62 



Appendix A. 



THE WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, 

 NEW YORK CITY. 



HENRY CLAY WEEKS. 



I understand the statement of President Lederle to the Conven- 

 tion, that I will write of the Board's work, refers more particularly 

 to the engineering and related work (see page 34). However, I may 

 briefly state that there has been much preliminary educational work 

 against mosquitoes by the department in its dififerent branches. 



A "Circular of Information in Regard to the Causation and Pre- 

 vention of Malarial Fever" was first issued, and afterwards enlarged 

 to a seven-paged illustrated pamphlet in 1903. In 1902 another cir- 

 cular on the "Notification and Microscopical Diagnosis of IMalarial 

 Fever" was issued. Blood from cases of suspected malarial fever was 

 made a part of the routine work of the Diagnosis Laboratory, and 

 all the physicians of the city so notified. Special report and instruc- 

 tion blanks and outfits consisting of two glass slides and a needle in 

 a wooden slide carrier were issued to all stations and sub-stations. 

 These circulars are reproduced hereafter for examples to other munici- 

 palities. The latter calls for reports of malaria from all the physi- 

 cians of the city. The former have been supplied free to all the 

 associations and communities on request. The brief regulations drawn 

 for domestic breeding places were distributed (about 8,000) by the 

 police and others in the Sheepshead Bay section in the work of 

 the writer there in 1903 — some on cards to be tacked up and some 

 in the writer's report of July i to Mr. Wm. C. Whitney. These 

 regulations were also printed by the Board separately. An examination 

 by inspectors has been made in all the boroughs to locate all sunken 

 and wet places and the owners of same. A biological survey has also 

 been made of some sections of the city, ascertaining the different kinds 

 of mosquitoes, and indicating the same on maps and tables ; this with 

 a view of planning the necessary work to get rid of the breeding 

 places. Some hundreds of orders have been issued on owners against 

 wet foul places, and a large proportion of such places are corrected. 

 A full Report to January i, 1904, to Mr. Whitney and others has not yet 

 been printed. 



The President and Engineer have spoken at meetings at different 

 times in the interests of the work of extermination. 



The Board supplied some sprayers to the different boroughs and 

 furnished some fuel oil for destroying larvse. It also furnished at 

 Sheepshead Bay the transportation of a larvicide to be used in cess- 

 pools. In the same section the Department issued orders against over 

 one hundred violators of the domestic regulations — the effect of which 

 will be apparent next season. There were no prosecutions for viola- 

 tions of these rules begun last season, that being the first of their 

 operation. 



As to engineering work, which strikes at the main root of the mos- 

 quito trouble, the writer was invited to cooperate with the Board 



