The committee announces with some degree of satisfaction that it has succeeded in obtaining the appointment of standing committees on public health in both branches of the State legislature. It is hoped that this step will be an important aid toward securing a respectful hearing from that body in the future. Two cases of issuing of false certificate of death in contagious diseases have been brought before the Board during the past year. The committee suggests that an effort should be made to have this crime recognized in the penal code of the State. In the matter of sanitary rules and regulations, the chairman reports that at Johnstown, he assisted the Secretary of the Board in the preparation of seven health bulletins which were believed necessary to furnish the citizens of the devastated region and of the state with a knowledge of the exact state of the public health, in view of the alarming sensational reports of epidemic disease which were circulated in the press. A circular of instructions was also issued to the deputy medical inspectors of the Board at Johnstown, one to all the physicians and hospitals in the Conemaugh valley, giving instructions and asking for daily reports. Three circulars of information were addressed to the people of Johnstown and vicinity, explaining the sanitary precautions to be adopted to prevent any outbreak of sickness. A circular to all the ministers of Johnstown asking them to give sanitary advice to their people. A blank form for a sanitary survey of Johnstown and neighboring buroughs was prepared and used for the purpose intended. circular of information to the people of all the flooded districts of the state, giving advice as to sanitary measures was prepared and very widely distributed. Copies of all these circulars are appended to this report. Your committee think that circulars of information do much good in times like the past summer, and recommend their continued use at all proper times. It is recommended also that all circulars issued by the Board be gotten up in the most attractive form possible, that those receiving them may feel a desire to preserve them for future use. V.-REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON REGISTRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS. By BENJAMIN LEE, M, D., Chairman. The committee on registration and vital statistics reported a year since, that with the valuable assistance of the Secretary of Internal Affairs, Colonel Thomas J. Stewart and his energetic Deputy Secretary, Mr. Isaac B. Brown, the register of physicians of the Commonwealth was so nearly complete as to warrant its publication. It has accordingly been placed in the printer's hands and forms a portion of the last annual report. An attempt made to correct certain inaccuracies in the matters of deaths and removals somewhat retarded the appearance of that report. With every effort many such errors still remain which in a future edition will be eliminated. The entire absence of sanitary organization throughout the state and consequent imperfection of the machinery for registration must be accepted in palliation. The committee desires it to be understood that the appearance of a name in the register is in no sense an endorsement of the individual. It simply records the fact of registration. There has been considerable laxity on the part of registration officers, and often a failure to appreciate the exact meaning of the requirements of the act. Many names of persons holding diplomas from those infamous bogus faculties which disgraced Philadelphia a few years since have been necessarily admitted. The committee has taken the precaution however to record in each instance the name of the institution from which the individual graduated and to append to the register a list of medical schools and colleges, with notes showing wherever a taint of fraudulence attaches. The tables of comparison which accompany the register are extracted from the report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs for the year previous. They are based therefore upon a smaller number than actually appears. The proportional results however would not be altered. The value of this first register reaching from the inauguration of the system in 1881 to, in many counties, the end of the year 1888 is that it will form a broad and in the main correct basis for future work. The registration of marriages has also been carried on at the central bureau but in a very fragmentary way, the finances of the Board being too limited to permit it to offer pecuniary compensation, to the regis tration clerks as it did in the case of physicians.. VI.-REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON WATER SUPPLY, DRAINAGE, SEWERAGE, TOPOGRAPHY AND MINES. By HOWARD MURPHY, C. E., Chairman. The committee on water supply, drainage, sewerage, topography and mines begs leave respectfully to report that during the past year it has had under consideration the subject of the drainage and sewerage of the city of Reading. The committee finds that the sewage matter is carefully treated by precipitation, and does not constitute a source of danger to the health of either Reading or Philadelphia at the present time. The best possible precautions are taken with regard to the emptying and disinfection of cess pools, in order to prevent pollution of the Schuylkill river. The chairman has made a careful personal inspection of the alleged nuisance created by the drainage of the Devon Inn. While the committee considers the complaint to be well founded, it is convinced that the hotel proprietors are making an honest effort to purify their drainage and thus remedy the evil. The committee therefore suggests that further action be postponed until the engineer of the hotel, General Russel Thayer, has had time to mature his plans. When the system is in working order, the Board will be asked to inspect it. APPENDIX B. REPORTS OF INSPECTIONS. I. Inspection of the Soldiers Orphan School at McAllisterville, Juniata county, by R. L. Sibbert, M. D., Medical Inspector. (a). Report. (b). Supplement. (c). Analysis of water. II. Inspections in Lehigh county, by Charles McIntire, M. D., Medical Inspector. III. Inspection at Eldred, McKean, county, by Spencer M. Free, M.D., Medical Inspector. IV. Inspection at Chester, Delaware county, by William B. Atkinson, M. D., Medical Inspector. V. Inspection at Berwick, Columbia county, by William Leiser, M. D., Medical Inspector. (a). Report. (b). Analysis of Water. VI. Inspection at Gallitzin, Cambria county, by Charles B. Dudley, M. D., Medical Inspector. VII. Inspection at Wallingford, Delaware county, by William B. Atkinson, M. D., Medical Inspector. VIII. Inspection at Kingsley, Susquehanna county, by Lewis H. Taylor, M. D., Medical Inspector. IX. Inspection at Canonsburg, Washington county, by J. R. Thompson, M. D., Medical Inspector. X. Inspection at Middletown, Dauphin county, by Paul A. Hartman, M. D., Medical Inspector. XI. Inspection at Dry Run, Lower Path Valley, Franklin county, by R. L. Sibbet, M. D., Medical Inspector. (a). Report. (b). Recommendations to Property Owners. XII. Inspection at Philipsburg, Centre county, by George G. Groff, M. D., mem ber of the Board. XIII. Inspection at Kilkenny, Montgomery county, by William B. Atkinson, M. D., Medical Inspector. XIV. Inspection of the Canal Bed in Indiana and Westmoreland counties, by H. F. Tomb, M. D., Deputy Medical Inspector. (a). Complaint. (b). Report. XV. Inspection of Water Supply of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne county, by Lewis H. Taylor, M. D., Medical Inspector. (a). Report. (b). Supplement. XVI. Inspection at Hulmeville, Bucks county, by William B. Atkinson, M. D., Medical Inspector. XVII. Inspection of the Rankin Tenement, at Braddock, Allegheny county, by J. R. Thompson, M. D., Medical Inspector. XVIII. Inspection at Lock Haven, Clinton county, by George G. Groff, M. D., member of the Board. XIX. Report on Complaint as to Sewage Discharge at Devon Inn, Chester county, by Howard Murphy, C. E., member of the Board. XX. Report on Muncy Water Works Scheme by George G. Groff, M. D., member of the Board. XXI. Inspection at Butcher's Run, Allegheny county, by Benjamin Lee, M. D., (a). Communication from Board of Health of Allegheny City. XXII. Inspection at Confluence, Somerset county, by C. L. Gummert, M. D., Medical Inspector. XXIII. Inspection at Weissport, Carbon county, by Charles McIntire, M. D., Medical Inspector. XXIV. Inspection of Trout Run, Lycoming county, by E. D. Payne, M. D., Medical Inspector. XXV. Inspection at New Bethlehem, Clarion county, by Spencer M. Free, M. D., Medical Inspector. XXVI. Inspection of the Method of Purification of Water at Antwerp, by J. H. Mc Clelland, M. D., Member of the Board. I. INSPECTION OF THE SOLDIERS' ORPHAN SCHOOL AT By R. L. SIBBET, M. D., Medical Inspector. DEAR SIR-Your telegram of the twenty-second instant directing me to go immediately to the Soldiers Orphan School at McAlisterville, Juniata county, was received in the evening at 8 o'clock. The next morning I set out with authority which I received by mail to make special inquiry as to the cause of typhoid or other fever said to be prevailing in the school and to report. As you gave, March 12th 1886, to his Excellency Robert E. Pattison, Governor of Pennsylvania, and to the public in the published reports of the Board, a very full account of this institution, I need not, except as it may appear necessary, refer to the location and construction of the buildings, capacity and ventilation of the dormitories; capacity ventilation and lighting of the school rooms; condition, character and amount of bedding; condition character and amount of body clothing; quality and quantity of food supply; number of hours devoted to study, sleep and exercise; character and quality of water supply; the analysis of well-water by Dr. Groff; mode of drainage and condition and location of privies. On approaching McAlisterville and the institution, it became apparent to me that both are unfavorably situated as regards health. A small stream of water which requires a bridge twenty or twenty-five feet long flows along the north side of the village, and the school build |