Local Boards of Health— Hewitt. 271 



upon a useful and practical basis, making them available for the 

 study of disease prevalence, causation and mortality. They are 

 collected monthly by the city clerks of St. Paul and Minneapolis 

 and by all township clerks, as also by the health officers of other 

 cities, and of villages. It is the duty of the secretary of the state 

 board of health to receive, collate and publish them. 



I have given, in this little sketch, the general outline of what 

 ought to be, to every citizen of Minnesota, a matter of importance 

 — the efforts of our state to provide the organization to keep pace 

 with her sanitary needs. If, now, you will remember that organ- 

 ization is not work or efficiency, but resembles the "resolve" of an 

 average convention, you will get the gist of what I am aiming at 

 to-night. Boards of health, unless their executive officers and 

 members are exceptional men, soon get to represent the average 

 sentiment of the communities which they serve. The answer to 

 the question with which this paper began will depend then on 

 another. What are the every-day duties of boards of health ? 

 In their ultimate analysis they are simply these : To keep the 

 public supply of air, water, soil and food pure; to forefend infec- 

 tious disease by precautionery measures, vaccination against small 

 pox, compulsory notification and isolation of the sick of infectious 

 diseases, both men and animals; the sanitary control of offensive 

 trades, and the removal of all ''nuisances, sources of filth and 

 causes of sickness."" There it is in a nut shell, and I am very sure 

 that you will not dispute my next position, which, tliough evident, 

 seems as likely to be forgotton here as it is claimed to be by some in 

 England — that these very duties begin naturally in the home, and 

 the house and lot it occupies, that the first responsibility for the 

 sanitary care we have outlined, begins there, belongs to the head 

 of the family, and cannot be shifted. He, or she, is a health 

 officer in the best and highest use of the name. While their re- 

 sponsibility for the sanitary care of the home cannot be shifted, 

 they very soon learn that causes of ill-health and premature death 

 come from outside, and that therefore mutual co-operation is a 

 necessity. Hence comes the local board of health, whose duty it is 

 to administer rules which represent the sanitary needs of neigh- 

 bourhoods, groups of families, for themselves and for the large class 

 of careless, shiftless, ignorant or criminally negligent. 



The duties of such boards increase with populations as a rule. 

 Extend the duty to the larger community, the state, and you learn 



