Attorney of your county, and if he finds that the case warrants an autopsy, he will obtain the necessary order from the State pathologist to perform it. Question 19. Is a notice of any contagious disease legal, if given over the telephone?

Answer. The law simply says that the attending physician or head of the family where the disease occurs shall notify the health officer within a reasonable time. The courts have held that we can sue and collect damages for breach of contracts made over the telephone, and I do not see why a notice of the kind in question given by telephone would not be legal. I should advise in every instance, however, that the health officer immediately obtain a written notice to the same effect, whenever he receives notice of the contagious disease by telephone.

Question 20. Last February a man died in our town, and I gave a permit for entombment. The body was left in the vault until the seventh day of May, when I gave a permit that they could remove the body on a certain day. St. Johnsbury refused to accept it. What I want to know is if such a permit is legal, if properly written out, and is it legal if I simply fill in the blanks in a printed form, or is it necessary that it should be in writing? Answer. The law does not require you to write your permits out. You may fill out the blank forms provided by the State Board of Health. The State Board of Health has provided a form of removal permits, so that if you will fill out one of these and sign it, it would be considered legal. It is highly desirable that all burial and removal permits should be issued upon blanks of uniform size and alike in every other respect, and the only safe way for a health officer to do is to issue such permits only upon the blanks provided by the State Board of Health.

Question 21. Is a second permit necessary from me as the health officer before a body can be removed from a tomb, after I have given the first permit for its entombment?

Answer. Yes, certainly.

Question 22. Last winter a person died and the body was buried; the permit was supplied as usual. In some way the husband of the woman who had died, heard that there was water in there around the grave and he wanted to remove the body. I gave orders as health officer to have that body removed. Was I right?

Answer. Whenever a body is removed from a grave, whether it is placed in another grave in the same cemetery or not, a written permit must be first obtained from the health officer and the same formalities must be observed when a body is removed from one spot in the cemetery to another spot in the same cemetery, as when it is removed from one town to another. Question 23. Is wine measure the legal measure for milk?

Answer. Section 4300 of the Vermont Statutes provides that the standard measure of milk shall be wine measure.

Question 24. A short time ago a body was on its way to a western town for burial, having come from outside of my town, but the railroad people refused to take it further than my town. I issued a transit permit on one of the old forms; had I this authority?

Answer. There is no provision in law for such an emergency, but you acted properly in exercising your common sense to relieve an unpleasant situation. I should doubt if the railroad company had a legal right to refuse to transmit a body in this state, which was accompanied by a proper removal permit issued in accordance with the law of this state. When the body gets beyond the borders of this state, of course the persons transporting it would have to comply with the law of each state which they passed through with the body, and it is probable that the refusal of the railroad company to transmit the body further was due to its knowledge that the burial permit which had been given failed in some way to comply with the law of some of the states through which it would have to pass. The railroad companies generally have rules and regulations, which they have themselves adopted by common consent, governing the transmission of bodies. These rules they have adopted for their own protection under the laws of different states, and a compliance with our state law is not always a compliance with the rules of a railroad company.

I should advise a health officer when a body is to be removed by means of a railroad to inform himself of the requirements of the railroad company and to comply with them, as well as with the state law, whether he is legally obliged to do so or not, in order to relieve relatives and friends accompanying the body from trouble.

Question 25. I have filled out burial permits in this way when the body is going to another town: "Permission is given for the removal and burial of this body." Should the health officer of the town to which the body was going allow the body to be buried without a further permit from him?

Answer. Section 5 of No. 140 of the Acts of 1904 provides that he may. Question 26. What constitutes a record? Are the health officers' stubs on his certificate books a sufficient record for him to keep?

Answer. The stubs may be a sufficient record of the issue of burial permits, death certificates, etc., but they are not a sufficient record for the transactions of the local board of health. I am surprised to be informed that so many local boards of health do not keep records of their meetings. It is a very important matter. If you proceed to abate a nuisance or to take any other action, which the local board of health is authorized to take, and the case should get into court, one of the first things that would be asked would be for the record of the action of the local board of health. The records should state that the local board of health met at a given time and place; that certain persons were present, naming them; that certain business was transacted, indicating clearly what the motions were and how they were adopted, and that the meeting adjourned either to some given time or place, or without day.

The secretary, who is the local health officer, should sign the minutes of each meeting as a true record of the meeting. Then if any matter comes up regarding any business transacted at any of these meetings, you have an accurate record and can know exactly what transpired.

Question 27. Do I understand that I, as health officer, can give more than one certificate upon one physician's certificate?

Answer. You can give a permit on one doctor's certificate for entombment, then one for burial, disinterment and reburial. You can issue four certificates.

Question 28. Is it possible to issue one certificate embracing all four at first?

Answer. You should have a separate certificate each time. This is a very good requirement, as there is in this way a record of each move and the body can be traced from one place or one grave to another or to another grave.

Question 29. Suppose a Vermonter dies outside of the state, can a health officer of Vermont bury that body or not?

If a person dies outside of the state of Vermont-New York state for instance the health officer of Vermont must get a permit from the town where the person died before he has the right to bury the body. New York state may not have the same regulations regarding interring bodies. The laws of that state as well as our own, must be complied with.

Dr. H. D. Holton:

Three or four years ago a committee of the Funeral Directors Association, the National Embalmers Association, the Baggage Association, the Conference of State and Provincial Boards of Health, considered the transportation of dead bodies and certain rules were formulated. New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut have adopted them. Some questions have arisen in transporting bodies into the West when they did not have this form of permit of transportation and the bodies have been stopped. This matter came up in Washington recently and all the states in the Union have been asked to adopt these rulings. The State Board of Health of Vermont have been considering the matter and these rulings will probably be adopted by us and sent to every health officer to be used.

Dr. H. W. Bacon, Eden, Vt.

A health officer is notified that a cow has been butchered which looks tubercular. The meat isn't all right. I suppose the butcher has to notify the cattle commission. I wish to ask who should be notified if the condi tion is not quite clear.

Dr. H. E. Hunt, Hinesburg, Vt.

Is it within the intention of the law to appoint a deputy health officer in a village where there is a health officer? The first selectman asked the State Board of Health to appoint a deputy health officer, so they made the appointment. This has made considerable friction with the health officer. Now, if such a deputy is appointed, can he legally issue burial permits. when the health officer is in town and acessible? If the law does permit such a thing, I think we ought to petition the State Board of Health to remove such a deputy.

Dr. E. R. Clark, Castleton, Vt.

Last year an undertaker in a neighboring town came to me and asked me to issue a burial permit; he handed me a death certificate. I said: "When was that body buried?" He said: "Yesterday." I said: "I do not propose to put my neck in a halter because you have yours in one."

Dr. W. H. Bacon, Eden, Vt.

Is it right to have a relative report a death of a person from pneumonia when death was due to heart failure?

Mr. S. W. Butterfield, Weathersfield, Vt.

What shall I do when a sexton says to me that the body' was received on such a date and that he wants a burial permit?

What shall I do? The humane officer killed a horse in my town and then notified me to take care of it. Is it my business or the humane officer's?

Dr. H. W. Bacon, Eden, Vt.

What shall I do for lice? What shall I do for croupy cough? I am not certain whether it is whooping cough or not. This cough seemed to be spreading when I left. This cough is a sort of croup but has been assuming a whooping cough. There is no history of whooping cough from surrounding towns. I think it is a croupy cough. Would it come under the health officer's jurisdiction to interfere with the children attending school, not being sure regarding its nature? I was requested to ask this question at the meeting. What shall I do? Whether I shall keep those children out of school or allow them to go?

DISCUSSION OF DR. STONE'S PAPER, PUBLISHED IN PRE

CEDING BULLETIN, ON THE WORK OF THE

LABORATORY.

Discussion by Hon. C. C. Fitts, Brattleboro, Vermont.

I will confine my discussion to the work of the Laboratory in its relation to the administration of the law.

It has been my privilege and duty during the last two and one-half years to have more or less to do with the penal laws and it has brought me in close touch with the Laboratory of Hygiene so far as it relates to that branch of their work.

Somebody has said that the first thing to be considered is: "How much does it cost?" How much does the Laboratory save the state of Vermont in the matter of the administration of the law? In deference to Yankee sentiment, I want to tell you gentlemen just how much is being saved in dollars and cents by the work of the State Laboratory. It is not possible for me to tell you exactly, but I will give you an approximate idea. I can give you some estimates which are conservative, based on what work has been performed in numerous instances and compare it with what it would cost if we did not have the Laboratory of Hygiene.

In the administration of the criminal law whenever there was a question which would involve a chemical analysis, it was necessary, as you all know, before the establishment of the Laboratory, that some chemist be employed at some private laboratory to do this work. You can readily understand that for the most part this work had to be done outside of the state of Vermont. There were not many well equipped chemical laboratories in this state. I recall one case where the state of Vermont paid $1,300 to one chemist for his analytical work and testimony. I recall another instance where $800 was paid. There never was any specific account kept of these expenses but they were included in the court and state expenses.

Regarding the pathological work: The pathologist performs the autopsies and his services as an expert, and in testifying in trials, is an important item which the Laboratory is saving the state of Vermont. I have not taken any steps to find out the amount of work done in other lines but I know of the most important work which bears upon the administration of justice. I have, for the last three years approximately, had to do with all the homicide cases in the state of Vermont. Taking into consideration the autopsies, the chemical analyses and pathological work, and assuming that outside experts would otherwise have been employed to meet the requirements of justice, and adding to all that the duties imposed upon the chemist and pathologist of the Laboratory as expert witnesses, it is safe to say that the state of Vermont would have expended $6,000 in