PUBLIC HEALTH DIVISION of the MUNICIPAL REFERENCE LIBRARY 3rd Floor, 505 Pearl Street Open to the general public for reference use. Material will be loaned to persons on the payroll of the City. ALCOHOL.-Wallace, G. B. Some considerations of the pharmacology and therapeutic value of alcohol. (Med. Rec., Jan. 14, 1922. pp. 47-50.) CHILD WELFARE-U. S. Children's Bureau. Directory of local child health agencies in the United States. 1921. 114 pp. typewritten. VF Home Econ., Jan., 1922. NUTRITION.-Graves, L. G. dietetics of today. 1922. pp. 14-19.) Nutrition and (Mod. Hosp., Jan., ICE CREAM.-Washburn, R. M. How to TUBERCULOSIS.-Jacobs, P. P. PP. 61The effect of compressed yeast cake in infant feeding. (Arch. Pediat., Dec., 1921. pp. 775-780.) NUTRITION.-Gillett, L. H. Factors influencing work among Italians. (Jour. INFANT FEEDING.-Ladd, Maynard. POLIOMYELITIS.-Feiss, H. O. The treat- VITAL STATISTICS-CITY OF NEW YORK Deaths, and Annual Death Rate Per 1,000; Deaths According to Certain Causes and Ages; Deaths and Death Rate Under One Year Per 1,000 Births For Thirteen Weeks 31 7 Jan. Jan Jan. 21 Total deaths ..... 1177 1181 1123 1229 1184 1153 1201 1246 1332 1364 1486 1481 1581 Annual Death Rate 10.68 10 71 10.19 11.15 10.74 10.46 10.89 11.30 12.08 12.37 13.28 13.23 14.13 Acute Infectious *"Acute Infectious Diseases" include Typhoid Fever, Scarlet Fever, Measles, Diphtheria, Whooping Cough, Smallpox and Cerebro-spinal Meningitis. **Does not include suicides. If the deaths under one month numbering 92 from all causes, be deducted from the total deaths under one year, the resulting rate will be 45 per 1,000 births (weekly average). *Includes deaths from Erysipelas 12, Syphilis9, Diabetes 32, Alcoholism 3, Locomotor Ataxia 1, Paresis 5, Arterio-sclerosis 78, all other congenital causes 15. Published weekly by the Department of Health, City of New York, 505 Pearl St., New York, N. Y. Entered as Second-Class matter October 16, 1917, at the Postoffice at New York, N. Y. Under Act of March 3, 1879. Subscription, 10 cents per annum. ROYAL S. COPELAND, M. D., Commissioner of Health. NEW SERIES, Vol. XI. FEBRUARY 4, 1922. No. 5. PREVENTING PNEUMONIA. Statement by Commissioner Copeland. People are continually writing and telephoning to the Department of Health to find out whether there is any form of injection or medicine which they may take to protect them against influenza and pneumonia. There is no medicine manufactured which has proven a protective against these two diseases. No vaccine has as yet been proved to be of value as a preventive of influenza. It is fortunate, however, that the epidemic which has been reported to exist abroad, and from present indications here, is really not an epidemic of influenza but one of pneumonia. I say it is fortunate that the prevalent disease is pneumonia rather than influenza, because Dr. Park, Director of the Bureau of Laboratories of this Department, has prepared a vaccine which has been found to be of considerable value in protecting against pneumonia. It is gratifying for me to be able to inform the community that we have found a way of giving a very considerable degree of protection against pneumonia by the use of a vaccine. The vaccine treatment is harmless and requires three injections at intervals of about four to five days. This can be obtained from private physicians. The Health Department is bending all its energies to the preparation of a sufficient supply of such vaccine. While we cannot guarantee that it will in every case protect against pneumonia, we can state that it does so in a very large number of cases and that even if an attack of pneumonia should occur, such vaccination is very likely to cause it to be a mild one. Arrangements are being made for the distribution of this vaccine to private physicians. For the benefit of those who cannot afford the services of a private physician, such vaccine will be given to the public dispensaries. If need be, special stations for the administration of vaccine to those who cannot afford to pay will be established by the Department of Health. ROYAL S. COPELAND, M. D. Note: The vaccine mentioned by the Commissioner contains the three varieties of pneumococci known as Types I, II and III. INFLUENZA AND PNEUMONIA IN NEW YORK CITY. In the following table is given the cases of and deaths from pneumonia and influenza reported since January 1, 1922, and, for purposes of comparison, similar statistics for the years 1919-21. From these figures it will be seen that the incidence of the diseases in question is considerably greater, at present, than last year. However, nothing approaching the rate of the years 1919 and 1920 has been attained, nor is to be anticipated. All precautions that are available should, however, be taken to prevent spread of these maladies. Besides the measures that all physicians are familiar with, in the prevention of pneumonia which may be due to the "fixed" types of pneumococci (types I, II and III) vaccine made of such organisms may be used as a preventative. According to Dr. W. H. Park, the Director of the Department's Bureau of Laboratories, the immunity which can be developed by injections of such a vaccine will protect for a period of several months against pneumonia due to pneumococci of the types included in the vaccine, the most commonly met in this vicinity. Such vaccine may be obtained by sending to the Department's Bureau of Laboratories, foot of East 16th Street, Borough of Manhattan. TYPHOID FEVER IN NEW YORK CITY DURING 1921. For the year 1921, a total of 983 cases were reported in the Greater City. Of this number, 84 cases were erroneously diagnosed and reported, leaving a corrected total of 899 verified cases. During the year 1920, a total of 1,069 cases were reported, out of which number 100 cases were erroneously diagnosed and reported, leaving a corrected total of 969 verified cases. Therefore, in the year 1921 we had 70 fewer cases of typhoid fever than in 1920. All of the Boroughs, with the exception of The Bronx, had fewer cases in 1921 than in 1920. In the year 1921, 66 per cent. of the cases were confirmed by laboratory test or otherwise, as against 77.2 per cent. in 1920. The Borough of Brooklyn had the |