boot and shoe makers, 49.2 per cent of the compositors, printers and pressmen, 41.2 per cent of the tailors, and 25.6 per cent of the farmers who died in the registration area were victims of pulmonary tuberculosis. The same causes of death in Vermont were as follows: The Conference on Prevention of Infant Mortality of the American Academy of Medicine was held at New Haven, November 11 and 12. This conference was attended by about two hundred physicians, sanitarians, persons engaged in the work of social betterment. Dr. J. H. Mason Knox of Johns Hopkins Medical School presided. Many interesting and helpful papers were presented. At the conclusion the following was adopted: "The task of preventing infant mortality is second to none in importance and should engage the best attention and effort of all individuals, lay and professional, and of every commonwealth and community. As looking toward the attainment of such prevention the American Academy of Medicine records its convictions in the following resolutions: "First: Resolved that the present high rate of infant mortality is due to inherited debility or disease, improper environment and care, improper feeding, and communicable diseases, and is to a high degree preventable. "Second: Resolved that the breast-feeding of infants is, when possible, the only proper method, and that artificial feeding should never be substituted as a matter of choice. "Third: Resolved that the reporting of all communicable diseases, especially of those commonest in society, to health boards, should be compulsory. "Fourth Resolved that the scientific instruction of the young in practical hygiene and sanitation and of mothers in the care and rearing of infants is an important duty resting chiefly on physicians, sociologists, school authorities, and boards of health." Entered October 21, 1901, as second-class matter, Post Office at Brattleboro, Vt., under act of Congress of July 16, 1894. CONTENTS. News Itens 2 The Influence of Pure Water and Air Upon the Health of Communi- Legal Points in Health Work, by Hon. Robert A. Lawrence. 18 37 50 BRATTLEBORO, VT. VERMONT STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. Vol. X. No. 3. Issued Quarterly at Brattleboro, Vermont. The Bulletin is published quarterly by the State Board of Health under the authority of Sec. 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. Town Clerks.-Your attention is called to Section 3286 of the Public Statutes. Prompt returns are desired. In cases of birth, if the name of the child is not returned as required by the Statute, call attention of parents to Sections of Public Statutes 3292 to 3296. If immediate returns are not made, refer the matter to the state's attorney for your county. Physicians should make themselves familiar with the statutes requiring them to make returns of births. Complaints from town clerks are frequently made that the doctor does not make returns as the law requires. Write plainly with best black ink, as your certificate remains in your town clerk's office as a permanent record. CORSETS. An anti-corset decree has been issued by the Minister of Education in Saxony, who believes tight lacing to be fatal to intellectual development, and no girl wearing a corset may attend the public educational institutions. TO OWNERS OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. The last legislature passed an Act defining Public Buildings and requiring such buildings to conform to regulations of the State Board of Health, relative to fire escapes. In conformity to this duty imposed upon the Board, they have required local health officers to notify the owners or agents of such buildings to equip them with fire escapes as provided in rules of the Board. Local health officers are provided with copies of such regulations, from whom they can be obtained, or from the Secretary of the Board. The law must be complied with. THE INFLUENCE OF PURE WATER AND AIR UPON THE HEALTH OF COMMUNITIES. BY GEORGE M. KOBER, M. D., LL. D., PROFESSOR OF HYGIENE, SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, WASHINGTON, D. C. Professor Finkelnburg of Bonn estimated some years ago that the average length of human life in the sixteenth century was only between eighteen and twenty years; at the close of the eighteenth century it was a little over thirty years, while to-day it varies in different countries from less than twenty-five to more than fifty years. Longevity goes hand in hand with improved sanitation; indeed the span of life since 1880 has been lengthened in civilized countries fully six years. No two factors have contributed so much to the general results as the improvement of the air we breathe and the water we drink. We have ample evidence that with the introduction of public water supplies and sewers the general mortality in numerous cities during the past fifty years has been reduced fully onehalf, the good effects being especially shown by a marked decrease in the number of deaths from typhoid fever, diarrhoeal diseases, and consumption. The vital statistics of Great Britain furnish the proof,* and our experience with German and American cities confirms this conclusion. The death-rate in the city of Berlin has been reduced from 32.9 in 1875 to 16.4 in 1904; in Munich, from 41.6 in 1871 to 18 in 1906, and in Washington from 28.08 in 1875 to 19.25 in 1907. The death-rate in the city of New York in 1804 was 28 per 1,000; from 1850 to 1854 it was 38 per 1,000; while in 1906 in spite of the density of population it was 18.9 per 1,000, practically a reduction of 50 per cent, *The following table shows the death rate from certain diseases per 10,000 of population in English cities before and after the introduction of sanitary works (see Cameron, A Manual of Hygiene, 1874, p. 129). |