limited or extensive, certain statutory provisions, corresponding with the specifications given in one of the concluding chapters of this report, need to be enacted by the Legislature. For this purpose, the outline for such an enactment is herewith submitted.

IX. That in the midst of existing controversies and much harmful practice relating to domestic sewerage and plumbing, there must be a competent and skillful supervision and the exercise of an official sanitary judgment in regard to the plans and execution of such work in all the cities, populous villages, hotels and public institutions in the State.

X. That in the administration of laws relating to the prevention of adulteration and harmful changes to which food and drugs are subjected, and in relation to the statute for preventing the sale and dangerous use of explosive illuminating fluids, the State of New York and its Board of Health seem to be constrained by the very circumstances of positive constitutional restrictions which prevent any tax for official inspection and permits of articles sold, to maintain all the necessary supervision and expert analysis and testing, as a general charge, which can be provided for only by a yearly appropriation of sufficient funds for the maintenance of this kind of service for the protection of the life and safety of the people. Adequate appropriations for this work will need to be annually renewed.

XI. Experience now shows that there is urgent need in all the populous districts of the State, and indeed wherever miasmatic and other localized outbreaks of disease occur, that systematic topographical and hydrographic surveys, and maps should be made by the State, and that, as shown in a concluding section of this report, such local surveys and maps may readily be prepared with reference to the sanitary topography and geography wherever there is provided a welldevised survey and mapped description of the topography, hydrography and economic geology of the State. Therefore these sanitary uses of future surveys are to be kept in view, and also certain limited surveys and local sanitary drainage-charts should be separately provided for until the larger surveys and charts shall have become available. It is true public economy to promote these works, as in the interest of the public welfare as regards systematic drainage and vitally necessary improvements and protection of water supplies and general sanitary safeguards.

XII. It is earnestly recommended that, as a means of generally dif fusing and successfully inculcating the most essential kinds of sanitary

knowledge and practice where now most needed and available amongst the people, in every normal school, academy, college and university, and especially in every medical school, the essential principles of public, domestic and personal hygiene should be taught and illustrated, and that by every means which local boards of health, the medical profession and all the educated classes can devise and encourage, the people should be instructed in the knowledge and art of healthy living.

Called into existence by the Legislature of 1880, after twenty or more of the States had founded some form of central sanitary service, and after the Nation had gratefully witnessed upon a vast scale the proof that sanitary protection and vigorous health in time of war are equivalent to the strength of armies, the State Board of Health of New York organized its methods of public service on the basis of a broad reliance upon the share and enlightened concern which the people would have in this work and the objects of health laws. The expectations of the Board in this particular are being abundantly realized, for the people are concerned, and in their primary civil divisions of townships, cities, villages and school districts, they are giving practical effect to whatever this Board has undertaken to do in compliance with the purposes and powers defined in the statutes relating to health.

Though not wanting in certain kinds of authority, the policy of this department of the State's service has mostly been directly the converse of centralization or dictation. From first to last, and from center to circumference, the service has been and will be chiefly a work of studious instruction and guidance in the work required, the coördination of means and methods for practical ends, and bringing to bear the results of investigation of subjects that are at once of general importance to the public health and vitally essential to the sanitary welfare of particular communities which seek and receive the benefits of this service in the name of the State.

To exalt in the common estimation and view of the people, in their communities and families, in their local government and their legislation, and in their general participation in sanitary duties, a controlling regard for the sanctity of human life and the measureless value of health, is the growing purpose of the State as expressed by its Board of Health; and, in this service, while organizing and maintaining the safeguards of health and life, and searching out and smiting their preventable foes, it will be found that the most prolific sources of misery, degeneracy, pauperism and all the disease-engendered burdens which afflict the people and vex Legislatures, are unmasked, and may

be vastly diminished by the self-same agencies of sanitary and social improvement which extinguish the sources of fevers, miasms and deadly infections, and which offer the boon of health and bodily vigor in the fullest measure amongst all ranks of the people.

Respectfully submitted,

EDWARD M. MOORE, President.

ERASTUS BROOKS,

J. SAVAGE DELAVAN,

CHARLES F. CHANDLER,

LESLIE W. RUSSELL,

WILLIAM M. SMITH,
JAMES G. HUNT,
JAS. T. GARDINER,
ELISHA HARRIS, Secretary.

ALBANY, February 20, 1883.

Members of the

State Board of Health.

APPENDIX.

The official lists of standing committees of the State Board of Health for 1882-83 are as follows:

Executive and Finance Committee.

Hon. Erastus Brooks, Chairman; Prof. C. F. Chandler; Dr. E. M. Moore, President; Dr. E. Harris, Secretary.

Sanitary Committee.

Prof. C. F. Chandler, Chairman; Dr. William M. Smith; Dr. E. M. Moore, President; Dr. E. Harris, Secretary.

Committee on Registration and Vital Statistics.

Dr. J. S. Delavan, Chairman; Dr. J. G. Hunt; Dr. E. M. Moore, President; Dr. E. Harris, Secretary.

Committee on Sanitary Legislation, Rules and Regulations. Hon. Attorney-General Russell, Chairman; Dr. J. Savage Delavan ; Dr. E. M. Moore, President; Dr. E. Harris, Secretary.

Committee on External and Internal Quarantine.

Dr. Wm. M. Smith, Chairman; Hon. Erastus Brooks; Dr. E. M. Moore, President; Dr. E. Harris, Secretary.

Committee on Public Institutions.

Dr. James G. Hunt, Chairman; Dr. J. Savage Delavan; Dr. E. M. Moore, President; Dr. E. Harris, Secretary.

Committee on Drainage, Sewerage and Topography.

Prof. James T. Gardiner, Chairman; Hon. Erastus Brooks; Dr. J. G. Hunt; Dr. E. M. Moore, President; Dr. E. Harris, Secretary.

Committee on Effluvium Nuisances.

Dr. J. Savage Delavan, Hon. Erastus Brooks, Dr. Elisha Harris,

Agreeably to section 11 of the act creating this Board (chapter 322 of 1880), that in its annual report it "shall set forth the action of said Board and its officers and agents, and the names thereof for the past year," the following statement is presented:

AN ABSTRACT OF THE MINUTES AND TRANSACTIONS OF THE BOARD — YEAR ENDING NOVEMBER, 1882.

SPECIAL MEETING, ALBANY, December 13, 1881,

The annual report was read and signatures of the members ordered. to be affixed.

The sanitary committee reported progress in the investigation of the various methods and instruments for safety-testing of illuminating oils. It was

Resolved, That an additional appropriation of $150 be made for the completion of this work; and that the report be recommitted to the sanitary committee, with instructions to report it back to the President and Secretary complete, for use in the second annual report. The same committee submitted outlines of the reports from the eight analysts employed under chapter 407 of 1881, on the departments of work assigned them respectively. It was

Resolved, That the preparation of the list of articles to be recommended to be exempted from the operation of chapter 407 of 1881, is hereby referred to the sanitary committee, with instructions to consult the Attorney-General, as the legal adviser of this Board, in reference thereto.

The duties of clergymen, undertakers and all concerned in the management of the burial of persons who die of infectious diseases were considered, and it was

Resolved, That the Secretary is hereby directed to prepare a circular with regard to public funerals, to be sent to clergymen, physicians, undertakers and school officers.

The report of the committee on public institutions was referred back, for completion by the first of January.

The committee on drainage and topography reported progress in the investigation of swamp drainage in the western part of the State. The prevalence of small-pox and the mode of its spread came under consideration of the Board. It was

Resolved, That this Board views with great apprehension the wide spread of small-pox contagion along the routes of travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and in numerous manufacturing towns in several States;

Resolved, That this Board earnestly requests all health authorities. and others, who know of the outbreak or presence of small-pox in any place in the State, to immediately report the fact to the Secretary of the State Board of Health, and to the nearest health officer; and the State Board's Secretary is required promptly to notify the local sanitary authorities and others who are responsible in every place where small-pox or varioloid is known or believed to be present, concerning the action which public safety and the laws require to be taken by them, and to offer such information as will enable them to procure the vaccinal protection with full effect and from best sources. The Board directs its Secretary to furnish to the health officer and board of health of every place where there is small-pox, all necessary instruction and aid for the most speedy and effective control and extinction of the contagion, and to supply the proper forms for the records and reports required under the new State laws.