be avoided if we could
bring the weaker boapds of health in Mary
land up to TIT level of the best boards. To
do this requires but little more than that the
boards shall all be assembled once year q,
one place, for the purpose of learning their
duties, exchanging their experience and per
feeling their methods"