608 ANNUAL REPORT OP THE Off. Doe. 



ABATEMENT OF NUISANCES. 



During the year the Board has, either directly through its in- 

 spectors, or by means of correspondence, abated seventy-six nui- 

 sances complained of, principally by residents of the rural districts. 



SUPPRESSION OF EPIDEMICS. 



The outbreaks of contagious diseases reported to the Board have 

 been 101, classified as follows: Diphtheria, 8; scarlet fever, 16; 

 smallpox, 58; typhoid fever, 19. 



In nearly all of these cases the Board has rendered assistance 

 either by advice or pecuniarily. It has furnished free vaccination 

 to many thousands, and has aided many townships in meeting the 

 wages of guards performing disinfection and paying for bedding 

 and clothing destroyed. The number of cases of smallpox has been 

 6,976, with 628 deaths. 



The Butler epidemic of typhoid, with its 1,339 cases and 101 

 deaths, is still fresh in your minds. Never have I seen a community 

 thrown into more dire confusion and perplexity, except in the awful 

 calamity of Johnstown. It will alw'ays be a matter of gratitude 

 to me that our Board was able to take the burden of controlling 

 the epidemic off the shoulders of their authorities, thus leaving 

 them and the charitable organizations which came to their aid a 

 free hand for the treatment of the fever-stricken and the relief of 



suffering. 



PROTECTION OF FOOD SUPPLIES. 



In this important province an entirely new department, that 

 of the Live Stock Sanitary Commission, including the State Veter- 

 inarian and the Dairy and Food Commissioner, has been created, 

 and is doing admirable work, especially in the matter of checking 

 the spread of bovine tuberculosis. 



PROTECTION OF WATER SUPPLIES. 



The only direct legislation for tlie protection of public water 

 supplies from such pollution as would be injurious or fatal to 

 human beings, wliich has been effected since the establishment of 

 the State Board, was the law of May 2, 1899, which forbade the pol- 

 lution of streams furnishing water for cities of the first class (Phil- 

 adelphia) by the introduction into them of the excreta of human 

 beings, and which authorized the State Board of Health to investi- 

 gate complaints of such i)ol]ution, and to prosecute the offenders. 



The necessity of an abundant supply of pure water to the preser- 

 vation of the health, whether of the individual or the community, 

 cannot be overestimated. But the rarity with which pure water 



