No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 607 



Society, outitlod "An Account of the Malignant Fever lately preva- 

 lent in Philadelphia, etc." 



Only certain cities, however, were, half a century later, required 

 to insist on such notification. Among these may be noted, Phila- 

 delphia, Pittsburg, Allegheny and Williamsport. All city boards 

 were required to establish registration of births, marriages and 

 deaths; but it was left optional with boroughs whether they should 

 do so or not, and very few of them were willing to incur the neces- 

 sary expense. 



In the townships, the statistics of births and deaths were col- 

 lected, annually, by the assessors. It is easy to understand how 

 imperfect and incorrect they are likely to be. The data thus ob- 

 tained were returned to the clerks of the Orphans' Courts of each 

 county. Marriages could not be contracted without a license and 

 were registered in the olBfice of the clerks of the Orphans' Courts; 

 but outside of cities and boroughs no medical certificate of death 

 or burial permit was required, so that a human being might die 

 and be put under the ground with no more legal formality than 

 if he were a dog, and no official record of the fact for nearly a year. 

 The demise of a blooded horse or an Alderney cow would be at 

 once recorded in a stock book or herd book with the due history of 

 the pedigree of the decedent, but the man would disappear from 

 the surface of the earth without official note of record. Is it any 

 wonder that graveyard and infant insurance flourished in Penn- 

 sylvania? 



As compared with the conditions already described, let us now 

 consider those at present existing as indicated by the operations of 

 the State Board of Health, and the action of the Legislature during 

 the past year. 



BOARDS OF HEALTH. 



Contrasted with the eleven local boards existing in 1885, we have 

 now upon our books 768 legally organized health authorities. Of 

 these 132 are found in townships. 



REGISTRATION. 



The number of borough boards which are establishing a system 

 of registration is slowly increasing. Apart from this fact the only 

 distinct advance has been that the assessors, in accordance with 

 the law of June 6, 1893, collect statistics in the rural districts twice 

 a year instead of once a year. This is a slight improvement, but 

 falls far short of the system of ])rom])t and complete reporting 

 which we should have. 



