580 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1059 



tte labors of the sanitary supervisor and re- 

 duces his salary about 20 per cent. The third 

 amendment (Int. 1601) makes permissive, in- 

 stead of mandatory, the establishment of divi- 

 sions in the State Department of Health and 

 gives the commissioner the power to increase 

 or decrease the number of these divisions, to 

 consolidate them, or to change the name of 

 any division at his pleasure. This is an alto- 

 gether unnecessary interference with the exist- 

 ing law, and if it had any eiiect it would be in 

 the line of decreased efficiency as making the 

 divisions impermanent and liable to change 

 at the whim of any one in power for the time 

 being. The fourth amendment (Int. 1602) 

 strips the Public Health Council of its power 

 to define the qualifications of directors of divi- 

 sions, sanitary supervisors, local health officers, 

 and public health nurses hereafter appointed. 

 The introducer's object in this amendment is 

 not apparent, but the result of its enactment 

 would inevitably be to open these appointments 

 to unqualified persons and to create a number 

 of jobs to be given in reward for political serv- 

 ices. The fifth and worst of this series of 

 bad bills (Int. 1603) would deprive the Public 

 Health Council of the power to establish sani- 

 tary regulations, would delegate this to the 

 legislature, and would even abolish the present 

 sanitary code unless it shall be approved by 

 the present legislature — and how much chance 

 it would have of being approved by a legis- 

 lature which had already adopted these amend- 

 ments one can well imagine. 



These, briefly stated, are the bills by the en- 

 actment of which it is proposed to impair the 

 efficiency of the health department and to 

 vitiate the work it has already accomplished. 

 What may be the reason for the introduction 

 of these biUs it is difficult to understand. 

 Their passage would not be in the interests 

 of economy, for the worst of them, if passed, 

 would not save the state a dollar, and others 

 would rather increase the expenses of health 

 administration by reducing the efficiency of 

 the department, by putting the formulation 

 of a new code in the hands of inexperts and of 

 men ignorant of sanitary science, and by open- 

 ing many of the most responsible positions to 



incompetents. No business can save money in 

 that way. The entire appropriation asked for 

 by the health department is only about $400,- 

 000 — a paltry sum in comparison with the 

 saving of lives and of dollars as well, which 

 it is certain will result if the present law is 

 let alone. 



As a direct result of the work of the depart- 

 ment during the past year there are two thou- 

 sand persons, one thousand of them children, 

 alive to-day in this state, outside of New York 

 City, who would have been in their graves but 

 for the efforts of Dr. Biggs and the Health 

 Council. Are Mr. Hinman and his colleagues 

 in the legislature willing to let these and three 

 or four thousand others (for the life saving 

 in public health work is cumulative) die next 

 year in order to save thirty-five thousand dol- 

 lars in the salaries of the sanitary supervisors 

 who are to be dropped? 



We can not believe the legislature will pass 

 these reactionary amendments or, if it does, 

 that the governor will sign them. But it will 

 be better to spare both the legislature and the 

 governor trouble by killing the bills in com- 

 mittee. This would doubtless be their fate if 

 every physician would at once file his protest 

 with the chairmen of the committees which 

 now have the bills under consideration. In 

 such protest the bills should be referred to by 

 their introductory numbers and the protest 

 should be addressed to the chairman of the 

 respective committee as follows : Introduction 

 Number 1561 (the first one above mentioned). 

 Judiciary Committee, Assemblyman Frank B. 

 Thorn, chairman; Int. 1600, Ways and Means 

 Committee, Assemblyman Alexander Mac- 

 donald, chairman; Int. 1601, 1602 and 1603, 

 Public Health Committee, Assemblyman Gil- 

 bert T. Seelye, chairman. We need not add 

 that prompt action is needed to save the state 

 from this threatened calamity. — New York 

 Medical Record. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Biology. By Gary N. Calkins, professor of 

 protozoology in Columbia University. New 

 York, Henry Holt & Co. 1914. Pp. i-viii-f- 

 241. 101 figures. 



