THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. TH HE Ohio State Board of Health was established by an act of MEMBERS OF THE BOARD IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE. The Board held its first meeting in Columbus on April 30, 1886, and organized by electing Dr. W. H. Cretcher President, and appointing Dr. G. C. Ashmun, the health officer of Cleveland, as Secretary. The State Board of Health. Dr. Ashmun resigned this position in June, 1886, and Dr. Guy Case, of Cleveland, was appointed as his successor. Dr. Case tendered his resignation July 27, 1886, and Dr. C. O. Probst, of Columbus, was appointed Secretary on the same date. Dr. Probst has continuously filled the position since that time, and is the present Secretary. The Board first directed its efforts to building up a complete health organization for the entire State. In 1886 the larger cities and a very few villages were the only municipalities that had availed themselves of the provisions of an act permitting them to establish a local board of health. In furtherance of its work in this direction the Board began, in 1897, a systematic examination of the streams of Ohio. Each main stream, with its tributaries, has been carefully examined from source to outlet with a view to determining the source and character of its pollution. Monthly chemical and bacteriological examinations of the waters of these streams, taken at various places on each stream, have been made, and careful gagings and measurements to determine their rates of flow at different seasons of the year. This work is about completed. An act of 1900 authorized the Board to establish a Laboratory "for the examination of public water supplies, the diagnosis of diphtheria, typhoid fever, hydrophobia, glanders, etc., and for the examination of food suspected to be the cause of disease." . The Laboratory has been placed at the disposal of all local boards of health, and much good has already resulted from its establishment. The Board is frequently called upon to examine the sanitary condition of public institutions and school buildings, to investigate the causes of outbreaks of epidemic diseases, and to assist the local authorities in the abatement of nuisances injurious to health. Beginning with a Secretary, the working force of the Board has been gradually increased until it now embraces a chief clerk, two stenographers, an engineer, a chemist and a bacteriologist. The immense growth of public sentiment in the last ten years in favor of improved sanitary conditions and more stringent measures for the prevention of disease has been due in no small part to the progressive character of the work of the State Board of Health; and we may confidently hope that this enlightened sentiment will gradually lead to a more generous support of health measures, whereby the sum of human happiness and average duration of life may be materially increased. The State Board of Health secured legislation from time to time, gradually extending the powers and duties of local boards of health, and making provision for their establishment throughout the State. In 1893 the townships, which up to that time had had practically no protection in health matters, were required to establish boards of health, so that pro The State Board of Health. vision is now made for a board of health in every city, village and township, a grand total of 2,112 such boards. The State Board has kept in close touch with the local boards, and is constantly helping them by aid and advice. In 1888 a monthly journal was established as a medium of frequent communication between the state and local boards of health. A summary of the weekly reports of contagious diseases, made to the State Board, by the local boards, is published therein, with other original and reprinted matter of interest, or suitable for the guidance or instruction of health officers and members of boards of health. In 1891 a call was issued for a meeting of the State Board of Health and representatives of local boards of health. About forty delegates were present at this meeting. Annual meetings have been held regularly since; the attendance at the meeting for 1901 was nearly or quite four hundred. The State Board has endeavored to disseminate among the people plain instructions for the prevention of the dangerous contagious diseases. Suitable pamphlets were prepared, and hundreds of thousands of copies have been distributed. All local boards of health have been supplied with copies of these, and when a contagious disease appears in any community they are urged to distribute the appropriate circular to families having the disease, and to their neighbors. In 1893 an act was passed providing that plans for all proposed water works or sewerage systems, or for changes or extensions thereof should be submitted to and approved by the State Board of Health. The Board has examined and passed upon two hundred and twenty such plans. It has been able in this way to protect many communities against the introduction of an impure water supply, and to prevent what in some instances would have been dangerous pollution of sources of existing public water supplies. T THE STATE BOARD OF DENTAL EXAMINERS. HE Seventy-Fifth General Assembly amended the law regulating the practice of Dentistry in Ohio. The wholesale registration permitted by the former law is restricted, and only graduates of Ohio colleges up to the June meeting of the Board, 1905, and proprietors of dental offices continuously since January 1, 1893, are permitted to register without examination. Those who were students of dentistry with a registered preceptor for one year prior to the passage of this law may take the examination at any meeting of the Board during the years of 1902 and 1903. After 1905, June meeting, every one that desires to practice dentistry in Ohio must be a graduate of a reputable Dental College and pass the State Board of Dental examiners, before a certificate of registration will be issued them, therefore our law eventually works into a very effective one. The registration fee is $10.00; the examination fee $20.00. There have been 3,213 certificates of registration issued since the passage of the former law, which took effect July 4, 1892; however, a great many of these were issued to persons having no intentions of practicing in Ohio, but registered because the law was so lax-a diploma and fee of $2.00 was all that was required. The members of the Board are as follows, and their terms expire May 31, 1905: Name and Office. Residence. Henry Barnes, M. D., President J. K. Douglas, D. D. S., Cleveland. Columbus. THE BOARD OF LIVE STOCK COMMISSIONERS. W. W. MILLER, SECRETARY. A DR. PAUL FISCHER, VETERINARIAN. CCORDING to a law passed May 7, 1902, the Ohio State Board of Agriculture constitutes the State Board of Live Stock Commissioners. This Board appoints a veterinarian, who is subject to its rules and regulations, and, in certain cases, when deemed advisable, additional veterinarians may be temporarily appointed. This Board is delegated with power to prescribe rules for carrying into effect and enforcing all the laws of the state with reference to protecting live stock and exterminating disease, and is authorized to, and does, co-operate with the Bureau of Animal Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture. The scope of the Board's work is entirely administrative in character, the object being not to treat disease, but to prevent its spread and provide means for eradication. Prevention is brought about, as far as possible, by enforcing the laws forbidding the transportation of diseased animals through the state, and by regulating the sanitary condition of stock-yards and railway cars and other conveyances used for transporting animals; and also the condition of buildings. and public and private premises where live stock may be quartered. The shipments of southern cattle infested with ticks, the carriers of southern cattle fever, are carefully guarded and regulated. Under the rules and regulations of this Board, southern cattle, which are liable to convey southern cattle fever (Texas fever) to native cattle, must be shipped in distinctly placarded cars and unloaded in special pens provided for that purpose. Cars and other conveyances used for transporting such cattle must be thoroughly disinfected, according to prescribed methods, before they can again be used for transporting other animals or merchandise of any kind. In this way the spread of southern cattle fever can be kept under absolute control. When dangerously infectious or contagious diseases break out their further spread is checked by enforcing strict quarantine regulations. In enforcing these regulations and in receiving information regarding outbreaks of dangerous diseases the co-operation of live stock owners and transportation companies is of the greatest value, in fact without such cooperation no effective work can be done. 'Certain widespread diseases and others of a very malignant nature receive particular attention. The introduction of diseases at present not existing in the United States, but which might at any time be introduced with imported animals, such diseases, for instance, as contagious pleuropneumonia in cattle and foot and mouth disease in cattle, swine and other animals are guarded with the greatest caution, since their introduction |