606 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



dire«toi's t« enforce quarantine, it lias also authorized them to de- 

 vote funds raised by means of the school tax to the support of 

 persons in quarantine, thus relieving themselves, i. e., the poor 

 directors, from a burden which tliey have always heretofore as- 

 sumed; while both bodies unite in demanding that in every instance 

 in which the State Board of Health establishes a quarantine, that 

 body shall become responsible for all expenses incurred in main- 

 taining the same. 



''Everything," therefore, in reference to this troublesome prob- 

 lem, is, as the perplexed hero of the comic opera observed, "is either 

 at sixes or at sevens." It is earnestly to be hoped that the next 

 Legislature will bring order out of chaos by establishing a sym- 

 metrical and consistent system of health administration for the 

 entire State, making it incumbent upon all counties, cities, boroughs 

 and townships, to appoint and maintain appropriate health author- 

 ities, having for their sole duty, the protection of the public health 

 and the careful and systematic registration of vital statistics, in- 

 cluding notification of cases of communicable disease. 



By vital statistics or the movement of population is understood 

 Ihe systematic reporting and recording or registration of every 

 marriage, every birth and every death, occurring in a community. 

 This is the foundation stone of sanitary administration, the very 

 A. I*. C. of sanitary science. By* this alone can the sanitary ex- 

 ecutive officer measure the effect of his labors or determine in 

 what particular locality they are most needed. It has been well 

 said that "Wherever statistics are wanting, sanitary administration 

 is defective. Wherever they are complete, sanitary administration 

 is efficient. Defective vital statistics and low ideals of cleanliness 

 and health go hand in hand." 



More than fifty years ago, a law for procuring such registration 

 was placed upon our statute books, in the preamble to which it was 

 stated that the law was demanded because from such statistics 

 could be "drawn important truths deeply affecting the physical 

 welfare of mankind." Unfortunately this was a conspicuous in- 

 stance of the class of laws referred to at (lie beginning of Ihis 

 paper, admirable, intelligent and humane in its conception, but un 

 supported by provisions for its enforcement. Notification of cases 

 of contagious disease goes one step farther, and that a step of the 

 utmost importance, in that it places in the hands of the executive 

 health officer information which will enable him to extinguish 

 with little effort and at small cost, a spark which, undiscovered, 

 may be the starting point of a terrible conflagration. More than 

 a hundred years ago, Matthew Carey, one of the most brilliant 

 thinkers that Pennsylvania ever produced, urged the prime import- 

 ance of this matter in n paper before the American Philoso])hifal 



