Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-17
DEATH AND DISEASE
RECORDS AND STATISTICS DIS
GUESSED BY PHYSICIANS.
Convention Of Members Of State and
Provincial Boards Of Health Of
North America.

Records and statistics of death and dis
ease were discussed in detail at the meet
ing this morning of the conference of state
and provincial boards of health of North
America DR.. John S. Fulton of Baltimore.
Md, president of the organization, in this
connection brought up the question of al
legged graft in state and municipal health
offices. He said that officials had in some
instances been discovered selling for small
sums of money the names of persons af-
ficted with consumption and other dis
eases to certain firms who wished to sell
remedies. He advocated the recommended
ton to state authorities that such records
be guarded closely and opened only to per-
sons who have a legal right to inspect them.
DR.. Fulton offered the following resolu-
lions on the subject, which. on motion of
DR.. H M. Bracken OK Minnesota, were re-
ferred to committee for consideration and
report at later date:
1.-THE records OF births. marriages and
deaths should be open for inspection by all
persons for proper purposes.
THE records of reports OF the presence
of consumption In the living should be open
for inspection to those only who are en-
titled to be furnished with information for
the purposes of sanitary control, and the
right to such inspection should be deter
mined by the official registrar.
THE records of reports of the presence
OF consumption in the living and the rec
ord of the presence of consumption previous
to death should be open to inspection when
in the opinion of the registrar fraud upon
an insurance company has been attempted.
1.-The records of reports of the presence
of venereal disease should be open only to
the registrar, and he should not be COM
PEELED by, power of the court to expose
them for inspection.
A resolution recommending that the ship
ping of undressed animals, fowls and fish
for edible purposes be prohited by state
laws in order to prevent the development
of disease for this source, was passed
unanimously. 1t was stated that this evil
has been particularly manifest of late in
the state of California, which receives many
consignments of meats from the middle
west.
Dr. ]. N. Hurry of Indiana spoke briefly
on the subject why Power Should Be
Vested in the State Board of Heath to
From a Sanitary Standpoint" He ex-
planned the provisions and working of a
law on this point recently passed by the
legislature of his state.
Other Papers Read.
Among the other papers read was one by
w. A. King, chief statistician of the census
bureau. on the Present Status of Registra-
ton Matters" in which 1t was explained
that many states were arranging to COM
pile more complete and accurate statistics,
which will enable the census bureau to in
clude them In its annual reports on death
and disease in the country. He said the
question of how complete a state record
should be before 1t is allowed to form
part of the bureaus report was a difficult
one to answer. and that the government Of
f1cials were preparing to confer with varf-
Gus health authorities throughout the coun-
try on the matter.
The service of the revenue cutter Wynn
dom having been rendered to the public
health and marine hospital service, that
department. through Surgeon General Wy
man, invited the members of the conference
to take trip down the Potomac this after
noon. The conference accepted with thanks
and the party left Stevens wharf, at the
foot of It'll street about 80 o'clock, to be
gone until about 8 o'clock. This trip is
the closing event of the conference.
After several hours discussion yesterday
afternoon of the majority and minority re-
port on quarantine for smallpox the con-
ference adopted a substitute for each in
the following language:
1T is the belief of this conference that
vaccination is the only true and practical
preventive of smallpox"
A committee was authorized to report at
the next conference on the educational
qualifications which should be required of
sanitary officials. A resolution was adopted
expressing confidence in the sanitary man
agement of Cuba, and stating that since
the extinction of yellow fever in that island
there are no sanitary conditions there which
constitute a menace to the United States.