REPLIES OF R. R. HANLEY, M. D., OF SIDNEY, FREMONT COUNTY. Was none. 14, 15, 16. None. 18. Small-pox, cholera, cerebrospinal meningitis. 19. August, September, and October, typho-malarial fever. June and July-Cholera infantum and diarrhoea of children. November and December-Diseases from colds, rheumatism, and congestion of lungs, liver and respiratory organs. January and February-Diphtheria and scarlatina. March, April, and May-Rheumatism, neuralgia, bilious fevers, and catarrhs. The general amount of these diseases was small, and few of them of a severe character. the greatest being in the thermometer at noon, from 26 to 79, Fah. The rain-fall for May and June was a little over four inches each month. July and August were very dry. September and October had rain-fall to the extent of 14.75 inches. November and December were also wet months, while the weather was uniformly mild. 23. January, July, March, August, April, February, December, November, June, May, October, September. 24. July and August. 25. September and October. 26. Cannot give comparative depths of water in wells, as there are few alike in the district. 27. On uplands the wells vary from 30 to 90 feet; on the bottom lands from 15 to 35. 28. Have no data from which to answer. 29. In April nearly all the wells on the Missouri bottom were filled by water from overflow. In the uplands the water in wells are generally quite regular, while some vary with the amount of rain-fall. 30. Same as above, lowest in dry months, July and August. 31. Our most prevalent diseases are malarious, and are largely caused by the immense river bottoms of the Nishnabotna and Missouri rivers, lying to the east and south of us. Every wind, except that from the north, sweeps over several miles breadth of low bottom land, and where eddies are made by groves or bluffs for the wind, there we have more frequent cases of severe congestion, intermittent and remittent fevers. The great and sudden changes of temperature is the most common cause of rheumatism and neuralgia. The council of this incorporated town have neglected to organize as a board of health, hence we are precluded from many advantages of the law in respect to cleanliness and other proper hygiene of tenement houses and public buildings. *The figures beginning each paragraph, refer to questions in Circular 23B, on page 152. It is also to be regretted that physicians are not careful to make prompt reports of births and deaths as the law requires. Regretting that I am unable to give you accurate answers to all questions. R. R. HANLEY, M. D. Sidney, July, 1882. REPLIES OF T. L. ANDREWS, M., D., OF CRESTON, UNION COUNTY. This report is very imperfect, but the best I can give with the facts at command. I am collecting memoranda for the present year, and hope to make my next report more full and complete. Creston, October 10, 1882. T. L. ANDREWS, M. D. * The figures beginning each paragraph, refer to questions in Circular 23B, on page 152. REPLIES OF J. F. BEEBE, M. D., OF AFTON, UNION COUNTY. *1. Incorporated village. Population 1,500. 2. Probably twenty, from infants to old age. 3. To the incorporated village only. 4. About the usual amount of fatal cases. 5. The fatal cases were about the usual average. 6. Diphtheria and typhoid fever. 9. Nothing to report. 10. The extreme drought during July and August, 11. See No. 10, above reported. 12-13. Nothing special to report. 14. July, diphtheria, and February, pneumonia; high. 15. There have been no fatal cases of any of the other contagious diseases except measles, from which there have been three or four deaths within the radius of eight miles of Afton, over which we practice. 16. Nothing special to report. 17-18. No small-pox or cholera, but about the usual amount of all other contagious diseases. 19. Measles all spring; whoopingcough all winter and spring. 20. I believe it did in some neighborhoods. 21. Nothing special. 22. Am not prepared to give statement. 23-24. August, July, September, February, January, October, all very dry. 25. April, May and June. 26. In very dry time, one to three feet; when very wet, five to ten feet. 27. Fifteen to twenty feet on the high prairie; on or near the breaks or rough lands, very uncertain and frequently fifty feet; in the low sloughs, ten to fifteen feet, but not durable. 28. Surface water three-fourths of the year came into wells at ten feet. 29. March and April. 30. October, November and December. 31. We have nothing striking to report to this question. 32. No fatal cases and very few minor accidents. J. T. BEEBE, M. D. *The figures beginning each paragraph, refer to questions in Circular 23B, on page 152. STATUTORY REGULATIONS. STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. [Chapter 151, Laws of 1880.] AN ACT to establish a State Board of Health in the State of Iowa, to provide for collecting vital statistics, and to assign certain duties to local boards of health, and to punish neglect of duties. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, That the Governor, with the approval of the executive council, shall appoint nine (9) persons, one of whom shall be the Attorney-General of the State (by virtue of his office), one a civil engineer, and seven (7) physicians, who shall constitute a State Board of Health. The persons so appointed shall old their offices for seven (7) years; provided, that the term of office of the seven physicians first appointed shall be so arranged by lot that the term of one shall expire on the thirty-first (31st) day of January of each year; and that vacancies thus occasioned, as well as all other vacancies otherwise occurring, shall be filled by the Governor, with the approval of the executive council. SEC. 2. The State Board of Health shall have the general supervision of the interests of the health and life of the citizens of the State. They shall have charge of all matters pertaining to quarantine; they shall supervise a State registration of marriages, births and deaths, as hereinafter provided; they shall have authority to make such rules and regulations and such sanitary investigations as they may from time to time deem necessary for the preservation or improvement of the public health; and it shall be the duty of all police officers, sheriffs, constables, and all other officers of the State, to enforce such rules and regulations, so far as the efficiency and success of the board may depend upon their official co-operation. SEC. 3. The clerk of the district and circuit courts of each of the several counties in the State shall be required to keep separate books for the registration of the names and post-office address of physicians and midwives, for births, for marriages, and for deaths, which record shall show the names, date of birth, death or marriage; the names of parents and sex of the child when a birth; and when a death, shall give the age, sex and cause of death, with the date of the record and the name of the person furnishing the information. Said books shall always be open for inspection without fee; and the clerks of said courts shall be required to render a full and complete report of all births, marriages and deaths to the secretary of the board of health annually, on the first day of October of each year, and at such other times as the 'board may direct. [For which service the clerk shall receive, in addition to the compensation already allowed him by law, the sum of ten cents for each birth, marriage or death so recorded by him, and the further sum of ten cents for each one hundred words of written matter contained in said report, the same to be paid out of the county fund.1-Chapter 140, section 1, Laws 1882. SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of the board of health to prepare such forms for the record of births, marriages and deaths as they may deem proper; the said forms to be furnished by the secretary of said board to the clerks of the district and circuit courts of the several counties, whose duty it shall be to furnish them to such persons as are herein required to make reports. SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of all physicians and midwives in this State to register their names and postoffice address with the clerk of the district and circuit courts of the county where they reside; and said physicians and midwives shall be required, under penalty of ten dollars ($10), to be recovered in any court of competent jurisdiction in the State at suit of the clerk of the courts, to report to the clerk of the courts, within thirty (30) days from the date of their occurrence, all births and deaths which may come under their supervision, with a certificate of the cause of death, and such other facts as the board may require, in the blank forms furnished, as hereinafter provided. SEC. 6. When any birth or death shall take place, no physician or midwife being in attendance, the same shall be reported by the parent to the clerk of the district and circuit courts within thirty days from the date of its occurrence, and if a death, the supposed cause of death, or, if there be no parent, by the nearest of kin not a minor; or, if none, by the resident householder where the birth or death shall have occurred, under penalty provided in the preceding section of this act. Clerks of the district and circuit courts shall annually, on the first day of October of each year, send to the secretary of the State board of health a statement of all births and deaths recorded in their offices for the year preceding said date, under a penalty of twenty-five dollars ($25) in case of failure. SEC. 7. The coroners of the several counties shall report to the clerk of of the courts all cases of death which may come under their supervision, with the cause or mode of death, etc., as per form furnished, under penalty as provided in section 5 of this act. SEC. 8. All amounts recovered under the penalties of this act shall be appropriated to a special fund for carrying out the objects of this law. SEC. 9. The first meeting of the board shall be within twenty days after its appointment, and thereafter in May and November of each year, and at such other times as the board shall deem expedient. The November meeting shall be in the city of Des Moines. A majority of the members of the board shall constitute a quorum. They shall choose one of their number to |