Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
July,  1910.  } 
State  Control  of  Diseases. 
329 
must  be  considered  individually  in  all  public  health  work.  About 
three  million  of  Pennsylvania's  seven  million  population  reside  in 
rural  districts.  In  cities,  boroughs  and  in  a  few  townships,  namely 
those  of  the  first  class,  provision  has  been  made,  as  already  said, 
by  legislative  enactment  for  the  appointment  of  boards  of  health. 
Only  by  constant  urging  and  untiring  educational  work,  however, 
has  the  State  Department  of  Health  succeeded  in  getting  many  of 
these  small  boroughs  to  organize  health  boards.  In  over  fifteen  hun- 
dred townships  absolutely  no  permanent  health  organization  had 
been  provided  by  law.  This  gives  some  idea  of  the  broad  field  in 
which  the  state  health  authorities'  work  is  found. 
In  each  of  sixty-six  counties  of  the  State  the  department  has  now 
a  thoroughly  trained  medical  inspector  assisted  by  a  corps  of  town- 
ship health  officers.  There  are  altogether  seven  hundred  of  these 
health  officers  distributed  throughout  the  state.  To  them  the  physi- 
cians report  all  cases  of  communicable  diseases  and  the  health  officers 
promptly  placard  the  premises  and  establish  the  necessary  quaran- 
tine. Upon  receiving  notice  from  the  physician  of  the  termination 
of  quarantine  the  health  officer  thoroughly  disinfects  the  premises. 
As  a  proof  of  the  results  being  obtained  from  educational  work 
it  has  been  gratifying  to  note  the  constantly  increased  number 
of  requests  from  householders  to  have  their  homes  disinfected  after 
cases  of  tuberculosis. 
These  health  officers  for  the  past  two  years  also  have  been 
making  regular  inspections  of  the  sanitary  conditions  of  all  schools 
in  the  rural  districts,  and  the  result  has  been  a  very  marked  improve- 
ment of  such  schools. 
Medical  Inspection  of  School  Children. — The  department 
is  putting  in  operation  a  system  of  medical  inspection  of  the  school 
children  in  the  rural  districts.  This  inspection  is  being  made 
by  skilled  physicians. 
In  view  of  the  results  already  accomplished  by  medical  inspec- 
tion of  schools  in  some  of  the  larger  cities  and  municipalities 
throughout  the  country,  we  are  safe  in  saying  that  the  standard  of 
health  of  the  children  in  the  country  schools  in  Pennsylvania  will 
be  raised  materially  by  this  work,  and  that  the  spread  of  con- 
tagious and  infectious  diseases  will  be  greatly  curtailed. 
Reporting  of  Contagious  and  Infectious  Diseases. — One  of 
the  first  steps  taken  by  the  department  was  to  arrange  for  the  report- 
ing of  all  contagious  diseases,  as  well  as  deaths  from  the  same, 
