of sickness present in the community were examined to see what proportion of such illness might possibly be due to uncared for teeth or diseased tonsils. Reports from both remote and accessible rural districts were taken. The following are some of the details of the record: Total number of cases of illness found in 6 townships and 2 The above cases constitute 40% of all illness. Of these cases 66% were not under medical care. In this survey the investigators reported that teeth defects including broken and decaying roots were very generally present at all ages. It would therefore seem imperative that knowledge be disseminated in rural districts concerning the mischief resulting from the absorption of the decomposition products from decaying teeth, and diseased tonsils, and that clinic and dispensary service be developed within their reach and at cost of maintenance. The health officers in but 20 of the 57 counties of the State report any such service within the limits of their county. The importance of extending education in oral sanitation among the rural population receives added emphasis from the standpoint of the prevention of communicable disease, for the first lesson to the child in avoiding contagion is to guard the mouth from receiving infection from the mouth of another, and to keep his own mouth and throat in such sanitary condition that the infective agents of communicable disease will not be harbored and permitted to multiply if they are accidently admitted. Of the health officers in rural districts (there are 1018 rural health officers) 68% are also medical school inspectors. To them in large measure, one-half of the population of the State, outside of Greater New York, must look to develop necessary educational methods and remedial agencies for these and other preventable and curable illness. Will it take the form of a Rural Health Centre? REPORTS OF DIVISIONS Division of Sanitary Engineering-April, 1916 Examination and approval of plans for sewerage and sewage disposal: Greenwich; Solvay; Dunkirk; Binghamton (2 sets); Forestville (School); Yonkers (Colonial Heights); Edwards (Northern Ore Co.); Oxford (State Inst.); Geneva (U. S. Lens Co.); Town of Waterloo (Semet Solvay Co.); Port Chester (Revised); Town of Keene (Revised). Investigation and reports of complaints regarding sewage disposal, stream pollution and public nuisances: Farmingdale (State Inst.); Bedford (State Inst.); Salamanca; Town of Cortland. Investigation and reports of public water supplies: Red Creek; Frankfort; Hermon; Croghan; Martinsburg; Turin: Mexico; Voorheesville; Hudson Falls; Whitehall; Richfield Springs; Granville; Medina; Westfield; Auburn, State Prison. More important letters of advice were prepared and sent out to the following places: Bennington, creamery wastes; Town of Hyde Park, sewage disposal for schools; Bath, sewage disposal for school. Division of Laboratories and Research - April, 1916 The work continues to grow although it fluctuates from month to month and the rate of increase is now not so great as it was last year when some branches of the work were increasing four to six fold. Despite the growth of the work in the diagnosis of diseases there must yet be considerable more development if physicians of the State are to use the laboratory as it should be used in the modern practice of medicine. Physicians do not begin to use the laboratories of the State as they should in their work at the bedside. A new feature of the laboratory has recently been put into practical operation after several months of preliminary preparation,- the study and investigation of the efficiency of pasteurizing plants located in different parts of the State as an aid not only to the health officer having jurisdiction over the plant, but to the operators of the plant. This has been carried on for two months. During March 7 plants were examined, in April 14 plants. This service has been very generally appreciated. Owing to the war it is becoming increasingly difficult to purchase some of the laboratory supplies. Notices for the return of empty syringes have already been sent to supply stations. Soon it will be necessary to discontinue using the blue and yellow boxes for diphtheria and tetanus antitoxin. These boxes will gradually be superseded by boxes of a uniform white color. The number of therapeutic and preventive preparations is increasing to such an extent that this change would soon be necessary, apart from the exigencies of the present situation. Distribution of diagnostic outfits, diphtheria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, syphilis, and other diseases, and culture tubes. packages of diphtheria antitoxin packages of tetanus antitoxin packages of antipneumococcus serum packages of antimeningococcus serum ... packages of typhoid vaccine packages of pertussis vaccine packages for the prophylaxis of ophthalmia neonatorum.. Examinations for diagnosis, diphtheria.. tuberculosis 1915 1916 Apr. Mar. Apr. 5609 8133 5307 2272 2559 1947 935 398 389 53 145 55 II 379 159 862 1908 Public Health Is Purchasable. Twenty-five Thousand Lives Can Be Saved In New York State Within The Next Five Years HERMANN M. BIGGS, M.D. Commissioner STATE LABORATORIES NUMBER LABORATORIES OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH STUDIES FROM THE LABORATORIES OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH THE LABORATORY SERVICE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK The Foundation of Modern Medicine..... Laboratories of the State Department of Health, Augustus B. Wadsworth, Studies from the Laboratories of the State Department of Health..... The Laboratory Service of the State of New York, Augustus B. Wadsworth, Tabulated Report of the Laboratories of the State for Year 1915.... HEALTH NEWS JULY, 1916 THE FOUNDATION OF MODERN MEDICINE The age of giants in medicine has passed into history and with it much of the romance of personality that formerly surrounded medical practice. The struggle of the keen intellects of by-gone days to penetrate the dark veil that enveloped the origin of disease, the shrewd guesses at what we now know to be the truth as well as the promulgation of many theories now known to be false, arouse our admiration and sympathy. The worship of individuality has given way to the elevation of mediocrity and to the advantage of the common welfare. In medicine, as in war, success lies not with the genius but with him who is able to make use of technical skill. This revolutionary change has been brought about by one agency the medical laboratory- and allowing for the widest variation in the personal factors of intellect, training and devotion to duty, the modern practitioner is competent or incompetent in proportion to his general familiarity with and employment of laboratory methods of diagnosis and the institution of treatment which frequently depends upon them. Notwithstanding the constant efforts of the State Department of Health to spread among physicians of the State the knowledge of what the laboratories have done, are doing and hope to do, there is every reason to suppose that the efforts have been far from successful. It is in the hope of accomplishing this purpose as well as to encourage a greater extension of laboratory facilities that this number of the HEALTH NEWS is devoted largely to the work of the laboratories of the State. |