State Board, as he was determined to prosecute Dr. J. O. Malsbury and have him arrested and fined.

On visiting the boarding house with Health Officer Malsbury, we found the man well broken out with smallpox. Several of the boarders had escaped. The householder was intoxicated and vicious, but the smallpox warning was nailed upon the house and the unvaccinated inmates were vaccinated.

I saw several of the leading physicians, Drs. Bloomfield, Helm, Griswold, etc., who were very insistent on having Dr. J. O. Malsbury punished, as his actions and newspaper notes made it difficult to suppress the smallpox in Peru, which was allowed to have a wide spread because of the failure of Dr. Armstrong to report cases said to be smallpox to the Health Board. You will recall that Dr. Armstrong was fined $10.00 and costs.

I visited several houses with Health Officer Malsbury, and found the smallpox under very good control. I went before the mayor of Peru and made a statement to him of the action of Dr. J. O. Malsbury, and urged his immediate arrest and trial, and saw that a police officer swore out a warrant to be served the next day. The trial was postponed until February 8, 1907.

In the meantime I was called to Peru to meet the county commissioners and urge upon them the importance of continuing Dr. J. B. Higgins as county health officer, at the usual salary of $400, although a homeopath who was opposing vaccination-believing that the swallowing of the vaccine would do as well as proper vaccination—had offered to be county health officer at $100 a year. I advised with the commissioners for threequarters of an hour and answered all their questions, and had the assurance of two of them that they would vote in favor of Dr. Higgins, and did not wish to have a health officer who did not believe in vaccination at any price. The result was that Dr. Higgins was elected as county health officer at the former salary.

On the same day, I again urged upon the mayor the importance of bringing Dr. J. O. Malsbury to trial, which was done, with the result that he was fined $10.00 and costs, after a trial that lasted all day, in a justice's court, and was attended by a throng of citizens. The arrest and fining of such an ignoramus as Dr. Armstrong, and of so intelligent a quack as Dr. J. O. Malsbury, proved the turning point in the control of the smallpox in Peru. After these actions, physicians were prompt in reporting all cases of eruptive diseases to the city or county health officers.

I think that IIealth Officer L. O. Malsbury and Dr. J. B. Higgins are to be commended for the excellent work they are doing in Peru, and in Miami County, respectively, and that the State Board has done no better work than to assist them in the diagnosis and in the two successful prosecutions.

Second Regular Meeting.

REGULAR QUARTERLY MEETING OF THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.

April 10, 1907.

AFFAIRS CONSIDERED OF THE FISCAL QUARTER ENDING JANUARY 31, 1907, AND CALENDAR QUARTER ENDING MARCH 31, 1907. Called to order by President Davis at 2 p. m. Present: Drs. Davis, McCoy, Tucker, Wishard, Hurty.

Minutes of the regular meeting held January 11, 1907, and the special meeting held March 15, 1907, read and approved.

REPORT OF SECRETARY FOR CALENDAR QUARTER ENDING MARCH 31, 1907.

The Sixty-fifth General Assembly, which adjourned March 10th, passed two new laws relating to the public health directly, and one. law concerning Pure Foods and Drugs. The most important is the Statistical Law. This law requires the immediate reporting of deaths and contagious diseases, and requires that births be reported within twenty days. The penalty for disposing of a dead body in any way without first securing a permit is a fine of not less than ten nor more than one hundred dollars, and in addition, the coroner of the county shall disinter the remains and hold an inquest. The penalty for failure to report contagious diseases is a fine of not less than ten nor more than one hundred dollars, and the same penalty also applies for failure to report births. It is to be regretted that the legislature deemed it wise to place twenty days as the limit of time for reporting births. There is no reason why they should not be immediately reported. This extension of time will, in a degree, invalidate the law as it relates to births.

The next law of importance is termed "The Free Antitoxin Law." This act provides that any physician may secure free antitoxin by filling out a blank furnsihed by the State Board of Health, and presenting the same to any dealer in antitoxin. The said blank, when properly and completely filled out, as required, is a claim against city, town or county, as the case may be, in which it has been found necessary to purchase the antitoxin. A heavy fine and imprisonment is provided if the law is abused for personal gain.

It is also provided that only people too poor to buy antitoxin shall be supplied.

The third law in importance is the Pure Food and Drug Law. This law is now quite perfect. It is built upon the same principle as the national law and the enforcement is given to the State Board of Health. The appropriation for enforcement is fifteen thousand dollars per annum. One feature of this law which deserves special mention, in this brief abstract, is the clause which pertains to the proper slaughtering of animals for human food. The said section makes it unlawful to sell within this state, for human food, the carcass or parts of carcasses of any animal which has been slaughtered, prepared, handled or kept under unsanitary conditions.

"Unsanitary conditions," says the law, "shall be deemed to exist wherever and whenever any one or more of the following conditions appear or are found, to wit: If the slaughter-house is dilapidated and in a state of decay; if the floors or side walls are soaked with decaying blood or other animal matter; if efficient fly screens are not provided; if the drainage of the slaughter-house or slaughterhouse yard is not efficient; if maggots or filthy pools or hog wallows exist in the slaughter-house yard or under the slaughter-house; if the water supply used in connection with the cleansing or preparing is not pure and unpolluted; if hogs are kept in the slaughter-house yard or fed therein on animal offal, or if the odors of putrefaction plainly exist therein; if carcasses or parts of carcasses are transported from place to place when not covered with clean white cloths, or if kept in unclean, bad smelling refrigerators, or if kept in unclean or bad smelling cold storage rooms.

The penalty is summary, for it is made the duty of the peace and all health officers to seize any animal carcass, or parts of carcasses of any domestic or wild fowl, eggs, game or fish, found to be unwholesome, and which have been slaughtered or prepared, handled or kept in unsanitary conditions, as defined in the law. Upon seizure, the officer shall deliver the same to the nearest police judge, or justice of the peace, together with all information obtained, and said police judge or said justice of the peace shall issue warrants of arrest for all persons believed to have violated the provisions of the law and said case shall be tried at an early date thereafter. Any person found guilty of violating any of the provisions of this section shall be fined not less than ten nor more than one hundred dollars for each offense and the meat in question shall be drenched with kerosene oil or rendered into grease in tankage as the court may direct.

HEALTH OF THE STATE DURING THE QUARTER.

It seems that the public health during the quarter was not quite as good as in the corresponding quarter last year. Grippe, typhoid fever and measles prevailed unusually. The deaths ran higher than in the same period last year. The following tables show the conditions in actual figures in regard to smallpox and typhoid fever:

January 4th, Seymour.-On this date the secretary visited Seymour, in order to deliver an address before the Jackson County Farmers' Institute. The subject was "Prevention and Cure of Tuberculosis," and was illustrated by lantern pictures. The audience overflowed the public hall that was provided and it was said that a hundred or more .were turned away. The lecture was well received, a vote of thanks was given and also resolutions of commendation for the State Board of Health and its work were passed.

January 8th, Noblesville. On this date the secretary visited Noblesville, in order to confer with the authorities in regard to an outbreak of "winter cholera." This city, almost every year, has an outbreak of diarrhoeal disease, when the ice breaks up in the

river. It is the theory that poisons form under the ice from decomposition of the sewage from the cities above, and the tubular wells supplying the city with water, and which are driven in the bottom of the river, are more or less injured by the broken ice, and this lets the poisoned water into the public supply. It was estimated that 500 cases of so-called "winter cholera" occurred and subsequently a light epidemic of typhoid fever appeared. The old advice was given, that precautions should be taken by protecting the tops of the wells in the river with masonry or sealed crib-work in order to keep back the ice which so frequently causes the well tubes to leak when it breaks up. This would be the cheapest remedy, but it would be far better if Noblesville would drive new wells above high-water mark, so that tubes would never be subjugated to the breaking influence of floating ice.

January 12th, Terre Haute.-Upon invitation of the city health officer, the secretary visited Terre Haute in order to confer with the council in regard to the public water supply. A mild epidemic of typhoid fever had appeared and analyses of the public supply were made by a local chemist. His report was adverse to the water furnished by the Waterworks Company. As his results of analyses were opposed to those of the State Laboratory, a conference seemed necessary. A survey of the situation developed the fact that, with the exception of one case, all the typhoid reported occurred in persons who did not drink the city water supply. This fact, together with the results of the investigation of the State Board of Health, led to the conclusion that the public supply was good and probably not to blame for the epidemic.

January 22d, Hammond.-Upon invitation of the Hammond Ladies' Civic League, and the city Board of Health, I visited Hammond, to confer with the authorities named, and to deliver the usual lecture upon "The Prevention and Cure of Tuberculosis. In the forenoon of my arrival, I made a talk to the high school upon "Personal Hygiene;" in the afternoon I made a talk to the teachers upon "School Hygiene," and in the evening, in the opera house, delivered a lecture to a large audience assembled in the same. said, the lecture delivered was the usual one upon "Tuberculosis, Its Prevention and Cure." The lecture was illustrated. The audience passed resolutions commending the work of the State Board of Health, and also of thanks for the lecture. All the papers gave most favorable notices, and the secretary believes much good resulted from the visit.

As