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Pending the transaction of public business the members in turn conducted the first examination held for the licensing of candidates to practice medicine in Illinois.

The fourth meeting was held at Cairo, Nov. 15th, 1877, and was one for the transaction both of public and executive business, and for examination of candidates applying for license to practice medicine. There were forty-six applicants present.

Inquiry was made into the claims and standing of certain medical institutions, and certain affidavits accompanying applications for certificates were considered.

At this meeting the resolutions in regard to the courses of instruction in medical schools were considered and adopted, of which a copy is printed in a preceding portion of this report.

The fifth meeting was held at Galesburg, December 6th, 1877, and was one of routine business, the chief object being to afford an opportunity to those desiring to obtain a license to practice, to appear and be examined. The examination was conducted by printed questions which were required to be answered in writing.

The sixth meeting was held at the Industrial University building at Champaign, December 20, 1877.

Thirty-six candidates presented themselves for examination.

A circular was prepared and addressed to the county boards through the county clerks, of which the following is a copy.

OFFICE OF THE ILLINOIS STATE BOARD OF HEALTH,

County Clerk..

202 STATE STREET, CHICAGO, Dec. 5th 1877.

.Esq.,
County, Ill. :

DEAR SIR: In accordance with section 9 of Act establishing the State Board of Health, I have mailed to you sample sheets of the following forms, which have been carefully prepared by our board, to-wit: Register of physicians and accoucheurs, report of birth, report of death, report of marriage, and instructions and extracts from the laws to accompany the reports of births and reports of deaths, register of births, register of deaths, register of marriages. Please advise me by return mail.

1st. Whether all of said samples have been received by you? If not, what forms are lacking?

2d.

Whether you have procured the registers and a supply of the report books?

3d. To what extent the report books have been distributed to the persons who are required to make the reports?

4th. To what extent physicians and accoucheurs have registered their names? (See section 4.)

As this is obligatory upon all who practice medicine in any of its departments, the board will expect a full compliance with the law as to reports of births and deaths from and after the first day of December, 1877, and as to the reports of marriages, from and after January 1st, 1878.

The penalties provided in the law for non-compliance therewith will be enforced as vigorously as possible after January 1st. If you have not already ordered the books and blanks mentioned, please do so without further delay. Your hearty co-operation is expected.

Very respectfully yours,

JOHN H. RAUCH, Prest. and Acting Sec' y.

The resignation of Dr. E. W. Gray was offered and accepted, and a vote of thanks extended to him for the interest he had taken in sanitary matters, and his services to the board.

The seventh meeting, which was also the annual meeting of the Board, was held at Springfield, January 10, 1878. There were also thirty-seven applicants present for examination.

By vote of the Board it was resolved that midwives be placed upon the same basis under the law, so far as the requirements for certificates to practice are concerned, as practitioners of medicine.

By appointment of the Governor, Dr. Bateman became his own successor, his term of office having expired by limitation of law.

The eighth meeting was held January 24, 1878, at Charleston, and was one for examinations only, thirty-nine applicants being in attend

ance.

The ninth meeting was held February 28, 1878, at Du Quoin, and was one for examinations, at which fifty-six applicants were present. The tenth meeting was held March 21, 1878, at Chicago, and was one also for examinations.

At this meeting the subject of advertisements by specialists was taken up and discussed; one of this class of practitioners appeared and gave some of the reasons why he advertised.

The following preamble and resolution were adopted:

WHEREAS, Several parties throughout this state are practicing specialties under assumed names, and by a variety of dishonest and dishonorable means are imposing upon and defrauding both the people of this state, and every upright practitioner of medicine, therefore

Resolved, That it is the duty of this Board to at once proceed to investigate such cases and to deal with them according to law.

The eleventh meeting of the Illinois State Board of Health was at Centralia, April 11, 1878.

This meeting was one for examinations, and fifty-three applicants who had been duly notified of the time and place of meeting, were present. Twenty-six of them received licenses to practice medicine.

Dr. Gregory was appointed to represent the Board at Exposition International at Paris, and at the meetings to be held there of the Anthropological Society.

Dr. A. L. Clark was authorized to act as secretary.

The twelfth meeting was held May 31, 1878, at Chicago, and was one for the transaction of the ordinary routine business of the Board. Resolutions were adopted to inquire into the powers and duties of the Board in regard to the suppression of effluvia and noxious vapors arising from the slaughtering houses and rendering establishments at Bridgeport and the Stock Yards.

The following is the form of a letter prepared for the county clerks, to aid them in executing the provisions of the Medical Practice and State Board of Health acts.

OFFICE OF THE COUNTY CLERK,
Of County, Ill.,

June, 17, 1878.

You are respectfully reminded that you have not registered in this office, in compliance with section 4, of the State Board of Health Act, which requires all physicians and midwives to register their names. Under this act there are no exemptions, the object of the same being to secure accurate returns of births and deaths. There is also no evidence in this office with regard to your status under the act regulating the practice of medicine. Very truly yours,

Blanks are furnished for returns of births and deaths.

County Clerk.

The thirteenth meeting of the Board and the tenth examination were held at Decatur, June 27th, 1878.

The committee to whom had been referred the resolutions in regard to the stenches from the rendering and slaughtering establishments, and the pollution of the river and canal at and near Chicago, reported that the city health authorities were actively engaged in attempts to abate the nuisance, and that it was at this time inexpedient for this Board to take action in the premises.

It was ordered that several certificates be revoked, as they had been fraudulently obtained by giving false names, or by offering diplomas not their own, or by other misrepresentations in regard to length of practice or character.

Appended hereto are copies of circular letters to practitioners and to midwives, which the Board at this session directed should be prepared and issued:

ILLINOIS STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.

CHICAGO, August, 1878.

MADAM:-You are respectfully reminded that there is no legal evidence in this office with regard to your status under the "Act to regulate the practice of medicine" in this state. This is to call your attention to the fact that the law makes the same requirements of midwives as of physicians.

Enclosed please find affidavit, and upon it will be found the necessary instructions. Want of time has heretofore prevented your being notified. Please attend to this matter without delay. You will also send to this office your post office address, age, place of birth, and length of practice in this state.

Doctor...

R. LUDLAM, M. D.

A. L. CLARK, M. D.

W. M. CHAMBERS, M. D.

J. M. GREGORY, M. D.

H. WARDNER, M. D.

N. BATEMAN, M. D.

J. H. RAUCH, M. D.

ILLINOIS STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.

CHICAGO, August, 1878.

You are respectfully reminded that there is no legal evidence in this office with regard to your status under the act to regulate the practice of medicine in this state. In accordance with the opinion of the Attorney General, it is the duty of this board to require an affidavit to that effect of those who claim exemption from the penalties of the act on account of having practiced in this state ten or more years previous to July 1, 1877.

The board is preparing a register for publication, and of course the names of all who do not comply will have to be omitted. It will be better for all who can do so, to obtain a certificate, although not by law compelled so to do, as their record, not only in the county in which they live, but also in this office, will thus be made complete. Instances

have already occurred in which parties who did not have certificates have been annoyed, although they were not required by law to have them. Inclosed please find affidavit; also note memorandum on same.

By order of the Board,

JOHN H. RAUCH.

P. S.-Please also send your school of practice, age, place of birth, and total years of practice.

The fourteenth meeting was held at Chicago, August 22d, 1878, and was called to consider the yellow fever epidemic. The resolutions and orders in regard to this subject will be found in another portion of this.report.

A certificate was ordered to be revoked because it was held by a person practicing under an assumed name.

Authority was also given to revoke the certificates of certain persons for fraudulent, unprofessional and quackish advertisements in the newspapers and by hand bills.

The fifteenth meeting was held at Chicago, October 23d, 1878, at which, among other business transacted, authority was given to the members to represent this Board at the ensuing meeting of the American Public Health Association to be held at Richmond, Virginia.

The sixteenth meeting and eleventh examination was held at Chicago, December 12, 1878.

An analysis. of water taken from Cairo was presented; and a committee was appointed to proceed to Cairo to examine and collect information and facts in regard to the prevalence of yellow fever at that point and vicinity.

On motion of Dr. Chambers the Board adopted the schedule of questions for sanitary survey based upon the forms prepared by a committee of the American Public Health Association, and reported at its meeting held November 10th, 1875, subject to certain additions and corrections as the president of this Board may see fit to make, as the basis for such survey of this state.

The following resolutions offered by Dr. Gregory were adopted:

It is the opinion of this Board that a topographical survey of this state is essential to the promotion of the work of this Board, and to the sanitary interests of this state, and important also to the agricultural and industrial interests of the people of Illinois, and that the efficiency and safety of any system of drainage, such as is contemplated by the recent constitutional drainage amendment, must necessarily be dependent upon such

survey.

And it is further resolved that a memorial be prepared to urge upon the legislature the importance of such survey, and to authorize and provide for the survey.

It was ordered that a certificate of graduation which had been issued upon representations that a diploma had been issued to the affiant by the University of Tübingen, Germany, be revoked, as correspondence with the authorities of the university proved that no diploma had been issued to the person now claiming to hold one.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

The Board in carrying into execution the laws entrusted to it, has had before it a task novel, and one without precedent. It begs leave to tender its acknowledgments to the public authorities, the railway and telegraph corporations; the members of the press, and to the medical profession at large, without distinction of creed or nationality, for their generous and constant assistance and encouragement.

The Board is likewise under obligations to the Boards of Health of many of the states for copies of their reports and of their blank forms, and for their returns of mortality.

This Report is respectfully submitted.

ANSON L. CLARK, M. D., Secretary.

JOHN H. RAUCH, M. D., President.

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