Michigan State Board Of Health

The regular quarterly meeting of this board was held Oct, 11, 1881. An interesting feature was a report by the qecretary relative to work of other State Boards of Health. The Secretary of the Michigan Board desires to continue to receive Information f rom other board3 by which these reports may be made quarterly. A report relative to work oL local boards of health showed increased activity on the part of local health authoritiea in the way of isolating those infected with communicable diseases anc enforcingthe law requiring f rom house holders and physicians notices of such diseases. In one city a physician had been flned $100 for not reporting cases of diphtheria. The revised document on the restriction and prevention of Scarlet Fever was adopted, and ordered published in English, Dutch and German. The consideration of this document involved a discussion of the question of recommending health offlcers to verify diagnosis of reported cases of diseases dangerous to the public health. A circular giving general rules for the prevention of diphtheria, scarlet fever, and small-pox was adopted. Forms were adopted for annual iüports by health offlcers and clertis of local boards of health, and by regular correspondents of the board. Dr. Avery, of Greenville was requested to visit the overflowed district along the Maple River, inGratiot Co„ andreport to the Board. Dr. Lyster, of Detroit read a paper on Syphilis ia ïts relations to the public health. It dealt with the facts oí the frequent communication of the contagium of syphilis, by direct andby indirect intsans, to innocent persons; also with the serious effects on individuáis, aud on the offspring of marriages where one of the parent s is thus blighted. He bolieved rnueh might be done toward preventing this loathsome disease by wiae legislation which shall restrict syphilis, and eapecially by collecting and disseminating among young men and other people facts relating to the nature and dangers of this disease. Dr. Kellogg read ;i paper on the Relations of Preventable Sickness to Taxation, showing by the reporta of the board of correetion and charities, the abstracts of statistical Lnformatiou i elatmg to the insane and the deai, dunib, and blind, and the Vital Statistics reporta, tbat more than 3,000 persons in Michigan are aunually dependent on the state fcr support to a greater or less extent in consequeace of diseases preventable by the adoption of proper sanitary measures. The cost to the people of the state for the support of these persons is over $40,000 annually, a portion of which is paid by every taxpayer. This is but a small part ot the actual loss to the state. The nurnber of deaths f rom preventable sickness in 1880 (estimated from returns by supervisors and assessors) was 5,585. Placing the valaé to the state ot' each human being at the low estímate of $1,000, the aggregate loss by deaths from preventable sickuess is over $4,500,000. But to this must be added a íurther loss irom sickness which dld uot termínate fatally. The statistics oL the benefit societies of England show that for every person who dies two persons on the average are sick throughout the year. This indicates a total animal loss of time froni preventable illness on the part of rnore than 9,000 persons, to which should be added the expense of living etc, certainly more than $1,000,000. This gives about $5,666,000 as the total loss to this State from diseases generally conceded to be preventable. These figures are regarded as much too small, because of the few di8eases included in this estímate as preventable, (though it is generally conceded by sanitarians that at least nine-teuths of all ailments may rcadily be prevented), and because only síckness and deaths directly traceable to preventative causes have been included while a large . amount of sickness and many deaths are indirectly due to these causes. It it probable that preventative sickness might justly be charged with an expense to the State of not less than ten million dollars. Estimating the loss in other States in the same ratio to the population, the aggregate loss to the whole United States is not less than three hundred million dollars annually, an amount which would pay the national debt in six yeara. Mr. Parker of Flint, presentad a report of the Public Health Section of the American Social Science Association at Saratoga. The committee on saüitary survey of the State was requested to prepare Hchedules for the sanitary survey of cities, villages, and townships. Mr. Parker reported a proposed bil] authorizing all boards of education to exclude from school persons infected with diphtheria, scarlet fever, or smallpox, or living at houses where any person is infected with one oí these diseases. The Secretary w.ns directed to pre pare and issue a weekly bulleüu of sickness in Michigan forsucn papers anti medical journals as will publish it. Dr. Baker was ftuthorized lo procure the services of an architect in the preparation of a circular on hospitals for cornmunicable disease. Dr. Kellogg reported on the subject of criminal abortion. He and Dr. Hazlewood were requested to prepare a circular deaigned to collect facts on thiii subject. According to i caref ui investigaüou the longest sea waves observed appear to have been a little more tUan 200 yards in length, with a period of ubout eleven seconds. The highest regular sea waves accurately observed appear to have a height oL not more than forty feet. The highest waves are generally very long; but for that very reason, they are not the deepest. It is believed that the greatest slope of the external surface of a wave irx the open sea never reaches thirty degrees, and seldom exceeds iifteen degrees. It is possible that in a storm there may be short portions of a wave service exceptionally steep, as the result of superimposed waves, and these may be very dangeroiis to boats; but they do notoccur at all in simple svvells, nor do they determine the slope of the large underlying wave from which a ship receives its motion. Moreover, the vessel's own deptli carries it below the surface wave, and the mean effective wave actingupon the shipis always less steep.especially in the case of short waves, Uian in the surface wave. From these facts we see that the well-known waves which "run mouutain high" have their existence only in the imagination of the poet. Josh Billings says: " 1 never argy agiu a success, When I see a rattlesnaik's head stickin' out of a hole, I bear off to the left and say to myself, ' That hole belongs to that snaik.' " '11 ie most delicate, the most sensible of all pleasures, consists in promoting the pleasures of others.