46 



the present time. There must lie at least 500,000 wage earners in the 

 State, and statistics sliow that the average amount earned by each wage 

 earner is aliout eighty cents per day. This enormous sum of from $400,- 

 000 to $500,000 is paid daily in wages to the workers. It is safe to say that 

 fully three-fourths of the wages earned per day are spent for agricultural 

 pi'oducts, that is, foods and clothing, so that the average amount spent 

 each day for these necessities of which food is tlie chief, is not far fi'om 

 .?;j5O,O0G. Researches of chemists in all parts of the country show the 

 enormous extent of food adulteration resulting in selling at the high price 

 of the genuine cheaper and Inferior articles. The wage earners are the 

 principal victims of these frauds, not perhaps in actual magnitude of ex- 

 pended money, Ijut in proportion to their income. A A'ery conservative 

 estimate would place the magnitude of the financial fraud practiced upon 

 the wage earners of the State in the matter of adulterated foods alone at 

 from $15,000 to $20,000 daily. Not only is this condition of affairs repre- 

 hensible by reason of this enormous tax upon the daily wages of hard 

 working men, women and children, but it is a moral crime of a still more 

 heinous nature. Twenty thousand dollars a day for fraudulent foods, mean 

 a tax of 5 per cent, on all wages of all workers. When a fraud of this 

 magnitiide is considered it does not seem imreasonable to ask the Legis- 

 lature for an endowment which will support the hygienic laboratory in its 

 investigations of the nature and character of these fraudulent foods and in 

 order that the evil effects of these can be properly ascertained. Great as 

 have been the contributions of the Board of Health to the welfare of 

 the State in securing immunity from disease, freedom from plagues and 

 from contagious and epidemic diseases, we look forward to a still more 

 useful career of this institution when it is fully equipped for the hygienic 

 work outlined above. An admirable historical sketch of the Indiana State 

 Board of Health and a statement of the benefits it has conferred upon our 

 people is found in a paper contributed to the Indiana State Medical So- 

 ciety by J. X. Ilurty, read at the Lafayette meeting. May G. 1898, and pub- 

 lished in the proceedings for that year. In that paper Dr. Hurty gives 

 an admirable summary of the progress of sanitary science in Indiana. 



The development of medical education of the State must not be for- 

 gotten when speaking of the public health. I attended the first lecture of 

 the Indiana Medical College, given in the Senate Chamber of the old State 

 House. Later I was one of the first students in the laboratory estab- 

 lished by Dr. Thaddeus Stevens, where students really worked at the desk. 



