St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1916-10-18

/ Mr.. Brooks laid special stress upon
the community spirit in the town and
about which he said: "One thing
want to speak of is the cooperative
spirit that Is shown in the life of the
place, the get-together spirit, the
strong, buoyant spirit which is fos-
tered by individual effort" He also
touched upon the scenic features OF
| the locality and the excellent roads
which gave free access to all beauties
of New England.
In closing Mr.. Brooks spoke of the
hospitals as an attraction to the life
/ of any community as it gives added
| opportunity for the showing of med
ical and surgical skill by the medical
| profession which will tend to attract
the notice of outside places.
DR.. John r. Williams of Roches-
ter, N. Y, responded to the toast
"Our Guest" AS a member of the
New York society he brought the
greetings of his local physicians in the
Rochester Medical society. DR.. Will
liams referred to an innate venera.
ton of Vermont which he had had
for years. In closing DR.. Williams
finished wit hsome humorous re.
marks that earned an Outburst of
applause.
Hon. Joseph Fairbanks gave an ex-
cellent treatment of his toast, "The
Doctor and the Lawyer" in which
he drew some exceedingly apt COM
parsons of the two professions. ana
in which the physicians were showed
up to advantage. Mr.. Fairbanks IN
his talk mentioned the creation of the
state board Of health, and treated
the work of it in a lighter vein
IL inf
Dr. John H. Blodgett of Bellows
Falls, who responded to the toast,
1.-THE Babies" had a difficult sub.
ject. well handled and in a most nov
ell way. Beginning in humorous way
he proceeded to bring the subject to
a more serious and excellent conclu-
sion in a paper which touched on
parenthood.
The final speaker of the evening,
DR.. W. N. Bryant of Ludlow, ans
wered to the toast, 'Our Wives and
Sweethearts'' which was one of the
most popular toasts of the post
prandiaI exercises.
DIR. NicOll's A6c-csS
The public address to the profess
sion and laity, delivered by DR.. Mat
thias Nicoll, Jr., on, Problems in the
Administration of State Medicine"
was one of interest and instructive
ness. DR.. Nicolls spoke in part as
follows:
In presenting to you certain of the
more important problems which have
arisen and which constantly recur In
public health administration, I shall
confine myself rather closely to those
with which 1 am most familiar.
namely, those that are associated with
the work of the state department of
health under the direction of the
present commissioner, Herman M
Biggs and, incidentally, the New York
City department of health with which
was connected for a number of
years through the research labora-
tory.
There are a number of problems in
the administration of public health
which are common to all the states
of the union, while each geographic
group of states presents certain spe.
cial problems, or rather the accent
uation of certain common problems,
due to varying climatic conditions,
habits of life and thought, and tbs
predominance in them of certain ra-
cial types. Thus Vermont and Geor-
gia, while having common conditions
to meet, has each its special prob.
lens, while the chief difference be-
tween those which arise in Vermont
and New York state is due to the ex.
tent of the population and territory
in each.
One of the most spectacular and
satisfactory accomplishments Of a
we'll organized health department is
that of the reduction OF infant NOR
tally and one of the most important
factors in it's accomplishment is the
education Of mothers in the general
care of their children. Yet how much
less would have been the saving OF
infant lives if the intestinal infections
which come from contaminated milk
had not been enormously reduced by
the supervision of the milk produc-
ton, the care of containers and the
heating Of milk not otherwise suit
able for infant consumption.
So also in the department of SAN
itary engineering the ultimate object
is the control of certain water-borne
infectious diseases. In short,
throughout the list of official func-
tons with the exception of certain
items in vital statistics of the control
of cancer by the education of the
people and perhaps in the future the
| control of physical degeneration
which follows the use of alcohol and
drugs, 1 can think of no duty which
does not directly or indirectly relate
to the control of the infection OIL
known and unknown origin. In the
exercise of this control there are two
essential factors: first, the ability %
recognize communicable disease when
net with, the knowledge of method
of the spread of each disease and the
steps to be taken to prevent its spread
as well as of the application of the
cure of such diseases for which spe-
cific treatment has been found and
the ready means of obtaining such
specific at short notice. Second
| when disease is discovered, the
prompt reporting of it to the proper
authorities.
Clinical teachings of infectious dis
eases throughout a large state must
under the present system of health
administration always remain a grave
problem. The actual knowledge OF
these diseases as obtained at the av.
erage medical school is wholly mad