IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 
239 
stitutiiig* the mayor and council of any incorporated town or city, or 
the trustees of any township not incorporated, a Board of Health, de- 
nning their powers.” 
The members of the Iowa State Medical Society were not slow to 
recognize the advisability of having state regulations with reference to 
health of the people. At the eighteenth annual meeting in 1870, a com- 
mittee was appointed to draft a bill for compulsory vaccination. The 
necessity for the creation of a State Board of Health was recognized 
some time before the necessary action was taken by the legislature. At 
the 25th annual meeting in 1877, a resolution was adopted memorial- 
izing the state legislature to enact a law creating a State Board of 
Health. In the presidential address in the next year 1878, the establish- 
ment of such a board was advocated by Dr. Ristine. At the next meet- 
■ ng of the Society in June, 1879, the mayor of Davenport in his -address 
of welcome suggested that the society should attempt to have a State 
Board established. In the course of the presidential address' at the same 
meeting Dr. A. M. Carpenter said : ' Ht may not be improper to state 
in this connection that as chairman of a committee appointed by the 
president of the American Medical Association, and with the approval 
of this society, jmur president respectfully memorialized the legislature 
to pass a bill such as now graces the legislative acts of Wisconsin, 
creating a Board of State Medicine, and that the bill was magnanimously 
pocketed ” The committee on the presidential address of Dr. 
Carpenter reported, ^ and in consideration of the importance 
of its suggestions we respectfully recommend that in-so-far as it refers 
to state medicine, the whole subject be referred to a special committee 
consisting of members whose duty it shall be to present to the 
state legislature, at its next session, a bill to regulate the practise of med- 
icine and surgery; also to provide for the registration of births and 
deaths; also to urge upon the General Assembly the importance of the 
immediate organization of a State Board of Health.” At the same 
meeting. Dr. Carpenter as charman of a committe on State Board of 
Health, reported: ^A^our Committee on State Board of Health would 
respectfully report that they caused to be presented to the last legisla- 
ture a bill for the establishment of a State Board of Health similar to 
the Wisconsin law. It met with no encouragement and but little favor 
in the legislature. Your committee thinks that a little information on 
the subject published by authority of the society, and for use of the 
members of the next legislature, and a continued effort on the part of 
the society will ultimately succeed.” '(Vol 4, p. 24.) A committee from 
