446 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



of a in'ivy, a li<»,u pt'n oi' a manure pile to a kitchen or daiiy. A very 

 serious outbreak of this disease at a suuinier boarding house dur- 

 ing- the past year was traced by the inspector of the State Board of 

 Health to a privy close to the servants dini-ug room, which was 

 found to be swarming with Hies which had easy access to the deposit 

 of tilth. With strict observance of the precautions above suggested, 

 whatever conditions may prevail in cities which are too often com- 

 pelled to drink diluted sewage, typhoid will soon disappear entirely 

 Irom the home of the farmer. 



The next problem which we may briefly consider and which I am 

 sure will a])peal to all the fathers present, is, "How may those 

 scourges of childhood, diphtheria and scarlet fever, which have deso- 

 lated so many homes be excluded from that of the farmer?" Here 

 again we are met by the ditticulties of determini«g where the hidden 

 danger lurks. We 011I3' know that, as a rule, schools are centres 

 from which infection spreads. On the other hand, the infection 

 must of course in the first instance have been brought to the school. 

 But whence? The last legislature, profoundly impressed with the 

 importance of this subject, placed within the reach of all dw^ellers 

 in rural districts the meaws of discovering. A law was enacted b}' 

 that body authorizing the school board of any township to assume the 

 functions of a board of health for the township, and requiring all 

 physicians to report to such boards and to the school teachers every 

 case of infectious disease occurring in their practice, immediately' 

 on their discovery. This information having been received, the 

 law of 1895 makes the teacher's duty very plain. No child must be 

 permitted to attend scJiool from the house in which the contagious 

 disease exists, without a certificate from a physician that thirty days 

 have elapsed since the disinfection of the house. If every school 

 board in the State had at once accepted the responsibilities which 

 this law assigns them, hundred of lives of children might already 

 have been saved. It should be your duty, gentlemen of the State 

 Board of Agriculture, as you value the lives of your little ones, imme- 

 diately on your return to your respective homes to remind your school 

 directors of their duties in tliis vital maiter. II is liighl.v probable 

 that the present legislature will so aniciul I lie law, of which I have 

 bee« speaking, as to make it compulsory and nol simply permissory; 

 but in the meantiuje, why should innocent children be sacrificed to 

 the ertness of public officials or the greed of parents who are deter- 

 mined to get all they cnn out of the State, even at the cost of spread- 

 ing sirkucss, distress and death widecast among their neighbors. 



The possibilities wliieh we have been considering, are not mere 

 theories. Tliey rest o« indisputable facts. Take these suggestions 

 iioine with you, talk them over with your wives, discuss them with 

 your neighbors, and do yom- part towards hastening the time when 

 tile voice of joy and health shall be heard in all vour habitations. 



