EXECUTIVE ORGANIZATION 217 



sion for appeal, either to the head of the depart- 

 ment, or to a special board composed of the heads 

 of the various examining boards of the depart- 

 ment, presided over by the chief executive of the 

 department. 



173. Health Preservation a Function of the 

 State. The matter of health protection is strictly 

 a governmental problem, and as such it is the 

 function of the state. Even when it is in the care 

 of city officials it is not municipal business, but 

 it is work entrusted to the city to do for the state. 

 So far as possible, therefore, it is necessary for 

 efficiency that the local administration be super- 

 vised by the state office. 



Not only is the preservation of the public health 

 an affair and function of the state, but the citizens 

 in distant parts are often quite as much interested 

 in proper local sanitation as the citizens of the 

 immediate community. If there be scarlet fever 

 in a dairy district the neighbors know it, and 

 may guard against the infection; but the residents 

 of the city where the milk is used are unable to 

 protect themselves fully. It is therefore more 

 important to the city residents, in this case, than 

 for the farmers in the dairy community, that there 

 should be an efficient governmental supervision of 

 the matters possibly endangering the public 

 health. On the other hand, the city which dis- 

 charges its sewage improperly into a stream may 

 thus endanger the farming community further 

 down the stream, and the farmers are therefore 

 especially interested in a proper sanitary admin- 

 istration of the city. 



There are many things which might be said in 



