IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
237 
duties of the city physician were prescribed in an ordinance of May 13, 
1878. He was to advise with the council and was to report contagious 
diseases and all nuisances to the Sanitary committee. 
It appears from the first report of the Clerk of the Burlington board 
of health, who was also city clerk and ex-officio clerk of the hoard, that 
the rules and regulations were of little effect in the period immediately 
after their adoption. (See mayor’s messages 1877-81 p. 84). His report 
is in part as follows ; ‘ ‘ The fact that they fall so far short of the actual 
statistics which the record ought to show is sufficient to raise the ques- 
tion whether or not the present organization of the health department is 
advisable, and certainly unless more practical and useful results can be 
attained than have been reached during the past year the expense of 
books, blanks, labor, and time necessary to collect, classify and compile 
the statistics of the department will continue to he a waste. The value 
in a municipal government of this department properly administered 
need not he argued, nor the importance of complete and accurate vital 
statistics in the proper administration of a health department. If the 
department is intended to accomplish no more than the filling of a 
stagnant pond as occasion may require, that can he easily effected by 
the sanitary committee without any knowledge of the number or causes 
of deaths occurring in any locality or during any given period ; but if 
the object sought is a comprehensive and intelligent regulation of the 
sanitary affairs' of the community, the prevention of pestilence and the 
improvement as far as possible of the general healthfulness of the city, 
then the compilation and preservation of the vital statistics as ordered 
by existing ordinances should he more effectually secured, and other 
measures taken to accomplish those results. That some progress has 
been made in this direction during the past year is true, and while it is 
so small that it cannot afford much present satisfaction, it is enough to 
show a growing sentiment in the community favorable to a continuance 
of the work.” 
In the charter of the city of Dubuque, approved Jan. 28, 1857, one 
of the enumerated powers of the council is, ‘Hhe abatement of all nuis- 
ances in said city”: another, ‘‘To make regulations to secure the gen- 
eral health of the city.” another, “To make all such ordinances as to 
them shall seem necessary to provide for the safety, preserve the health, 
^ ^ inhabitants thereof. ’ ’ Of the fourteen 
sections of the revised ordinances, dated 1893, to secure the health of 
the city, seven relate to the prevention of the introduction of contagious 
diseases by boats. The diseases named specifically are cholera, yellow 
