1918.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 133 



sponsive chords. Pennsylvania liked this new way of being taken 

 into the confidence of an executive. 



It is not possible to faithfully treat of Dr. Dixon's work in sanitary 

 science without speaking in some detail of the great public health 

 organization built by him during the last twelve and a half years of 

 his life. It will likely stand as the greatest monument to his 

 memory. 



The law creating the Department of Health centralized the 

 authority in the hands of a single executive, giving him greater 

 power than was given to any other officer of the Commonwealth, 

 save the Governor, and perhaps greater authority than is granted 

 any similar official in America. 



With all of this authority in the hands of a man known to be 

 ruggedly honest and gentle as a woman, the public had no fear of 

 usurpation of the unusual authority placed in his hands, and during 

 all the period that he was Commissioner of Health many of the 

 unusual powers that might be needed in case of great emergency 

 were never even given trial. 



The first organization undertaken was that of the Bureau of 

 Vital Statistics. Under Dr. Dixon's supervision this bureau was 

 so well planned that before it had been. in operation a full year 

 the Federal Census Office credited Pennsylvania with having a 

 better organized agency for gathering vital statistics than any 

 other State in the Union. This bureau consists of a central 

 office under the supervision of the State Registrar and more than 

 1,100 Local Registrars — one for each civil unit in the State, each 

 Local Registrar having a deputy. 



The second division of the Department's organization taken up 

 by Dr. Dixon was that of Medical Inspection. Before this division 

 had been in operation a year it was found that all previous plans for 

 public health organization in the civil sub-divisions known as second 

 class townships were inoperative, and that in many of the small 

 boroughs similar inaction was seen. 



For the first two years the Division of Medical Inspection was 

 largely engaged in handling epidemics too extensive for local health 

 organizations to cope with, and in helping lame health organiza- 

 tions to form working bodies. 



In 1907, however, all second class townships were formed into 

 720 sanitary districts, and it was suggested to the Legislature that 

 the law providing for school boards to act as Boards of Health 

 therein be repealed. The advice was followed and at once the 



