328 
State  Control  of  Diseases. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t        July,  1910. 
have  to  say  will  apply  principally  to  the  rural  districts  of  the 
commonwealth. 
Past  Conditions. — Up  to  the  year  1895  there  had  been  no 
systematic  law  for  the  control  of  contagious  and  infectious  diseases 
in  this  state.  Every  city  and  prominent  borough  had  its  own  form 
of  health  government  and  formulated  its  own  system  of  laws. 
In  that  year,  however,  representatives  of  several  municipalities 
united  with  the  former  State  Board  of  Health  in  drawing  up  a 
system  of  regulations  for  preventing  the  spread  of  such  disease, 
which  was  enacted  by  the  State  Legislature  and  which  was  suffi- 
ciently comprehensive  to  entitle  it  to  be  denominated  the  "  Penn- 
sylvania Sanitary  Code  for  the  Restriction  of  Communicable  Dis- 
eases." This  at  once  became  legally  effective  for  every  incorporated 
municipality  in  the  State,  But  except  in  the  case  of  a  few  town- 
ships in  which  the  school  boards  availed  themselves  of  their  right 
to  organize  as  boards  of  health  the  whole  vast  domain  outside  of 
city  and  borough  limits  was  in  a  state  of  chaos  so  far  as  any  regular 
control  of  such  diseases  was  concerned. 
Modern  Legislation, — With  the  statesmanlike  legislation  of 
1905,  however,  giving  new  powers  and  appropriating  increased 
means  to  the  health  authorities,  order  sprang  out  of  chaos,  and  a 
new  condition  of  things  came  into  being. 
What  was  considered  at  that  time  a  very  liberal  appropriation, 
three  hundred  thousand  dollars,  was  given  the  department  for 
the  two  years  1905  and  1906.  So  rapidly  did  the  work  grow,  how- 
ever, that  in  1907  the  Legislature  appropriated  to  the  department 
two  million  dollars.  Six  hundred  thousand  of  this  was  specifically 
set  aside  for  the  establishing  of  the  State  Sanatoria  for  Tubercu- 
losis and  four  hundred  thousand  for  Dispensaries  for  Tuberculosis. 
Still  the  work  continued  to  grow.  The  people  gave  it  their  hearty 
support  and  in  1909  the  unprecedented  appropriation  of  two  million 
dollars  for  tuberculosis  and  one  million  dollars  for  general  health 
work,  was  given  the  State  Department  of  Health. 
Organization. — To-day  the  department  is  a  well  organized, 
fully  equipped  fighting  force  and  its  work  along  all  lines  of  conserv- 
ing public  health,  in  which  it  has  been  engaged,  has  met  with 
gratifying  success. 
Pennsylvania  has  an  area  of  44.985  square  miles  and  contains 
30  cities,  849  boroughs.  67  counties  and  1547  townships,  a  total  of 
2426  separate  and  distinct  municipalities,  which  to  a  certain  extent 
