188 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



provision for a county health officer, but usually he has insuffi- 

 cient powers with which to enforce reforms or he is paid for too 

 small a portion of his time, or his appointment is of too political 

 a character, to secure the efficiency which so important a function 

 as his requires. The fact remains that rural health inspection 

 is far behind that which is carried on in the cities, and sanitary 

 enforcement is much more nearly adequate in the cities than in 

 the country districts. In order to secure the greatest efficiency 

 in this work its administrative direction should center in the 

 State Board of Health, which should have adequate powers of 

 control over it. 



A closely related need for the protection of rural health is 

 the collection and publication of vital statistics, including statis- 

 tics of disease as well as of births and deaths. This function may 

 be performed by or under the direction of the rural health 

 officer or by a separate agency. In either case the statistics entire 

 should be made immediately available to all civic and private 

 agencies interested in the health of the rural community. Sta- 

 tistics of health and of births and deaths have the same value for 

 the rural community as for the urban; they point out the weak 

 spots in the community's health and thus indicate where work 

 needs to be done. By the aid of such statistics polluted water 

 supplies, soils polluted with hookworm, larva?, breeding places 

 for flies and mosquitoes, the need of instruction in dietetics and 

 other matters of household science and management can be 

 indicated. It is therefore absolutely essential to proper health 

 administration in the rural community that accurate and ade- 

 quate vital statistics be collected and published. 



It must not be forgotten, of course, that no community, urban 

 or rural, can be given proper sanitary and hygienic conditions 

 unless there are proper laws prescribing minimum sanitary con- 

 ditions and giving adequate powers to the officer or officers having 

 the protection of health in charge. Therefore most, if not all, of 

 our states will have to legislate anew for the control of rural 

 sanitation. The large essentials of the health code should be 

 uniform over the state, as uniform in fact as are the health needs, 

 while the problems of a purely local nature may conceivably be 

 left to the administrative discretion of the county courts or boards 

 of commissioners. But whatever body may enact the health laws 



