Laboratory
Number

Date

Article

DRUGS

RESULTS OF EXAMINATIONS MADE AT THE LABORATORY OF HYGIENE DURING SECOND QUARTER, 1909

Marcotte Bros., Winooski.

"

"

"

"

E. R. Crandall,

"

D. W. Sullivan, Concord, N. H.
Ozark Medicine Co., Springfield, Mo

Spirits Camphor..

"

Shanley & Estey,

Marcotte Bros.,

1

1

1

Contains alcohol-not stated
Acetanilid present-not stated.

1 Acetanilid present-not stated.

BULLETIN OF THE

VERMONT STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.

Vol. X. No. 1.

Issued Quarterly at Brattleboro, Vermont.

The Bulletin is published quarterly by the State Board of Health under the authority of Section 5 of Act No. 90, Legislature of 1900. It will be sent to all Boards of Health. A copy will be sent to any person in the state upon request addressed to the Secretary, Henry D. Holton, Brattleboro.

NEWS ITEMS.

It is a most serious condition when the water supply of a municipality is polluted. Not only are the users of such water likely to contract typhoid fever, but gastro-intestinal, kidney and other infections arise. Knowing the existence of such conditions the law imposes upon the health authorities the duty of prohibiting the use of such water for domestic purposes. In an address by Justice Brewer of the United States Supreme Court before the Municipal Section of the International Congress on Tuberculosis held in Washington last year, he said that the duty and authority of health officials to control and remove unsanitary conditions was derived from the police power of the state, a power which had never been delegated to the general government, but remained as a power of each state. As an illustration of this he said that when a municipality's water supply was polluted, that the board of health had, under this police power, the authority to prohibit its use. It is interesting to note that this is practically the same interpretation that is given by Chief Justice Rowell to the exercise of this power by the health authorities of this state in the St. Johnsbury case. The following is a copy of his decision in this case:

"Appeal in Chancery, Caledonia County; Alfred A. Hall, Chancellor. "Bill by the State Board of Health against the Village of St. Johnsbury and others. Decree for orator, and defendants' appeal. Reversed and dismissed as to one defendant, reversed pro forma as to the others, and remanded.

"Argued before Rowell, C. J., and Munson, Watson, Haselton, and Powers, JJ.

"Elisha May and Harry Blodgett, for appellants, Robert W. Simonds, state's attorney, for appellee.

"Rowell, C. J. This is a bill in chancery brought by and in the names and official capacity of the persons composing the State Board of Health against the village of St. Johnsbury and divers takers of water resident therein for the enforcement of an order made by the board prohibiting the furnishing and the use of the village water for domestic purposes till such a time. The order was made and issued in July, 1906, and recited that the Board found and was of the opinion that the water taken from the Passumpsic river at the point where the village was then taking it, and as supplied by it to the inhabitants thereof by its water system, was so contaminated, unwholesome, and impure that the use of it for domestic purposes endangered the public health; and it prohibited the drawing and the use thereof for said purposes until, in the opinion of the Board, the danger ceased. But it expressly permitted the drawing and use for laundry purposes, flushing waterclosets, sprinkling lawns and streets, watering gardens, and for stable purposes. The order was served on the trustees of the village, but not on the village itself, on the school directors, and 134 takers, a large number of whom obeyed it, but many did not, and they are defendants. After the bill was brought, the village itself, its newly elected trustees, and its clerk, were made defendants. The statute under which the order was made gave the Board the general oversight and care of all waters, streams, and ponds used by any cities, towns, villages, or public institutions, or by any water or ice companies in this state, as sources of water supply, and of all springs, streams, and water courses tributary thereto, and authorized the Board to prohibit any town, city, village, public institution, individual, or water or ice company from using water or ice from any given source whenever in its opinion the same was so contaminated, unwholesome, or impure that the use thereof endangered the public health. The statute as it was when the bill was brought, and as it now is, provides that the court of chancery 'may' on application therefor by the Board enforce any order, rule, or regulation that the Board may make under and by virtue thereof. P. S. 5496.

"The defendant Elisha May demurs to the bill for that under its allegations the board has no authority to maintain the bill in its own name; that the statute does not provide for notice of a hearing by the Board, nor for notice of any action by it to condemn the water; and that it does not allege that any notice was given in these respects. The village, its three trustees who were made defendants after the bill was brought, and Preston E. May, its clerk, jointly demur for want of equity, and because the bill does not charge them nor any of them with any shortcomings nor wrongdoings, nor contain any prayer for relief against them, and because said May is not a proper party. They further demur for substantially the same causes assigned in the demurrer of the defendant Elisha May. The bill discloses no reason for making Preston E. May a