On motion of DR. CARPENTER, a committee was appointed to draft rules for the transaction of the business of the Board, and make a report at the next meeting; whereupon Drs. Carpenter and Reeves. were appointed by the President.

There being no further business, the Board adjourned to meet at the call of the secretary.

SECOND MEETING OF THE BOARD.

At a meeting of the State Board of Health held at Brinkman's Hall, in the town of Grafton, and county of Taylor, on Thursday the 4th day of August, 1881, in pursuance of a summons issued by the Secretary, there were present: Geo. B. Moffett, M. D., President; Geo. H. Carpenter, M. D., C. T. Richardson, M. D., and James E. Reeves, M. D., Secretary.

Mr. S. M. Hopkins, of the city of Wheeling, who on the 26th day of July, 1881, at the city of Parkersburg, in Wood county, presented himself before the members of said State Board for the First Congressional District for examination for a medical certificate, and having then and there failed to pass a satisfactory examination, and in consequence thereof was refused the certificate provided by law, he appealed from the said decision of said District Board in the folmanner, to-wit:

To DR. JAMES E. REEVES, one of the members of the State Board of Health, appointed for the First Congressional District of West Virginia: SIR--On the 26th day of July, A. D. 1881, I was examined before you and the other member of the State Board of Health for the First Congressional District, and the presiding medical officer of the Local Board of Health in the city of Parkersburg, as an applicant for a certificate as provided for in the ninth section of chapter 60 of the Acts of the Legislature of 1881, and on the 28th day of July, A. D. 1881, I received notice that after such examination, you had refused to issue such certificate to me. You will please take notice that I have appealed and do now appeal from such refusal, to the State Board of Health, and have presented to such Board a petition for appeal; and you will please make such report to said Board and take such action for the perfecting of such appeal as may be proper under the circumstances.

Wheeling, July 29, 1881.

Respectfully,

S. M. HOPKINS.

The following answer was made by the Secretary and delivered to the appellant by a County Constable:

OFFICE OF THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH,
WHEELING, W. VA., July 30th, 1881.

S. M. HOPKINS, Wheeling, W. Va.:

SIR: You will please take notice that the State Board of Health of West Virginia has been summoned to meet in Grafton, Taylor county, on Thursday, the 4th day of August, 1881, at which time and place your appeal from the decision of the Board for the First Congressional District, will be considered and heard by the said State Board. You can appear at said time and place before said State Board and do what is proper and right for the protection of your interests.

Respectfully,

JAMES E. REEVES, M. D., Secretary State Board of Health.

Certificate of the legal service of this notice was endorsed and returned as follows:

Served a copy of this notice on S. M. Hopkins this the 1st day of August, 1881, at 10:15 o'clock A. M. W. LAUCHLIN, Constable.

And thus the said S. M. Hopkins having been duly notified that his said appeal would be heard at a meeting of the said State Board of Health, at Grafton on this day, and he having failed to appear and prosecute his said appeal, and to be re-examined in the manner prescribed by section 11 of chapter 60 of the Acts of the Legislature of 1881, it is considered by this Board that his said appeal be and the same is hereby dismissed.

On motion of DR. CARPENTER, the Secretary was instructed to prepare and send out to local boards, printed instructions concerning their duties under the law, and to furnish sundry blank forms of returns for physicians to enable them to comply with section 6 of the Act establishing the State Board of Health.

There being no further business, the Board adjourned to meet at the call of the Secretary.

THIRD MEETING OF THE BOARD.

At a meeting of the State Board of Health held at the State House in the city of Wheeling, Thursday, January 12th at 10 o'clock a. M., 1882, pursuant to a call issued by the secretary, there were present: Geo. B. Moffett, M. D., President; Hon. A. R. Barbee, M. D.; Geo. H. Carpenter, M. D., and James E. Reeves, M. D., Secretary.

The Secretary submitted the following copy of his report to the Governor, made January 1, 1882, as required by the law establishing the Board:

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.

To His Excellency, JACOB B. JACKSON, Governor of West Virginia :
SIR:---In obedience to the law establishing "A State Board of Health and
Regulating the Practice of Medicine," passed March 8, 1881, the first
annual report is herewith presented.

The law took effect June 8, 1881, therefore this report is for a period of less than five months. The Board began its labors on the very earliest day possible under the law, and notwithstanding the brief period of its existence, great changes have been effected and the future of its work promises results of the highest value to the people.

Political economists place the subject of health among the first concerns of governmental care.

To secure "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," is a principle embodied in the first record of our national existence, and the constitutions of all the States begin with some reference to the safety and welfare of the people. The recognition of this principle by the last Legislature led to the passage of the law that has proudly placed West Virginia in the front rank of sanitary progress.

The estimated value of human life and the care taken to preserve it in health, marks the progressive and beneficent spirit of the present age.

Wise men of every country have learned that disease and death are, in great measure, preventable, and guided by this priceless knowledge, health laws are rapidly multiplying and making the labor of the sanitarian the most responsible and highest work of the State. No community without good health can be either prosperous or wealthy. That "public health is public wealth" and nothing so costly as "sicknesss" are self-evident truths, and the enforcing of health-laws by statutory provisions is the duty of the State.

In the present activity of the social elements, the money-value of human life is fully comprehended, and the fact is easy of proof that the pecuniary loss to a State from preventable sickness annually exceeds the drafts on its exchequer for the support of its government, but the money-value of human life is the lowest and most unworthy. If by timely warning, enlightening and instructing the people how they may escape sickness and death from preventable diseases, the life of a single citizen shall be saved, that life is worth more than the cost to the State of a Health Board.

To recapitulate what has been accomplished by State Health Boards in this country since Massachusetts first led the way in 1869, would make an immense volume. It is sufficient to say that twenty-nine States have established Boards of Health, and their annual reports constitute a library of sanitary knowledge unsurpassed by that of any other country.

Having been commissioned by your Excellency to take care of the public health, many of the causes that disastrously affect the moral and physical condition of the population are within the sphere of the duties of the

Board. To accomplish the full purpose of its creation, requires a much larger appropriation than was granted by the Legislature at the passage of the Act. Indeed, the law seems to have but one serious defect-that is, the meagre and conditional sum of money ($1,000) appropriated for its support.

Seeing the embarrassment likely to occur to the Board from this cause, the holders of certificates--without regard to so-called school in medicine, voluntarily contributed several hundred dollars to insure its activity and usefulness, and tide it over to the next meeting of the Legislature. Thus another example is afforded of the humanity and liberality of the medical profession, to whose patient energies and scientific researches only, the people can look for the diminution and eradication of factors of disease and death. And it is proof also of the perfect good will with which the passage of the law was received by those whom it was intended to control. Was there ever a like example of a State passing a law immediately affecting the privileges of an intelligent and influential class of citizens, who yet in response, and to show their pleasure, voluntarily contributed money from their own pockets to secure its strict enforcement? Such an example, indeed, has been afforded by the medical profession in West Virginia; and if this were the only act of its liberality and true nobility, it would be sufficient to secure the applause of a grateful future.

The Board deemed it necessary to begin its work by executing the medical provisions of the law; and the first step was to secure the registration of all legally qualified practitioners of medicine and surgery in the State. To accommodate their convenience as far as possible, the Board held meetings to receive applicants for certificates, at Moorefield, Martinsburg, Grafton, Buckhannon, Wheeling, Parkersburg, Charleston and the White Sulphur Springs.

To this date the Board has granted certificates as follows:

Making a total of 843 licensed practitioners of medicine and surgery in

the State.

The sum of one thousand dollars was appropriated for the support of the Board, provided that sum was paid into the State Treasury from fees for examinations and licenses to "itinerant physicians"--the only available sources of revenue under the law.

From the above figures it is seen that 94 examination certificates have been granted, for which the Board collected $940. Add to this sum $150 for three licenses issued to "itinerant physicians," in the First Congressional District, and the total revenue, $1,090, is shown, an amount inadequate to meet the necessities of the Board in the performance of its responsible duties.

For the next year probably not 20 per cent. of the fund reported will be collected, for the reason that an examination certificate will be rather the exception than the rule. Under the influence of the law quite a number of former practitioners in West Virginia are at present attending medical lectures and will return home next spring with their diplomas for registration, and thus the esprit de corps of the profession is being greatly improved.

Among the diplomas offered for verification, were discovered a few of spurious character, which had either been directly bought or obtained upon a nominal examination. These, of course, the Board rejected.

It is remarkable that no serious complaints of violation of the law have reached the Board, and this fact, supported by the number of certificates registered, shows the general disposition of the profession to comply with the law.

The Board is now ready to begin its purely sanitary labor. Local or county Boards of Health have been appointed in all the counties, and soon the entire machinery of the law will be at work, educating the people how to be healthy and happy.

Respectfully submitted,

JAMES E. REEVES, M. D.,

Secretary State Board of Health.

Owing to the certainty of important changes being made in the law creating the State Board of Health at the present session of the Legislature, and the inadequate appropriation of money for its faithful execution, much less to meet the expense of a large printing bill, which might, after all the labor and money expended upon it, prove to be so much worthless paper, the Secretary deemed it proper to defer compliance with the order of the Board at the previous meeting, to send out "printed instructions," etc., to local or county Boards of Health, until the question of changes in the law had been disposed of by the Legislature.

DR. BARBEE offered the following preambles and resolution: WHEREAS, Small-pox is a preventable disease and can prevail only in such communities as disregard the protective power of vaccination; and WHEREAS, The general prevalence of small-pox in this country is the result of culpable neglect on the part of the State governments in not providing for uniform and compulsory vaccination, and which by the light of