Page images
PDF
EPUB

odors, fungus growths, mold and slime.

Meat, fruit, vegetables, bread and pastry shall not be wrapped in newspapers or other unclean papers. Doors and windows shall be provided with efficient screens during the season for flies, and meats exposed for sale shall be protected from flies and dust. Backshops and cellars must be kept clean and well ventilated and lighted. Persons suffering from cancer or any contagious or infectious disease or who have been exposed to a quarantinable disease, shall not be employed in groceries, dairies, meat markets or other places where foods and drugs are offered for sale. Cats, dogs or other animals shall not be allowed on shelves or counters or other places where food products are kept or stored Meats shall not be exposed for sale outside the places of business unless protected from dust and insects by suitable covering.

DRUG STORES.

Inspectors of drug stores shall be guided by the following conditions: Sanitary conditions shall exist in drug stores: When the floors are clean and free from litter and accumulated dirt; when the side walls and ceilings are free from cobwebs, dust and accumulated dirt; when the counters, shelves, drawers and bins are clean; when refrigerators and soda fountains are free from foul and unpleasant odors, mold and slime. Glassware, spoons, etc., used at soda fountains shall be thoroughly washed and rinsed in clean water. Soda fountains, sirup cans and bottles shall be thoroughly washed before refilling. Draft tubes shall be kept clean. Drainage boards, sinks, shelves, etc., on which glasses are kept shall be kept clean. Graduates, mortars and other apparatus and glassware used in preparing drugs shall be clean. Prescription bottles must be washed and cleaned before filling. Powder papers shall be made of clean paper. Backshops and basements must be kept clean, well ventilated and lighted, or if used for storerooms only, must be dry, free from litter and suitable for the storage of medicinal preparations. Persons suffering from cancer or any contagious or infectious disease or who have been exposed to a quarantinable disease shall not be employed in a drug store.

HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS.

Inspectors of hotels and restaurants shall be governed by the following conditions:

Sanitary conditions shall exist in hotel and restaurant kitchens and dining rooms, ice cream parlors, lunch carts and other places where food is prepared and served, and when the floors are clean and free from litter and accumulated dirt; when the side-walls and ceiling are free from cobwebs and accumulated dirt; when the counters, tables, shelves and sinks, drawers, bins and cabinets are clean; when refrigerators, iceboxes and cold storage rooms are free from foul and unpleasant odors, mold and slime; when the doors and windows are properly screened; when dining rooms and kitchens are well lighted and ventilated. Dishes, tableware and kitchen utensils must be washed and rinsed in clean water after using; food served to customers and then returned to the kitchen or serving room must not again be served; all garbage must be removed daily. Back shops, backyards and cellars must be kept clean and free from rubbish. Cellars, unless properly arranged, well lighted and ventilated, and free

from moisture, must not be used for the storage of prepared foods unless such food is in glass, tin or other air-tight container. Spittoons must not be used in the dining room or other places where food is served. Toilets for employes shall not be located in rooms used for preparing or for storing food. Persons suffering from cancer or any contagious or infectious disease or who have been exposed to a quarantinable disease shall not be employed in any restaurant, hotel or other place where food is served.

Ordered, Ten thousand copies of the above rules ordered printed in pamphlet form.

EMPLOYES AND SALARIES.

The annual salaries of certain employes were ordered as follows, to begin April 1, 1907:

Superintendent of bacteriological laboratory

First assistant bacteriologist

Second assistant bacteriologist

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

$1,800 00
1,400 00

720 00

600 00

600 00

1,400 00

900 00

600 00

600 00

520 00

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The following persons were appointed to positions:

Ivy L. Miller, second assistant chemist.

Berthold Cohn, inspector No. 1.

Frank Tucker, inspector No. 2.

John Owens, inspector No. 3.

A. W. Bruner, inspector No. 4.

Report of Dr. A. W. Brayton was read and ordered made of record.

[ocr errors]

REPORT OF DR. A. W. BRAYTON, IN REGARD TO THE CONDITIONS
PERTAINING TO SMALLPOX, IN THE MONTHS OF NO-
VEMBER AND DECEMBER, IN PULASKI AND FULTON
COUNTIES, MARCH 1, 1907.

By authorization of Dr. W. N. Wishard, acting President State Board of Health, I visited Pulaski and Fulton Counties, November 28 and 29, 1906, to investigate the smallpox in these two counties. This was made

[ocr errors]

necessary by a petition from DeLong, Indiana, signed by some forty residents of both Pulaski and Fulton counties, living in the vicinity of Leiters Ford, DeLong and Monterey, stating that there was much smallpox there, and that it was neglected by the health officers of both counties.

I left Indianapolis on the morning of November 28th and spent the afternoon and evening with the health officer of Fulton County, at Rochester, Dr. J. N. Rannells. From him I learned that while there were several cases of smallpox in the northwest corner of Fulton County, there were none in the vicinity of Rochester, and the disease was mainly in the country between Leiters Ford and the county line, and was under the care of the local health officer, Dr. Benjamin F. Overmyer, of Leiters Ford.

The following morning, November 29th, I took the train to Leiters Ford, meeting Dr. Overmyer about nine o'clock, but found only one family known to have the disease in that vicinity. We drove twelve to fifteen miles over the country, finding some eight or ten cases at five different farm houses. In every case the houses were quarantined and sanitary conditions were excellent, and the people were in full sympathy with Dr. Overmyer in his efforts to stamp out the disease. Dr. Overmyer carried vaccine with him and vaccinated wherever he found those that required it.

Dr. Clement L. Slonaker, near Leiters Ford, a graduate of I. M. C. in 1903, was also very efficient in vaccinating and combating the disease. He was thoroughly familiar with smallpox through your teachings and of the method of controlling it, and sent his regards to you.

None of the cases that we found were in any danger, except a mother, who was very thickly broken out, and a newborn babe three days old. I learned since, by correspondence, that the babe had a severe attack of smallpox, but survived.

We drove out to Monterey, in Pulaski County, arriving at noon, and immediately called upon Dr. W. E. Kelsey, aged about seventy-five, and his son, Arthur James Kelsey, the only practicing physicians in Monterey. They admitted that there were one or two cases that they knew of in the town. Dr. A. J. Kelsey, the son, stated that he had made some sixty vaccinations and that none of them had taken. His father was in doubt as to its being true smallpox, regarding it as a hybrid between chickenpox and smallpox proper. He talked fluently about the hybridization of disease, supporting it by his old army surgeon notions of the modification of typhoid by malaria, and the acceptance of that type of a disease known as typho-malaria fever.

After dinner we visited the town health officer, Dr. P. L. Hoot, who is not practicing at the present time, and who is a son-in-law of Dr. Kelsey, Sr. He thought there might be several recovered cases in the village, and had heard of one case that was recently broken out. Then, in company with Dr. Hoot, Dr. Kelsey and Dr. Overmyer, I made a canvass of the town. In a barber shop I discovered two cases that were recovering, with marks and scabs still on them. School was not in session, but I saw two boys on the street who had suffered from the prevalent disease. I learned from them that no attention was paid to it in the school, and that

as soon as they got over the fever and premonitory symptoms they went on to school just as they would had it been chickenpox.

We visited several houses-eight or ten-where it was reported that there was or had been some eruptive disease, and found ten or twelve cases in different mild stages of the disease. The general feeling was that of indifference, engendered by the statements of the physicians that it was not at all true smallpox, and that if it were they might as well have this disease as to undergo the effect of vaccination. Dr. Kelsey, Sr., in a more communicative mood in the afternoon, told me that he presumed there had been three or four hundred cases in the village and surrounding country. This may have been an exaggeration.

I should have stated earlier that from Rochester, the night before, I had communicated with the county health officer of Pulaski County, Dr. John J. Thomas, who stated that there were a few cases in Winamac, but that he did not know personally of any in Monterey, as they had not been reported to him. It was impossible for me to get to Monterey in time to go over the town with Dr. Overmyer.

I urged upon Dr. Kelsey-who with the son-in-law are the parties who should have prevented the wide spread of the disease the necessity of getting good virus and having immediate general vaccination at the expense of the town, and told the health officer that wherever he heard of a suspected case he should immediately order one of the physicians to investigate and report the facts to the county health officer.

Inasmuch as the holidays were approaching, and in that region there is a good deal of visiting back and forth from town to town and even interstate visitation, I attempted to impress upon them the necessity of keeping their people at home, as a case had already gone to Lafayette from Monterey, who had developed the disease while working in a laundry there. I also threatened the town with quarantine, telling them that if we did not hear of immediate efforts to suppress the disease, you would take steps to prevent any egress from the town and might order the mail fumigated. I do not think that my threats made much impression upon them. They all seemed content to take their chances and wallow in the disease.

Smallpox first came to that region in March, from Fort Wayne, and had been transmitted from case to case in the country and Monterey from that time. I urged upon Dr. Overmyer the importance of keeping in touch with the town of Monterey and keep me informed as to the conditions. I received a letter from him a month later, stating that he believed it had improved, and that there had been no further outbreak in Fulton County.

I returned to Rochester at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and talked with Dr. Thomas by long distance 'phone, acquainting him with what I had found and urging him to go at once to Monterey to take proper measures to put an end to the smallpox. I received a letter from him stating that he made such a visit and admitting that he found the conditions much as I had described. I enclose his letter. I also enclose the petition from DeLong asking for the aid of the State Board of Health.

In all the visits I have made at your request to the different parts

of Indiana, I never found any locality, except possibly Clay City, where there was such absolute indifference to the disease and to the rules of the State Board of Health. No citizen was sufficiently interested to prosecute the doctors for not reporting. Dr. Hoot is secretary of the town board, and by virtue of his office, acts also as secretary of the health board, the town and health board being the same.

I visited the newspaper office and saw the editor, and he assured me that the paper had used its influence to assist the State Board of Health, publishing matter sent them and urging the people to be vaccinated. Of course, it was difficult for Dr. Thomas at Winamac to reach and control such a condition, but I think that more frequent visitations and more determination on his part would have brought the physicians and town board of Monterey into line with the rules of the health board.

I visited several physicians at Rochester, and found everything all right there. Dr. Rannells is an unusually efficient and systematic health officer. They have a non-state college at Rochester, which has twice been jeopardized by the presence of smallpox in Fulton County and in Rochester, and as they are all much interested in the college and town, they are very bitter against the people of Monterey for not making an effort to destroy the disease. They do not care for the trade of these people, and are constantly urging them to stay on their own side of the county line. Dr. Rannells said that two or three cases of smallpox in Rochester would upset the school and derange the town and he is determined not to have it occur.

REPORT OF DR.
OF DR. A. W. BRAYTON UPON THE CONDITION OF
SMALLPOX IN PERU, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE
ARREST AND TRIAL AND CONVICTION OF DR. JACOB 0.
MALSBURY FOR NOT REPORTING SMALLPOX TO THE CITY
HEALTH OFFICER, MARCH 12, 1907.

On December 2, 1906, I went to Peru, Indiana, by authority of the State Board of Health, to determine the nature of a case of eruptive disease, which proved to be smallpox. The details are as follows:

The patient, a young man of twenty-five years, had visited the office of Dr. Jacob O. Malsbury, with what proved to be prodromal symptoms of smallpox, a week previous. Dr. Malsbury prescribed for him, and two days later was called to the young man's boarding house and prescribed for him again, and also the day following. On the fifth day the patient appeared at Dr. Malsbury's office about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and the patient related to me that Dr. Malsbury said that this was what some of the physicians of the city were calling smallpox, and that he had better go to see one of the health officers. The man walked about the streets of the town during the afternoon, took supper at his boarding house, and in the evening about 8 o'clock called upon the health officer, Dr. L. 0. Malsbury, a brother of J. O. Malsbury, who decided the case to be smallpox. Dr. J. O. Malsbury did not report the case to the health officer.

Inasmuch as Dr. J. O. Malsbury had been carding the papers against vaccination, saying that if this were smallpox, it was no worse than vaccination, etc., Health Officer Malsbury applied for assistance from the

« PreviousContinue »