New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1921-11-18

might be added that the actual writ
ing of this course was not allowed to
interfere with the regular duties of
the office, but was done ut night.
At the special session of the Leg
islature, in 1920. an amendment to
the health law was securel which
made il possible for counties to levy
a half-mill for health purposes. Dur
ing the session just passed, several
pieces of progressive legislation
were secured. Aside from the ere
alton of the Department of Public
Welfare, they were:
/. An Act for the suppression Of
prostitution.
2. An Act providing for the is
suance of in~junctions against pro
perty used for immoral purposes. e
3. Extensive amendments to the
original health law which give the
Bureau of Health broader %supervis-
ion over matters pertaining to sani-
tation, and which also make much
better provisions for the collection OF
birth and death certificates.
The foremost piece of work done
by the Bureau of Health is the es-
adjustment of five full-time county
health departments, each with a
health officer giving his entire time
to the work and having at least II
nurse, one sanitary inspector and a
clerk. The importance of this step
is manifest, for it brings within the
reach of every person in such a
county all of the resources of our
Bureau of Health and provides
health protection for the people, that
could not be had in any other way.
| can better illustrate these truths
by giving a few figures on the work
don by these live county health
units in the past nine months of this
year:
Health addresses and talks loo
Total attendance at these meet
ings 41,327
Visits to control contagious di-
sease 7,771
Home visits by nurses 11,40O
Prenatal instructions given women
463
Infant care instruction given mo-
theirs 4,5O9
Midwives examined and instructed
1873
School children examined 1922
Defects found in school children
5,527
Defects of school children cor
rected 1870
Sanitary inspections made 1880
Closets constructed and repaired
1855
Food establishment inspections
2,495
When it is considered that these
are figures for the firth nine months
in which such work has eve been
done in New Mexico, the results are
truly remarkable. In fact the show
ing made by these five health Off
GERS is considerably better than much
of the work of a like nature being
fact that officially constituted local
health agencies can accomplish work
which would be entirely impossible
for a single centralized group to han
die, without vast OUTLAWS of public
money.
The largest single piece of work
undertaken by the Bureau of Health
itself has been in the line of infant
hygiene and prenatal care. Two sets
of instructions to mothers were pre-
pared, one for the care OF babies
under one year of age and the other
for children two and three years old.
These were couched in the simplest
terms and were translated into Span
ish. Each of them gives concrete
advice on the feeding, clothing, bath
;n. n,1l uaparal hupinnio cara nt /
children. To all parents whose bah
les births were registered with the
Bureau, a set of these instructions
has been sent, with a letter offering
such further help and advice as 1t
is within the power of the Bureau
to give. In all, 10000 of these sets
have peer mailed out and they are
regularly sent as new certificates OF
birth are received. In each Is en-
a set of suggestions to expec-
tant mothers as to their preparations
confinement, with a request that
il be handed to a neighbor, II not
needed. The response to these let
ters has been most gratifying, es-
pecially among the mothers in the
rural districts. However, the
bureau Is dDAlOuo W Stt inns
into the hands of women who have
yet been reached, so 1t is asking
all women's organizations to assist
in distributing this literature to such
women as they can discover. II might
be mentioned that the cost OF this
has not exceeded $500, for II
was written by the staff OF the Bur
eau of Health and reproduced on It's
mimeograph. The u. S. Public Health
aided, also, in its distribu-
ton as il is cooperating closely with
the Bureau in its health work for
and children.
In closing, ! want to call attention
TO the fact that every important nat
ional health agency has made some
contribution to the work of u Bur-
of Health. This fact in itself
speaks for the regard In which the
must be held for time and
money are not wasted by these or
CARNATIONS on poorly conducted and
inefficient enterprises. Briefly out
lined. these contributions have been
as follows:
The United States Public Health
supplied the State with its
Director of Health, paying his entire
In addition, it has given NOM
nal appointments to the Sanitary
Engineer and the Chief of the Di-
1ision Of ~Preventable Diseases, pay
ng each a small salary. This CO.
operation permits the use of the pos
al frank on much of the mail mat
.er, such as the cards used for the
of disease. and educational
saving hundreds of dol
ars to the State. The Public Health
has also given the bureau of
Health over 100000 phamplets for
Further, it pays the