Am"  jX'i9ihoarm'}  $tate  Control  of  Diseases.  333 
So  far  from  relaxing  our  legal  requirements  in  regard  to  this 
measure  we  must  constantly  and  combinedly  aim  to  reach  the  Ger- 
man standard.  When  this  is  reached  all  over  the  world,  Jenner's 
prophesy  will  be  realized  and  smallpox  will  be  banished  from  the 
earth. 
Diphtheria  antitoxin  is  a  close  second.  Then  follow  the  various 
serums  and  so-called  vaccines,  including  the  anti-rabic  virus. 
For  the  mosquito-borne  diseases,  destruction  of  mosquito-breed- 
ing areas,  mechanical  screening,  destruction  of  mosquitoes  in  houses 
by  the  employment  of  fumes  of  narcotic  plants. 
For  water-borne  diseases  nitration  both  of  water  and  sewage 
with  the  addition  of  disinfectants  in  some  exceptional  cases. 
The  only  drugs  to  which  the  name  of  specific  can  be  applied  are 
mercury  in  syphilis  and  quinine  in  malaria ;  but  many  of  the  serums 
are  both  prophylactic  and  specific,  while  certain  of  them  have  as  yet 
only  proven  to  be  specifics. 
The  circulars  of  the  department  for  the  management  of  the 
various  contagious  diseases  contain  full  instructions  for  the  proper 
use  of  disinfectants  as  required  in  the  case  of  each  disease. 
The  Department  of  Health,  therefore,  urges  upon  all  school  direc- 
tors, trustees,  principals  and  presidents  of  schools  and  colleges  out- 
side of  cities  in  this  state  the  importance  of  protecting  the  health 
of  their  pupils  and  students,  and  of  the  entire  community  as  well, 
by  prompt  and  regular  attention  to  this  duty. 
As  the  law  provides  no  fixed  period  for  rural  schools,  the  De- 
partment of  Health  recommends  that  the  desks,  wood  work,  shelves 
and  floors  of-  school  rooms,  in  addition  to  the  customary  scrubbing 
with  soap  or  lye,  be  wiped  at  the  end  of  each  week  with  a  cloth 
saturated  with  a  4  per  cent,  solution  of  liquor  formaldehydi  (U.S. P.). 
Slates  and  slate  pencils,  if  used,  should  be  wiped  off  with  the 
same.    Sunlight  and  fresh  air  should  be  freely  admitted. 
At  the  end  of  each  month,  disinfection  with  formaldehyde  gas 
should  be  practised. 
Dairy  Inspection. — The  communication  of  typhoid  fever,  scar- 
let fever  and  diphtheria  through  the  medium  of  infected  milk  is  a 
thoroughly  well  recognized  fact.  Hence  it  became  necessary  to  go 
to  the  root  of  the  evil  and  institute  a  system  of  careful  dairy  inspec- 
tion by  state  officers. 
Every  community  of  any  size  in  the  State  avails  itself  of  the  law 
to  prevent  the  sale  of  impure  or  adulterated  milk,  but  it  is  left  to  the 
