FOURTH QUARTER.

REGULAR MEETING OF THE STATE BOARD OF

HEALTH.

October 12, 1906.

THE AFFAIRS OF THE FOURTH FISCAL QUARTER AND OF THE THIRD STATISTICAL OR CALENDAR QUARTER

CONSIDERED.

Called to order by President Davis at 2:30 p. m.

Present: Drs. Davis, McCoy, Tucker, Wishard, Hurty. Minutes of last regular meeting of July 13, 1906, read and approved.

QUARTERLY REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.

I have to report that the work of the various departments has gone on without interruption and without friction during the quarter.

The Secretary made twenty visits during the quarter, as follows:

July 2, Spiceland, on account of inspection of schoolhouse, at request of citizens.

July 9, Frankfort, account of inspection of tuberculosis conditions and conference with city Health Officer.

July 25, South Bend, account of tuberculosis exhibit and lecture to public audiences.

July 30, Kennard, account of inspection of schoolhouse, at request of citizens.

July 31, Petersburg, on account of inspection of schoolhouse, at request of citizens.

August 6, Kokomo, to meet the County Superintendent and Trustees of the county to consider the subject of school hygiene. August 8, Greensburg, on account of tuberculosis exhibit, and to lecture to Teachers' Institute and to public audiences at night.

August 20, Decatur, on account of tuberculosis exhibit and to lecture to Teachers' Institute, and to lecture to popular audience

at night.

August 27, Merom, to lecture before the Merom Chautauqua upon the subject of "The Prevention of Disease."

August 30, New Castle, to consider school hygiene before the Teachers' Institute, and to meet the County Superintendent and Trustees.

September 5, Noblesville, to lecture before the County Teachers' Institute upon the subject of "School Hygiene," and inspect schoolhouse.

September 7, Monticello, to lecture before the County Teachers' Institute and meet with the County Superintendent and Trustees to consider school hygiene.

September 16, Ottawa, Ill., to visit the Ottawa Tent Colony, and to study the outdoor treatment of tuberculosis as practiced at that place.

September 20, Madison, on account of tuberculosis exhibit, and to make public lecture on the subject.

September 25, Columbia City, to appear before the Whitley County Medical Society, read a paper upon "The Prevention of Disease," and to deliver a public lecture in the evening.

September 26, Peru, to lecture upon the work of the Board of Health and the prevention of disease before the Y. M. C. A.

September 28, Richmond, to meet Prof. Sackett and Dr. Davis to consider the proposed employment of Prof. Sackett to make a sanitary survey of White River.

October 2, Rochester, to meet with the Fulton County Medical Society to present the subject of "Disease Prevention," and to lecture in the evening upon the "Prevention and Cure of Tuberculosis" before a popular audience.

October 8, Muncie, to lecture before the State Charities Conference upon the subject of "Tuberculosis.'

October 10, Muncie, to read a paper before the Indiana State Federation of Women's Clubs, title, "What Can the Federation Do to Help Forward the Public Health Work."

October 11, Winona, to read a paper before the Women's Federation of Literary Clubs, title, "Tuberculosis; Its Prevention and Cure."

TUBERCULOSIS MEETING AT SOUTH BEND.

On July 25, upon invitation of the St. Joseph Medical Society and the health authorities of South Bend, I visited that place, carrying with me the tuberculosis exhibit of the Board. Upon arrival said exhibit was promptly put into position, and at 2 o'clock a lecture upon the "Prevention of Disease" was delivered to an audience of about five hundred persons. In the evening the exhibit was visited by one thousand persons, and when gathered in the audience chamber I made an illustrated address upon the "Cure of Tuberculosis in the Incipient Stage." The following day, July 26, another audience inspected the exhibit and further addresses were made. The South Bend daily papers published full accounts of the meeting and the addresses, and gave editorials upon the subject. It is believed that this visit was attended with good results, and was many times worth the work and expense given to it.

SCHOOLHOUSE AT KENNARD.

The school building at Kennard was condemned by the State Board of Health last fall, and the authorities were in dispute as to the location of the new building. The controversy ran high, and at last all concerned agreed to abide by the decision of the Secretary. Accordingly I visited the place, met the committees of citizens, inspected the various proposed sites, and made my recommendations. I have since learned that a second compromise was effected, and the old site was adopted.

PETERSBURG SCHOOLHOUSE.

The schoolhouse at Petersburg is brick, a very old structure, and unsanitary in every respect. The people of the city know this to be true. Several letters were received from citizens asking the State Board of Health to make inspection of the building. All of these represented that the majority of the patrons were afraid of the present schoolhouse because of its cracked walls and general unsafe condition, and also because it was unsanitary. They were told to petition the State Board of Health in regard to the building to show that the people were in favor of action. Accordingly the following petitions were received. The first one was dated May 11, the second August 3, accompanied by a letter signed by the Treasurer and Secretary of the School Board:

PETITION.

State Board of Health:

Petersburg, May 11, 1906.

Gentlemen-We, the undersigned patrons of the Petersburg public school, do hereby petition you to visit this place and make an examination of the school buildings here. In our judgment the building is unsafe and unsanitary and should be condemned.

DR. T. W. BASINGER,

Ex-Secy. County Board of H., and 69 others.

Petersburg, August 7, 1906.

We are enclosing you a certified copy of the petition gotten up here in the last few days relative to the building of a new schoolhouse. Mr. Nichols, president of the School Board, is out of town and will not be home for ten days. His absence accounts for his not joining us in the affidavit herewith attached.

The original petition is kept here to file with the clerk of the town, to which officer you are referred if you deem it advisable for further information. The petition is to be brought before the Town Board for the purpose of securing a permit in accordance with the law to proceed to the erection of a school building.

In the last town election there were 489 votes polled. Since then, owing to the closing down of the glass factory, about eighty voters have gone from here, leaving at this time about 409 voters in the corporation. As you will observe, there are 351 signatures to the petition, making almost 86 per cent. of the present voting population of the town. Some voters are out of town and were not canvassed. In all there are not more than twelve or fifteen voters in the corporation opposed to the plans of the School Board, and they are under the direct influence of interested parties. J. R. CHEW, Treasurer.

H. H. TISLOW, Secretary.

PETITION.

Petersburg, August 3, 1906.

We, the undersigned taxpayers and patrons of the Petersburg, Indiana, public schools, knowing the unsanitary and dangerous condition of the public school buildings in said town, and further knowing the said school buildings are inadequate to properly accommodate the large number of school children in said town, hereby ask that a new and commodious school building be erected at the earliest possible date.

I. H. LAMAR, M. D., and 350 others.

On account of these petitions the Secretary visited Petersburg on July 31. A delegation of citizens, headed by the members of the School Board just named, and accompanied by the entire town board, accompanied the Secretary to the building. A very casual inspection shows it to be unsafe, for the walls on every side

are cracked.

It is braced with iron rods running through the building from all four directions. The floors are in bad repair, every room improperly lighted, insufficiently ventilated, and insufficiently warmed. The stairway leading to the upper story is boxed part of the way, narrow and steep. It is unnecessary to here detail the size of the rooms with the lighting facilities, because the whole building is so bad from every point of view. There are closets for the sexes in the basement which are hardly possible. They have cemented floors, but are dimly lighted by windows which enter just above the ground level. The entrances to said closets are from the rear of the building, and the children must walk from the front around the building to use them. As said above, every feature of this building is unsanitary, and it is also unsafe. I, therefore, urgently recommend its absolute condemnation for school purposes. The building is occupied at this time, has had some repairs and further bracing, and it perhaps would be best not to close the building, but to let it be used this winter, and to pass an order of condemnation to take effect June 1, 1907. It is to be regretted that the petition could not be attended to sooner. Had it been possible for the Secretary to make the survey soon after the first petition was received, which was May 11, the condemnation might have been early enough to secure a new building for this winter.

KOKOMO.

On August 6 I visited Kokomo to meet the County Superintendent and Trustees of the county to consider the subject of school hygiene. Two hours work was consumed in discussing what could be done to better the sanitary surroundings of the school children in the country schools of Howard County. The fact in regard to the prevalence of imperfect vision in school children was presented, and a sample of Snellen's vision chart was shown. The Trustees were urged to purchase a supply of these charts, and to direct their teachers to watch the children closely and examine the eyes of all who wrinkled their foreheads when looking at their books and who would be discovered glancing at their work at various angles. They were urged also to require that the teachers examine the ears of children who seemed dull