136 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [April, 



Division of Public Service. — A law enacted during the same 

 session of the Legislature provided for the medical inspection of 

 hotel and restaurant employes, and prohibited the use of the 

 common towel and public drinking cup. An adcUtional division 

 had to be organized for handling this work. During the last months 

 of Dr. Dixon's life three additional divisions were planned. 



First, a Division for the control of the sale of narcotics, created 

 by a special Act of 1917. 



Second, a Division of Child Hygiene, planned and organized to 

 meet the unusual conditions to which the lives of children would be 

 subjected during the high tension period of the war. 



Third, a Division for the Treatment of Venereal Diseases, planned 

 not only with the hope of ameliorating suffering and protecting 

 America's selective service men, but with the purpose of placing 

 witliin reach of the poor those specifics which, when properly applied, 

 might lessen the chances of visitation unto the second and third 

 generations and salvage many lives that might otherwise be 

 wrecked. 



Throughout the twelve and a half year period the Commissioner 

 of Health received from his Bureau and Division Chiefs, and through 

 them from the field forces throughout the Commonwealth, informa- 

 tion of vital importance to the public. The volume of such 

 information arriving in the central office was enormous, and the sub- 

 divisions of the Commissioner's executive staff assisted him in 

 coordinating, digesting, abstracting and reflecting back to the 

 public all those essential details helpful in keeping the public fully 

 informed as to results obtained in making them see that the prom- 

 ises held forth at the time of launching any new line of work were 

 being kept. 



The cUfficulties in the way of perfecting such an organization 

 were not always easily overcome. The Governor, as well as each of 

 his three successors, placed entire confidence in Dr. Dixon and gave 

 him full liberty in organization and freedom from political interference. 

 It is but fair to say that not a single important executive appointment 

 was made to gratify political ambition or to satisfy political recom- 

 mendation. It very often happened, later in the executive work of 

 Dr. Dixon, that the prominent political leader, who felt hurt that his 

 insistent recommendation could not be complied with, was big enough 

 and broad enough to later come back to Dr. Dixon and say, "I felt 

 at the time you refused my request that you were making a mis- 

 take in taking the attitude you did concerning the health organi- 



