ADDRESS 
OF THE 
State Boar d of Health 
AND 
VITAL STATISTICS 
OF THE 
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
TO THE PEOPLE OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
HARRISBURG: 
E. K. MEYERS, STATE PRINTER. 
1885. ADDRESS OF THE 
State Board of Health and Vital Statistics 
Of th.e Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
to tlie People of Pennsylvania. 
E. K. Meyers, State Printer. ADDRESS 
OF THE 
'* State Board of Health and Vital Statistics of the Commonwealth of Pennsylva- 
nia," to the People of Pennsylvania. 
The " State Board of Health," called into existence by the will of the 
people of this great Commonwealth, expressed through its representatives 
in General Assembly met, and approved by its chief executive, enters upon 
the discharge of its grave duties and the exorcise of its important powers, 
deeply impressed with the sense of the responsibilities which devolve 
upon it, and reverently invoking the blessing of tho God of nations upon 
its labors. It desires at tho outset so to doline its position as to lead to 
tho immediate establishment of those friendly reciprocal relations between 
itself and tho public, which can be securely founded only upon a vigilant 
care for the well-being of the people by tho State, on tho one side, and " a 
docent respect for tho government by the people," on the other. 
It is not so much to say that the creation of this board marks a now era 
in the history of the State, since it indicates the recognition by our legisla- 
tors of the truth, reflected from the minds of the people, once so well 
formulated by England's brilliant prime minister, Lord Beaconsfield, that 
"the health of the people is the first duty of the statesman." The "Dec- 
laration of Rights" which constitutes Article I of the Constitution of 
this Commonwealth, and is therefore a part of its organic law, proclaims 
that " all men have certain inherent and indefeasible rights ; among which 
are those of enjoying and defending life and of pursuing their ownhappi 
ness." It is the conviction of this Board that these necessarily include 
tho inherent right to the enjoyment of pure air, pure water and pure soil, 
since without them life can neither be enjoyed nor successfully defended - 
and the pursuit of happiness becomes a cruel mockery. It further con, 
ceives one of its paramount duties to be to see that no man or combina- 
tion of men, however rich or powerful, shall be allowed to trespass on 
these rights of the humblest citizen, whether from negligence, from greed 
of gain or simply from ignorance. It is no mere empty figure of speech, 
by which we call disease a public enemy. It requires to be met with 
organized resistance, and this resistance must be directed by a respon- 
sible head. When pestilence invades our borders, that head must be clothed 
with powers analogous to those of a general when the foe is at the gates. 
Sanitary law, in place of martial law, is then proclaimed, and what are, in 
times of general health, recognized as sacred rights of person and property, 
are sternly set aside. When such emergencies arise, as they inevitably 
must at some time, and as they possibly may at no distant day, the Board 
confidently looks to tho sound sense and self-control of the people to lead 4 
them to submit cheerfully to whatever temporary inconveniences it may be 
deemed necessary to impose. The abridgement of the license of the indi- 
vidual-nay, at times, even of his rights-for the sake of protecting the 
rights of the community, is the very foundation-stone of civilized life. 
Civil organization cannot exist without it. Hence, restrictions are placed 
upon certain kinds of business which threaten injury to human beings. 
We prohibit the merchant from exercising his right of unrestricted bar- 
ter and sale and storage in the matter of explosives. He is not allowed 
to keep any considerable quantity of gunpowder, nitro-glycerine or dyna- 
mite within certain limits, or within a certain distance of an inhabited 
house. Every one acquiesces in the justice of this restriction of his rights. 
But if a powder magazine had exploded in the heart of Philadelphia 
on the first of January, ] 872, this calamity, frightful as it would have 
been, would not have caused a tithe as many deaths-would not have pro- 
duced a hundredth part as much suffering, would not have inflicted an 
approach to as great a pecuniary loss, as did the epidemic of small-pox which 
was then raging. Thousands of lives, tens of thousands of maimed, dis- 
disfigured or invalided persons, millions of money-such was the cost of 
that explosion of disease. Is it too much to insist that all our citizens 
shall submit to that slight infringement of their personal rights, which an 
immense majority voluntarily undergo, in order that another such cala- 
mity shall henceforth, forever, be an impossibility within the borders of this 
Commonwealth ? 
Heretofore it has been only a straggling, desultory warfare which has 
been waged against preventable disease within our borders. Isolated 
health-boards and solitary sanitarians, here and there, have carried on a gal- 
lant fight, but against great odds, because lacking the element of intelli- 
gently combined action which is essential to success. A prominent Eng- 
lish Medical Review in speaking of our fragmentary and disjointed system 
of hygienic administration, if system it can possibly be called, says: "There 
is much good work done under a species of semi-authority and sufferance, 
and by volunteer exertion; but the plaint is the lack of a central authority 
and administrative power to make sanitary supervision an effective reality. 
The water supply of a considerable portion of a great city is abominably 
polluted, but no sufficient authority is found to remedy it; there are numer- 
ous and deplorable nuisances but no efficient inspectors, there are many 
factories and work-shops, but no laws to secure their hygienic condition or 
the physical well being of those employed in them; there is evidence, un- 
mistakable, of the sale of unwholesome and adulterated food, but it is 
nobody's business to meddle with it and protect the public, there are on all 
sides complaints of building operations in defiance of sanitary laws, and no 
one with authority to attend to them and take action against them, and 
lastly intra mural interments stand condemned in all civilized communities 
but the public authorities of the American cities have no power to stop 
them." It will be the business of this Board to see to it that this stigma 
upon our civilization is removed; to collect and co-ordinate these scattered 
forces, marshalling them into a regular army of well-drilled sanitary troops, 
armed and equipped with all the appliances that modern sience can suggest 
for stamping out pestilence and conquering contagion; to strengthen feeble 
organizations, and to establish new ones where none exist, until there shall 
not be a hamlet in the entire domain of the State without its regularly con- 
stituted health-officers in direct communication with the central head. 5 
Where the hygienic interests of different sections appear temporarily to 
conflict, the Board will use its best efforts to harmonize them. It often 
happens that the sanitary undertakings of one city prove the opposite of 
health-giving in their results in regard to another. The towns and cities 
which line the Schuylkill, for example, meritoriously wash themselves in 
that limpid stream, and so far do well; but unhappy Philadelphia, with the 
typhoid virus creeping through her veins, shudders as she unwillingly 
drinks their defiled washings. That they do this at their peril the story of 
afflicted Plymouth only too clearly demonstrates, for let it not be forgotten 
that Philadelphia sowed the seed from which death has just reaped so fear- 
ful a harvest in that far off mountain village. Hence the necessity for the 
consideration on the part of the central sanitary authorities of the difficult 
problem afforded by "the pollution of rivers," in a broad, generous spirit, 
with a view to determining methods whereby one community may improve 
its own health conditions without impairing those of a neighbor. 
In an immense territory like our own, larger than that of most of the 
nations of Europe, with its great diversity of surface, its lofty mountain ranges 
and its immense forests, wonderful opportunities exist for san'tary engineering 
on an immense scale, determining in what directions water-sheds shall be- 
encouraged and in what diverted, to what extent private corporations are 
to be allowed to jeopardise the health of large sections of the country by 
obstructing natural water-courses, for the purposes of manufacture or nav- 
igation; deciding how far certain forests act as natural barricades against 
devastating winds and should therefore be left untouched by the axe, in 
order to maintain a permanent average rain-fall, and thus avert droughts, 
cyclones and floods, and how far others interfere with the circulation of 
healthful breezes, and may therefore be with benefit removed. 
With a rapidly growing population, and the frequent development of 
new centers of wealth and industry, much effective sanitation for the future 
can be accomplished in supervising the laying out of new towns. No vil- 
lage must be allowed, from this time forth, to take the simplest corporate 
form without laying before this Board a carefully prepared plan of its 
sanitary provisions. Inquiry will be made into the character of the soil, 
the quantity and quality of the possible water supply, the width and incli- 
nation of its streets, whether its projected system of sewerage is wise and 
scientific, whether its surface drainage takes advantage of the natural water- 
courses, its regulations in regard to habitations, the space of ground allowed 
to each, and the space required in each in relation to the number of occu- 
pants. All these are points which enlightened sanitary science demands 
should be arranged, with a wise prescience, in advance, and not left to 
settle the mselves hap-hazard as emergencies may arise, after fearful sacri- 
fices of health and life, and at an immense outlay of money-as our older 
cities are finding out to their cost. 
The Board must also consider the relations of the country to the city as 
a purveyor. The supply of fresh vegetables and fruits, and pure milk and other 
dairy products to large communities, is of the utmost importance, and 
every effort will bo made to require and ensure it. The transportation of 
live stock for food needs to bo very carefully watched and regulated, both that 
none but healthy and therefore wholesome meat may be exposed for sale, 
and that infectious and epidemic diseases may not be introduced among 
our native herds and flocks from other localities; and although this subject 
has not been neglected by a co-ordinate branch of governmental supervi- 6 
sion, the Board fools assured that any assistance which it may render in 
so important a matter will not bo considered as impertinent. 
But to attempt to briefly indicate, oven, all the directions in which this 
organization hopes to add to the welfare and prosperity of the State, would 
be to write a volume, instead of carrying out its intention, simply to speak 
a word. The intimate connection between a high standard of public health 
and material prosperity cannot bo gainsaid. A human life has an actual cash 
value to the community as certainly as that of a horse or a cow. Fifteen 
million dollars would not cover the loss to this State from preventable dis- 
ease in a single year. Hence, the money spent in sanitary precautions and 
improvements, is repaid with compound interest in the longevity and pro- 
ductive capacity of the population. Its disbursement is economy of the 
wisest kind, worthy of the most sagacious statesman. 
But while it is true that the subjects confided to the consideration of 
this Board involve the profoundest problems of political economy and the 
most intimate researches of scientific investigation, it is not less true that 
every home and every hearth in the Commonwealth is deeply interested 
in the practical results to which it shall attain. Every vacant chair by the 
fireside, every empty place at the table, whose beloved occupant was 
snatched away by the ruthless hand of contagious or preventable disease, 
is a mute appeal for more searching inquiry into the causes and moans of 
prevention of such diseases by the health authorities, and more general 
interest in their labors, and readier acquiescence in their decisions, by the 
community at largo and its individual members. The Board therefore ear- 
nestly invokes the conscientious co-operation of every householder to the 
extent of keeping his own home and other buildings of which he may have 
supervision in a healthful condition. 
Especially does it desire that the women of the State should take an active 
and intelligent interest in the practical solution of the problems of home h y- 
giene and sanitation. The establishment of the first State Board of Health in 
the United States was effected by the efforts of a woman, lleference is made 
to that Board whose work has been so effective and thorough, that it has been 
looked to as a model by other similar organizations that of Massachusetts, 
now in the sixteenth year of its existence. The ancients were right in 
making the divinity of health a goddess rather than a god ; for woman, 
as wife, mother, nurse, has for her special function that daily ministry to 
the bodily welfare and daily necessities of offspring and of husband, that 
constant presence in and care of the home, which are such essential pro- 
moters of health in the individual, in the family and in the community. 
The Board is especially urgent, then, that the mothers of the land should 
attentively study the leaflets and tracts which it will from time to time 
issue, giving plain, practical advice as to the best methods of preventing 
the spread of infectious diseases, and of making their homes the abodes of 
health and therefore of happiness. 
The Board proposes to indulge in no display of sanitary pyrotechnics in 
order to dazzle the public and create for itself a factitious importance, but 
rather by quiet, steady, carefully considered work, to organize sanitary 
effort, to acquaint itself with the health conditions of every quarter of the 
State, and to diffuse information which shall develop an enlightened public 
sentiment in regard to both rights and duties from a sanitarian standpoint. 
Especially will it recognize the necessity for moving with caution where 
the interests of trade, manufacture or commerce apparently conflict with 7 
those of public health, aiming always to protect the latter with the least 
possible interference with the successful promotion of the former. 
But, on the other hand, if the Legislature of this Commonwealth,acting with 
its usual wise conservatism, lias been slow in establishing this safeguard to the 
lives and health of the people, the latter may congratulate themselves that 
a much stronger law has now been enacted than could possibly have been 
passed when the first application for such legislation was made. Instead 
of being only a statistical and advisory body, as must then have been 
created, the present Board has been endowed with ample powers to enforce 
its regulations for the protection of the public, and this grant imposes a 
responsibility which the Board recognizes and will not hesitate to assume if 
occasion demand. 
The Board cannot find more fitting language in which to conclude this 
address than that employed in a recent admirable circular issued by the 
board of health of the city of Philadelphia "for the guidance of citizens in 
the management of their dwellings and for personal application." It is as 
follows: "While the health of the community depends in great degree 
upon a rigid observance by officials of all the laws of public hygiene, it is 
no less dependent upon the faithful application of the principals of hy- 
giene on the part of individuals. To accomplish the best results, the earn- 
est and cheerful co-operation of the people with the health-authorities in all 
matters pertaining to the general health is absolutely indispensable." 
ED. WM. GERMER, M. D., President. 
PEMBERTON DUDLEY, M. D. 
J. F. EDWARDS, M. D. 
DAVID ENGELMAN, M. D. 
RUDOLPH HERING, C. E. 
j. h. McClelland, m. d. 
BENJAMIN LEE, M. D., Secretary. 
Office of the 
Secretary of the Commonwealth. 
Harrisburg, July 3, A. D. 1885.