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CHARLES H. FISHER, M. D., ex-officio and Secretary.. PROVIDENCE......

NEWPORT COUNTY.

PROVIDENCE CO.

GENERAL REPORT.

To the Honorable the General Assembly:

In behalf of the State Board of Health, the Secretary herewith respectfully presents the Fourteenth Annual Report of the said Board, including in brief outline the proceedings under its authority and supervision during the year 1891.

The Board, through various methods and agencies, has, together and in severalty, endeavored to perform to the fullest extent, within the limited powers and the limited financial aid allowed, the duties incumbent upon it. The work has been in the direction of performing the duties connected with the Cattle Commission and of conserving and promoting the health and the preservation of life of the citizens of the State in the present and in the future.

Investigations have been made as to causes of prevalent sickness, in various localities, endemic and epidemic, including causes of unusual mortality; investigations in regard to the circumstances and conditions of suspected sources of specific or general ill health; also in regard to actual and possible sources of pollution of water supplies, of sources and conditions of waters for public use, used wholly or in part as potable water, in villages, shore resorts, hotels and large boarding houses and contemplated water supplies for public use; the disposal of sewage; the drainage of houses as to sink wastes and laundry water; the giving of advice in regard to the methods of restricting the spread of contagious and infectious diseases, personally and by tracts and circulars; investigations in relation to the prevalence of diseases among domestic animals and various other matters pertaining to sanitation and the public health.

It is very gratifying to the Board, having ample facilities for acquiring a knowledge of the fact, that the statement can be made emphatically, that a very decided advance has been made during the year in

the public sentiment, of much the larger proportion of the population of the State, in regard to the necessity of personal hygiene and general sanitation.

PERSONNEL OF THE BOARD.

The membership of the Board continued through the year the same as at the beginning.

The third term of service of Albert G. Sprague, M. D., of Warwick, expired by limitation June 30, 1891. Gov. H. W. Ladd, at the May Session of the General Assembly, with the advice and consent of the Senate, reappointed Dr. Sprague for a term of six years from July 1, 1891.

MEETINGS OF THE BOARD.

There were four regular quarterly meetings during the year, at which the various measures needed to carry out the objects of the Board were discussed, and all questions having relation to the public health, directly or indirectly, received consideration.

At the meeting held on Thursday, January the first, the Secretary reported briefly a general outline of the work performed during the preceding quarter. Nuisances believed to be dangerous to health had been investigated in several localities. Particulars given.

The Monthly Bulletin had been prepared as heretofore, comprising 66 pages of printed matter during the quarter, of which the Secretary had written more than one-half.

Three hundred and forty-four letters had been written, 215 written communications had been received, including town clerks' monthly returns, and 36 printed circulars received desiring replies to certain questions or opinions upon certain points in sanitary propositions.

Blanks for the annual returns of births, marriages and deaths in 1889, had been distributed to town clerks to the number of 20,000, calling for about 400,000 items of fact connected therewith. Blanks for monthly returns of town clerks and physicians, and blanks and certificates for physicians, clergymen, undertakers, etc., sent as usual. Progress was reported in the printing of the Thirty-Seventh Annual Report upon the Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths in 1889, to the extent of 176 pages, and comprising 64 statistical tables. An account was given of the results of various analyses of milk, molasses and vinegar. The object was to ascertain in some reasonably

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