384 



HEALTH, PUBLIC. 



of Vital Statistics of the State ; and they have 

 been more active in the propagation of hygienic 

 information in the schools and among the peo- 

 ple than any other board. The board of Mas- 

 sachusetts, empowered with smaller effective 

 authority than all the rest, has always contin- 

 ued to be the most earnest in the investigation 

 of the causes of preventable mortality, and in 

 the collection of vital statistics. The State 

 Board of Health of Minnesota, organized in 

 1873, has been efficiently spreading sanitary 

 doctrines. The board of Virginia, first ap- 

 pointed in 1872, work earnestly in their field, 

 though little sustained by the State govern- 

 ment. The Health Commission of New Jer- 

 sey, appointed in 1874, ably discharged the 

 duties which they undertook, and it will not 

 be long, probably, before a permanent central 

 board of health is organized. The board of 

 Maryland has been actively inquiring into the 

 condition of jails, almshouses, etc. 



At the last convention of the National Health 

 Association a discussion took place upon the 

 necessity for public action in sanitary matters, 

 viz. : for the institution of a central or State 

 board of health in each State ; upon the advis- 

 able duties and powers of such boards; and 

 upon the means by which they may effectually 

 register the vital statistics, especially as re- 

 garding the causes of death and the sources of 

 preventable disease. During this discussion 

 the impropriety of selecting the boards exclu- 

 sively from the medical faculty, as a class espe- 

 cially interested, was dwelt upon : the exam- 

 ple of Massachusetts was named, where the 

 leader of the movement was a lady, whose 

 husband, a member of the Legislature, brought 

 the measure forward. The importance of that 

 branch of their services which has to do with 

 the collection of pathological and mortuary 

 statistics was emphasized. An address, pre- 

 sented at the meeting by Dorman B. Eaton, 

 LL. D., chairman of the United States Civil 

 Service Commission, on the essential condi- 

 tions of good sanitary administration, pro- 

 pounded as such conditions : a knowledge 

 among the majority of the people of the pur- 

 pose, nature, and scope of sanitary enactments ; 

 a confidence in the adequacy of public health 

 measures, and a knowledge of the means of 

 carrying them out ; and the adoption of effective 

 methods by statutory enactment, in accordance 

 with our legal and social condition. The follow- 

 ing is an extract from a report of this address : 



No competent judge, I venture to think, can look 

 into the crude, shallow, arbitrary, and heterogeneous 

 mass of laws^and ordinances which are nominally in 

 force of a majority of the municipalities of this coun- 

 try, or compare the statutes recently enacted in vari- 

 ous States for creating State Boards of Health, with- 

 out being painfully impressed with the conviction 

 that the conditions named last only amono- a small 

 portion of the people of the United States. 



The municipal health laws of New York City, 

 which are the earliest and best in this country, 

 while in some particulars superior to any elsewhere, 

 are yet defective as compared with those relating to 

 several European cities. 



HENDRICKS, THOMAS A. 



Laws should be passed by State Legislatures to 

 secure the dissemination of practical knowledge of 

 disease ; the securing of a complete registry of births, 

 deaths, and marriages ; the highest standard of edu- 

 cation in the medical profession ; better safeguards 

 against nostrums and quackery: the procurement 

 of pure air, water, and milk, and wholesome food ; 

 good drainage and sewerage ; ventilation in schools, 

 colleges, hospitals, asylums, courtroom?, theatres, 

 and all places of public resort ; vaccination in an 



and abuse of children ; supervision of dead bodies : 

 provisions in regard to the width of city streets and 

 the erection of proper tenement-houses ; cheap tran- 

 sit for the poor to country parks ; quarantine against 

 the introduction of malarious disease. In ancient and 

 mediaeval times, it is a matter of familiar knowledge 

 that plagues, black-deaths, and fevers, desti-oyed 

 such numbers as have been unknown to later times. 

 There is nothing better settled in regard to life and 

 health than that such diseases as cholera, yellow fe- 

 ver, small-pox, typhus and typhoid fever, can be in a 

 great measure kept away by good sanitary legisla- 

 tion, the cost and loss of which is trifling compared 

 with the expensive results of these diseases. 



All England is divided into 15,000 sanitary dis- 

 tricts, with a sanitary authority in each, and since 

 1872 there has not been a spot on the surface of Eng- 

 land that has not been liable to feel, and, if it need- 

 ed, has not felt the direct exertion of such authority. 

 These 15,000 small districts are grouped into twelve 

 larger divisions ; in each of these divisions there is 

 an inspector who reports directly to the Local Gov- 

 ernment Board in London, and over that board is 

 one of the members of the cabinet. Connected 

 with the board is a chief medical officer, now Dr. 

 Simon, perhaps the greatest sanitarian in the world. 



In 1873, the national vaccine establishment fur- 

 nished carefully-selected vaccine matter for use in 

 9,569 different places ; in 1874, in one of the twelve 

 districts, 17,188 nuisances were removed, and out of 

 206,008 nuisances complained of in all England in 

 the same year 204,000 were actually removed within 

 that year. Other figures were given, showing the 

 great decrease of the death-rate in different parts of 

 the world, caused by improved sanitary measures; 

 and the address concluded with a few practical sug- 

 gestions as to the duty of the Government toward 

 perfecting arrangements to keep a record of the ex- 

 perience of the different State boards of health, and 

 of increasing sanitary measures all over the country. 



HELPS, Sir ARTHUR, an English diplomatist, 

 born in 1817; died March 7, 1875. He gradu- 

 ated B. A., in 1838, from Trinity College, Dub- 

 lin, served as private secretary to Lord Mont- 

 eagle, Chancellor of the Exchequer, was ap- 

 pointed Commissioner of French, Danish, and 

 Spanish Claims, served for a time as private 

 secretary to Lord Morpeth, Chief Secretary of 

 Ireland, and in 1859 was appointed Secretary 

 of the Privy Council, which position he held 

 up to his death. He wrote a number of works, 

 among which may be mentioned : " Henry II." 

 (1845), "Catherine Douglas" (1845), "The 

 Claims of Labor" (1845), "The Conquerors of 

 the New World and their Bondsmen" (1852), 

 and "The Spanish Conquest of America" 

 (1855-'61). He was created a K. 0. B. in 1872. 



HENDPJCKS, THOMAS ANDREWS, an Amer- 

 ican statesman, born in Muskingum County, 

 Ohio, September 7, 1819. In 1822 his father 

 settled in Shelby County, Indiana. Thomas 

 graduated at South Hanover College in 1841, 



