nil. n PHOID PLY, OB HOUSE n\ . S3 
bins or pits within any of the more densely populated parts of the 
District without a permit from the health officer. Any person 
violating any of these provisions shall, upon conviction thereof, be 
punished by a fine of not more than $40 for each offense. 
In addition to this excellent ordinance, others have been issued 
from the health department of the District of Columbia which provide 
against the contamination of exposed food by Hies and by dust. The 
ordinances are excellently worded so as to cover all possible cases. 
They provide 4 for the registration of all stores, market-, cafes, lunch 
rooms, or of any other place where food or beverage is manufactured 
or prepared for -ale. stored for sale, offered for sale, or sold, in order 
to facilitate inspection, and still more recent ordinances provide for 
the registration of stables. An excellent campaign was begun during 
the summer of L908 against insanitary lunch rooms and restaurants. 
A Dumber of case- were prosecuted, hut conviction was found to he 
difficult. 
For one reason or another, the chief reason being the lack of a 
sufficient force of inspectors under the control of the health officers, 
the ordinance in regard to stables has not been carried out with that 
perfection which the situation demands. In the summer of 189G, the 
health officer of the District, Dr. W. C. Woodward, designated ;i 
region in Washington bounded by Pennsylvania avenue, Sixth street, 
Fifteenth street, and the Potomac River, which was to be watched 
by assistants of the writer. Twent} T -four stables were located in this 
region and were visited weekly by two assistants chosen for the pur- 
pose. The result was that on the wdiole the manure w T as well looked 
after and the number of flies in the region in question was very con- 
siderably reduced during the time of inspection. 
Were simple inspection of stables all that is needed, a force of four 
inspectors, specially detailed for this work, could cover the District 
of Columbia, examining every stable, after they were once located and 
mapped, once a week. The average salary of an insj^ector is $1,147, 
so that the total expense for the first year w r ould be something like 4 
$ 1,500. But the inspectors' service is complicated by the matter of 
prosecution. Much of the time of inspectors would be taken in the 
prosecution of the owners of neglected premises. Moreover, the health 
officer has found during the summer of 1908, in his prosecution of the 
owners or managers of insanitary restaurants, that his inspector- were 
practically -worn out of court by the multiplicity of opposing evi- 
dence. This means that it will be necessary in such cases to -end two 
inspectors together in all cases, so that the testimony of one may be 
supported by the testimony of the other. This, perhaps, would double 
the number of necessary inspectors, making the expense of the service 
something over $9,000. It i> reasonably safe to state, however, thai 
