be reported to the local boards of health. In the case of contag- 

 ious diseases the health officer or his assistant visit for the pur- 

 pose of quarantining. When a poor family is quarantined all 

 needs are supplied, even to the employing of a special nurse if 

 necessary. Bacteriological examinations are made, and anti- 

 toxines given. Fumigation is performed after recovery or death. 

 In the case of tuberculosis, the communicable disease causing sev- 

 en times more deaths in the city for 1913, than all the other con- 

 tagious diseases combined, and the cause of 15 per cent, of all 

 deaths, there is no proper reporting.* Naturally, this is true 

 where there is no public assistance offered even when the disease 

 is reported. Fumigations are made after death of tubercular 

 cases and sometimes after removal. For the latter a fee is us- 

 ually charged. Nothing could be learned about the prevalence 

 of venereal diseases, or of ophthalmia neonatorum, the great 

 cause of blindness. Accurate information might be obtained if 

 nurses were in the field visiting poor mothers with babies. 



Publication of Report 



Only a type-written copy of the annual report of the Health 

 Department was available. An annual report should be publish- 

 ed, and obtainable by every citizen. The Department does pub- 

 lish a monthly bulletin on vital statistics. However, unnecessary 

 material is printed instead of facts for the education of the pub- 

 lic in health matters. For instance, much space is devoted to the 

 climate of San Diego. It would seem that such a matter could 

 be left safely to the Chamber of Commerce or the Meteorological 

 Department of the U. S. Government. 



Milk Supply 



The milk supply of San Diego is unsafe because of lax regula- 

 tions as to the quahty of milk sold and its delivery. The city re- 

 quires a license for dairies and they are inspected. However, 

 milk is still delivered in open wagons instead of in covered wag- 

 ons and in sealed bottles. There is no regulation for keeping it 

 cool while being delivered. The Health Department recently at- 

 tempted to have an ordinance passed, requiring that milk be re- 

 tailed in sealed milk bottles, that milk sold should not have a 

 higher bacterial count than 1,000,000, a ridiculously low standard 

 in itself as compared with other cities, and that no milk be. sold 

 excepting from tuberculin-tested cows. All these measures failed 

 to pass the council. Nobody appeared in their interest excepting 

 the dairy-men. The women and doctors of the city are to blame, 

 for if they do not p.ersonally come before the Council in support 

 of proper ordinances, these conditions will continue to exist. The 

 substitution of pasteurized milk when the original milk is dirty 

 is not a solution of the question. 



* Annual Report of Health Officer for 1913. 

 Report State Board of Health 1910-11. 

 U. S. Census Mortality Reports. 



