REPORT OF THE TREASURER.

The following is respectfully submitted as an exhibit of the receipts and expenditures for the current year: —

To appropriation for expenses of Board......

By traveling and other expenses incurred in the performance of official duty, and while employed on the

business of the Board:

Wm. Gentry..

Albert Merrell.

Geo. Homan

J. D. Griffith

G. A. Goben..

By printing, Nixon-Jones Printing Co....

Total expenses.

$1,000.00

323.54

To unexpended balance of appropriation

SALARY OF SECRETARY.

To amount of appropriation...

By salary of Secretary for 1889.

Balance.....

Receipts from fees collected under Medical Practice Law:

To fees received for 389 original certificates...

$ 676.46

$3,000.00

1,500.00

$1,500.00

$389.00

4.00

$393.00

Out of the above amount of fees collected all the operating expenses of the Secretary's office have been met, with the exception of the bill for printing and stationery noted above.

As the appropriation made for the expenses of the Board was so small as to preclude the payment of rent for an office, this has been provided by the Secretary, together with the expenses of postage, clerk hire, telegraphing, expressage, etc., etc. The inconveniences experienced in the performance of the duties imposed have been many, and it is certainly due to the Board that the State should provide requisite means for securing the necessary facilities for the proper and convenient transaction of the business devolving upon it.

It should not be forgotten that the Secretary served for three and a half years, as was shown in the last report, receiving nothing whatever for his services and that this constitutes a claim against the State which should be recognized and equitably discharged. J. D. GRIFFITH,

Treasurer.

ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD.

ANNUAL MEETING.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., Jan. 17, 1889.

The Board convened in annual meeting at the Madison House at 7 o'clock p. m.

Members present

and Geo. Homan.

-Albert Merrell, J. D. Griffith, G. A. Goben

Absent Wm. Gentry, J. B. Prather and G. M. Cox.

In the absence of the President, the Vice-President, Dr. Merrell, called the meeting to order.

On motion the usual order of business was suspended and the present situation of the Board was considered in view of the seemingly unfriendly spirit evinced toward it by the General Assembly, action on the nominations of Drs. Merrell, Griffith and Homan, pending in the Senate, having been indefinitely postponed by that body.

After a full interchange of opinion it was decided to wait on the Governor in a body and express to him the views of the members present on this and other matters affecting the Board.

Being received by the Governor at the Executive Mansion the situation of affairs as regards the Health and Medical Practice Acts was explained to him, with the opinions of the members on the question of continuing in office, and a discussion of the matter was had for several hours when the members withdrew.

The session was resumed at the Madison House at 10 p. m.; the minutes of the July meeting and those of the special meeting held in December being read and approved.

The Secretary offered the following report with an apology for its brevity, and making a verbal statement supplemental to it:

"In regard to the condition of public health in the State since the last regular meeting reports received from various points indicate an increased prevalence of measles, scarlet fever, and typhoid fever. Diphtheria does not appear to be so common as it was a year ago, while occasional cases of small-pox have developed or been brought into St. Louis during the fall and winter months.

Other States report cases of small-pox at short intervals, while circumscribed outbreaks of diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles and whooping cough appear to be of common occurrence in the more Northern and Eastern States, showing the existing tendency to epidemicity in these diseases at the present time, and the value of systemized active measures for their control on the part of local and State authorities.

Pneumonia has also been a commonly reported disease during the last month, together with forms of continued fever, malarial or otherwise in nature.

Since the report made at the July meeting one hundred and five (105) physicians and twenty-one (21) midwives have been accorded registration under the Medical Practice Act. During the same period sixteen applications for registration were declined for the several reasons authorizing such action in the Act cited.

All of which is respectfully submitted."

On motion the report was received and filed. The Secretary also submitted a full report on the meeting of the American Public Health Association held at Milwaukee, Wis., last November, which was, on motion, ordered filed as by previous action it was directed to be made a part of the annual report for last year.

Dr. Homan stated that the annual report of the Board for 1888 had been duly completed and forwarded to the Governor as required by law, and gave details as to the various matters contained in it, and the manner in which the work was done, all of which was on motion approved.

Bills and vouchers for clerical work, printing, etc., for the last six months were referred to Dr. Griffith as an auditing committee, who later reported the same to be correct; the report being adopted and the committee discharged.

The Secretary reported action in a number of cases under the Practice Act which was on motion approved.

A communication as follows was read by the Secretary:

"DR. HOMAN, SECRETARY STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.

What will you take in money to furnish me with a certificate from the State Board of Health? I find it a very great detriment and very damaging to not have it. Please write me at once what sum of money you will take to furnish me with the said certificate.

Hoping for an early and distinct reply, I am,

Yours respectfully,

The writer of this note being an individual to whom the Board had refused license for unprofessional and dishonorable conduct, Dr. Homan stated that he had referred the letter to Dr. Griffith for presentation to the Prosecuting Attorney and Grand Jury of Jackson county.

Dr. Griffith said that he had submitted the matter to the Prosecuting Attorney who had promised to take the necessary steps to secure the writer's indictment and punishment, under the statute relating to attempted bribery of public officers.

In the course of consideration of cases under the Medical Practice Act the application for license of a practitioner in Oregon county was presented which was based upon an examination license of the New York State Medical Society, that organization having at the time the license was granted due authority to examine candidates for practice and give licenses if found qualified. As a general rule to cover such cases Dr. Merrell offered the following:

Resolved, That we recognize as sufficient ground for granting the certificate of this Board that the applicant hold the license of a legally chartered examining board, or that of a State Board of Health, when accompanied with satisfactory evidence of good moral and professional standing.

The resolution was adopted.

On motion it was ordered that the present organization of the Board be continued.

Adjourned.

SEMI-ANNUAL MEETING.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., July 11, 1889.

The Board convened in semi-annual session at 2 o'clock p. m. at the Madison House, and was called to order by the President.

Members present-Wm. Gentry, J. D. Griffith, Albert Merrell, G. A. Goben and Geo. Homan.

Absent James B. Prather, from whom a note was read by the Secretary explaining and regretting his inability to be present.

The minutes of the last meeting were read, and on motion their approval was, for the present, deferred.

The report of the Secretary was submitted and read, as follows:

I have the nonor to submit the following report for the period embraced by the first six months of the present year:

PUBLIC HEALTH.-The failure of the General Assembly to grant the legislation desired and requested at the beginning of the recent session, the draft of a bill for which purpose was indorsed at the meeting of local health officials held in St. Louis last December, and recommended by the Board for passage, and which legislation is absolutely essential to the thorough sanitary organization of the State by counties and towns, has continued the Board in its anomalous and embarrassing position of being held responsible for the prevention and suppression of dangerous epidemics, while no means of effective local co-operation has been provided by law.

The lack of duly organized local help would be a serious drawback to effective work by the Board in any event, as bodies of this kind hastily improvised in the face of danger are usually inexperienced, and oftentimes at a loss to know what to do; but when this almost universal want of preparation throughout the State is considered in connection with the fact that the Board has been steadily denied any funds to extend aid or do any work in time of peril from disease, the untoward possibilities of this lack of sanitary providence may be better understood and appreciated.

This unfortunate condition of affairs was seen during last winter and spring in the alarm, inconvenience, losses and distress experienced in various parts of the State from outbreaks of smallpox, all or nearly all of which could have been avoided if there had been in timely existence trained officers or organizations fitted by knowledge to deal promptly and properly with occurrences of this kind.

It is to be hoped that another legislature will consider the subject of State organization for public health ends in the light its im