August, 1918 C. U. C. P. ALUxMNI JOURNAL 123 



In all probability this is one of the best moves thus far made in this direction. 

 Those famiHar w itli work of this kind cannot but agree that it is good that some 

 sort of power is granted a regularly constituted, legalized body, whereby differ- 

 ences, if any, may possibly be taken up and adjustment secured if need be. By 

 reason of this, the manner in which some laboratories choose to work and expect a 

 check analysis, which in many instances is next to impossible, will in time cause 

 snch work and workers to seek other pastures for operation. The health department 

 will not allow a laboratory to continue very long after it has secuied evidence 

 sufficient to warrant a revocation of its permit. It must be known that 

 any institution having for its object matters concerning the public health, 

 to be of any value must seek to attain the most reliable technic extant and its 

 proper execution and interpretation, so that the best interests of all concerned will 

 be honestly and faithfully conserved. In no other line of work is thi;, so essential 

 ^s that relating to the public health, especially in cases of illness, for so much de- 

 pends upon the actual truth of the findings. With the advent of the so-called 

 "contract laboratory," and the crude methods pursued by them by reason of the 

 unlimited number of examinations they were obliged to make under contract, a 

 suspicion is created in the minds of the medical profession which has caused a 

 cloud of distrust to be cast upon all privately owned laboratories performing diag- 

 nostic tests. This state of affairs impelled the writer to advocate, as a preliminary, 

 the adoption of standards in laboratory methods, with the hope that some degree 

 of uniformity in results would be obtained, and thereby give such laboratories the 

 standing they deserved. This was in a paper printed in the Jour. Ainer. Pharm. 

 Assn., issue of August, 1916, page 837, under title of "The Unification of Clinical 

 Laboratory Methods," and abstracted in the 1916 Yearbook of the above, on 

 page 407. 



Realizing the situation too well, a foreword was sounded in the expression 

 that, * * * "owing to the lack of desire to secure uniformity, it is for this reason 

 that sooner or later the health department will see the need of controlling or regu- 

 lating this line of work through legislation or by a set of recognized methods of 

 analysis. This is a project that should be encouraged. * * * " My reason for using 

 such terms was prompted solely by conditions as I knew them, and not by any 

 ether reason written or implied, other than the dictates of my own mmd. Know- 

 ing nothing of any contemplated board regulations. Following this, on June 

 28th, 1917, ten months later, the New York city board of health passed the follow- 

 ing resolution, known as Sec. 105 of the Revised Sanitary Code, which reads as 

 follows : 



Resolved — that the following Regulations Governing the Conduct 

 and Maintenance of Laboratories Offering Facilities for the Diagnosis 

 of Communicable Disease be and the same are hereby adopted to read as 

 follows : 



Regulation No. 1 — Applications. Applications for permits to con- 

 duct and maintain laboratories offering facilities for the diagnosis of 

 communicable disease shall be made by the person in charge of the lab- 

 oratory upon official application blanks furnished by the Department of 

 Health. 



Regulation No. 2 — A Duly Qualified Person to be in Charge.^ The 

 person in charge of the laboratory shall be a duly licensed physician or 

 a person whose qualifications are satisfactory to the Department of 

 Health. 



