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A. SANITARY PUBLICATIONS OF 1884.

SANITARY PUBLICATIONS OF 1884.

In addition to reports of meetings, circulars concerning prevention of disease, etc., etc., elsewhere given, the following publications of the ILLINOIS STATE BOARD OF HEALTH, during the year 1884, are considered important enough to preserve in this form for reference:

PUBLIC-HEALTH LAWS OF ILLINOIS.

CONCERNING CONTAGIOUS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
CONCERNING THE VACCINATION OF SCHOOL-CHILDREN.
CONCERNING THE SANITARY INSPECTION OF THE STATE.

THE Public-Health Laws of the State are scattered through many volumes of the statutes, and have been amended, repealed or otherwise modified so frequently that it would require much search to determine what enactments are still in force. Even in the successive editions of the Revised Statutes the various topics concerning the public health are treated of under so many different heads that a greater degree of familiarity with the arrangement is necessary than is likely to be possessed by any other than a lawyer. The pamphlet compiled by the Secretary and published by the BOARD is a digest or summary of existing legislation on these various topics, and constitutes the ILLINOIS SANITARY CODE. The following explanatory letter prefaces the pamphlet edition:

( ILLINOIS STATE BOARD OF HEALTH,

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Springfield, July, 1884. The appended SANITARY CODE has been prepared in further discharge of the duty devolved upon the STATE BOARD OF HEALTH by Section 2 of the Act of 1877, creating the BOARD, and which invests it with "authority to make such rules and regulations, and such sanitary investigations, as they may deem necessary from time to time for the preservation or improvement of public health."

Heretofore the BOARD has deemed it advisable to limit the exercise of its powers, under this Section, to action in the immediate presence of some menace to the public health which could only, or best, be met by a concert of action and weight of anthority not to be commanded by local health organizations; as for example, in the threatened invasion of yellow fever in the southern portion of the State, and in the recent epidemic prevalence of small-pox throughout threefourths of its area. Enforcement of quarantine restrictions and sanitary inspections in the former, and of general preventive and protective measures in the latter instance, were most efficiently secured through the orders and circulars of the STATE BOARD; as

well, also, as the necessary co-operation and uniformity of action by neighboring authorities, between which the BOARD furnished a natural and proper bond of union and medium of communication.

Aside from this, its rules and regulations have hitherto been confined to such general subjects as, from their nature, affected the State at large, or extensive areas thereof, rather than individual localities: The sanitation of railways and railway travel; the transportation of corpses; the pollution of rivers and other sources of water-supply; the suppression of contagious and infectious diseases liable to epidemic spread; measures against the introduction of contagion from without; etc.

Up to the present time such action as above recited has been deemed all that it was practicable or expedient for the BOARD to attempt. But the possibility of an invasion of the United States by Asiatic cholera makes it incumbent to now secure a more thorough sanitary organization of the State than has yet been effected and the adoption of a uniform Sanitary Code to as great an extent as practicable. As is remarked in the Circular-Letter of the BOARD, No. 222, issued July 3, 1883:

"It is entirely possible that we may escape a visitation of Asiatic cholera this year, although there is yet plenty of time for the disease to reach our shores before cold weather. But even if there were no danger from this source, it should be remembered that everything which is done in the direction of sanitary improvement benefits the general health, reduces the amount of sickness, and lessens the death rate. An obvious duty, therefore, rests at all times, but more urgently at present, upon those charged with the administration of public-health affairs, to take such steps as may be necessary to remedy any defects in the existing sanitary status."

To this end the following rules and regulations are offered, in the form of a Model Sanitary Ordinance, for the adoption of all communities which have not yet secured a health organization; as well as for substitution for sanitary ordinances and laws which have been found defective or inoperative. Appended is a digest or summary of all public-health laws now in force in the State, from which may be learned the powers and authority which health organizations may legally exercise. Specific information, concerning matters of preventive medicine and general sanitation, is also added for the benefit of medical health officers and others.

BY ORDER OF THE BOARD:

JOHN H. RAUCH, Secretary.

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Public-Health Authorities and Organizations:

The second section of An Act to Create and Establish a STATE BOARD OF HEALTH in the State of Illinois, approved May 28, 1877, in force July 1, 1877, reads as follows:

"The STATE BOARD OF HEALTH shall have the general supervision of the health and life of the citizens of the State. They shall have charge of all matters pertaining to quarantine; and shall have authority to make such rules and regulations, and such sanitary investigations as they may, from time to time, deem necessary for the preservation or improvement of public health; and it shall be the duty of all police officers, sheriffs, constables and all other officers and employees of the State, to enforce such rules and regulations, so far as the efficiency and success of the BOARD may depend upon their official co-operation."

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Under this section, says the Attorney-General, broad duties devolue upon the STATE BOARD OF HEALTH, and ample power is given to enable them to discharge their duties. They not only have the right, but it is their duty, to make any and all rules and regulations which they may deem necessary to preserve the public health.

The full text of this Act will be found at the beginning of the next section-SUMMARY OF EXISTING LEGISLATION, RULES AND REGULATIONS CONCERNING THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

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