270 Wisconsin state Aoricultubal society. 
legislature, Wisconsin has inaugurated a movement that may be 
made capable of good to her citizens in all future time. No statute 
of the state embodies greater wisdom or touches a more vital inter¬ 
est of the people than the one under which we act. Impressed 
with the essential dignity of the offices we hold, while we distrust 
our own fitness for the work, I trust we shall be loyal to the truth 
and act wisely under the responsibilities which the law imposes. 
It is a matter worthy of note that Wisconsin, comparatively a 
young state, has so early in the history of the study of ’''"State 3Ied- 
icine^’’ planted herself by the side of other states which have, by 
legal enactments, created State Boards of Health. 
In June, 1869, Massachusetts, through the judicious and philan¬ 
thropic efforts of a few good and true men, was the first to pass a 
law establishing a State Board of Health. The elaborate reports 
given to the state by the learned gentlemen who have served upon 
that board, upon various subjects vitally connected with the health 
and the lives of the citizens of the state, have greatly quickened 
thought and stimulated inquiry in every state of the Union, and in 
foreign countries, upon the great question of public hygiene. 
In 1870, California, following the example of Massachusetts, es¬ 
tablished a State Board, which, by their faithful work and intelli¬ 
gent advice, have rendered important service to the state. 
In 1872, Minnesota entered upon the same beneficent work. The 
able papers of Drs. Staples and Sempler, just given to the public in 
their Fourth Annual Report, on the advantages of the climate of 
Minnesota to consumptives, are worth to the state many times the 
amount of the appropriation for the support of the board. 
In 1873, Michigan committed this work to some of her ablest and 
most philanthropic men. Their labors in the field of “ Preventative 
Aledieine'''’ have already awakened a general interest and inquiry 
among the citizens of the state, and led to such observance of hy¬ 
gienic measures as already to demonstrably diminish the death rate 
throughout the state. 
Pennsylvania has agitated the subject, and a bill creating a State 
Board, with the liberal appropriation of $8,000 was defeated by a 
small majority at the last session of her legislature. The medical 
profession in Indiana has also entrusted the work to a committee 
who are already at work creating a public interest in the measure. 
When the law under which we now work was published, March 
