an imprisonment for a period of not exceeding six months, or both, or either, at the discretion of the court; and when such nuisance shall be in existence at the time of the conviction and sentence, it shall be lawful for the court in its discretion to direct either the defendant or the sheriff of the proper county, at the expense of the defendant, to abate the same.

Section 5. The several courts of common pleas of this Commonwealth shall have and exercise all the powers of a court of chancery for the prevention and abatement by injunction of the acts hereby declared unlawful, upon a bill filed for that purpose by any municipality, or by any corporation organized for the purpose of furnishing water to the public, whose water supply is polluted or rendered unfit for domestic use, or by any person who may be specially injured.

Section 6. It shall be the duty of the State Board of Health to report every violation of this act to the district attorney of the proper county, and furnish to him a statement of the facts in relation thereto.

Again, in 1895, another act was introduced, calling for a special sanitary survey and investigation of the specific sources of pollution of public streams, but this act also failed to pass.

AN ACT

Instructing the State Board of Health to make a special sanitary survey and investigation of the specific source of poliution of the public streams, lakes, ponds and other waters of the State used for drinking, household and dairy purposes, and to report to the Legislature at its next session, and making an appropriation therefor.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the State Board of Health is hereby authorized and instructed to enter at once upon a systematic sanitary survey and investigation of the special sources of pollution of the public streams, lakes, ponds and other waters of the State used for drinking, household and dairy purposes, and to report thereon to the Legislature at its session commencing January the first, Anno Domini one thousand nine hundred and one.

Section 2. To accomplish the purposes of this act the said Board is authorized to employ such engineer and sanitary experts as may be necessary and to fix the compensation of such agents and assistants.

Section 3. In the prosecution of the investigations ordered in section one of this act the said Board is authorized, either as a body,

by its individual members, its secretary or its agents and employes to enter upon any premises, dwellings, manufactories or establishments suspected of causing the contamination or pollution of any of the waters hereinbefore mentioned; and any person attempting to interfere with such entrance by the Board or any of its officers or employes, as aforesaid, shall, on conviction, be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than one hundred dollars for each and every such offense.

Section 4. The sum of thirty thousand dollars is hereby appropriated for the purposes of this act, and the expenditures properly incurred by the authority of said Board, and shall be paid by the State Treasurer upon the warrant of the Auditor General.

In order to protect the general health of all communities along the different water courses in the State, it is necessary to secure legislation prohibiting further pollution of these streams. We should also endeavor to secure undoubted authority from the Legislature for the State Board of Health to institute such measures as will reduce the present pollution to a minimum.

These ends could be attained by the enactment of the bill introduced into the Legislature in 1891, supplemented by the bill of 1895. With these two acts in force we could, in a few years, assume a more definite position as to the extent of the pollution and the more radical measures that would be required to secure relief. With these two acts in force our State would be placed on a plane with Massachusetts in the matter of sanitary control of surface waters and sewerage plants.

SUGGESTIONS FOR LEGISLATION TO PROCURE A MORE COMPLETE SANITARY ORGANIZATION IN THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

By Thomas Turnbull, Jr., M. D., Allegheny, Pa., Assistant Bacteriologist, State Board of Health of Pennsylvania.

In our great Commonwealth the health of the residents of cities and boroughs is carefully looked after, but outside of these divisions nothing is done. I refer to townships, some of which have neither a city or borough within their borders. They are absolutely without protection in regard to sanitary organization and administration.

They are unprotected from the cities and boroughs, and are a source of danger to the same. They have no boards of health, no health officer and no vital statistics. Epidemics may run rife, and even the State Board of Health has no jurisdiction, and, unless special notice is sent, the Board has no knowledge of existing conditions.

The first suggestion is that legislation can be obtained to appoint a physician, as medical health officer in every township in the State, whose duty it shall be to look after the sanitary condition of the township, enforce all laws pertaining to health matters, and make monthly reports of the health of the township, and report all births, deaths and cases of infectious and contagious diseases to the State Board of Health.

This would be only extending and completing the laws relating to health in boroughs, to the townships, and why should not such rights be given them? In some cases two or more townships might be united to form one sanitary district.

Sanitary science is making such rapid advance that health of ficers, by health officers I mean the physician in the local board, not the executive officer, should be men specially trained in hygiene and public health. A health officer should be so trained in medicine, chemistry, bacteriology, physics, geology, sanitary engineering and theoretical and practical hygiene, that he is able to make sanitary investigations and correctly interpret the results obtained by other investigators. There is no branch of medicine where as broad an education is needed as in public health. Our medical schools have the facilities for giving instructions in all branches of hygiene, both practical and theoretical. The second suggestion is that the medical schools be granted the power to confer "Diplomas in Public Health" to such persons as shall pass the examination required for such a diploma. With this power they would turn out men so trained that they would make most efficient health officers. At present there is no demand in our State for such trained men, but as soon as there is a supply a demand will be created. Every township, borough, county and city should have such health officers.

Knowledge is power. Until the time comes when the sanitary condition of every part of our State, no matter how remote, is known, the State Board of Health cannot successfully carry out its work. There will always be a point of weakness. When this knowledge is obtained the power of the Board will be increased many fold. The State Board of Health should have a central Bureau of Vital Statistics, located at the State Capitol, with ample appropriations to carry on the collection and publication of statistics; with power to make every city, borough and township in the State send monthly reports to them. The State Board of Health should be the central governing power. Its powers should be so increased that it would 27--19--98

have absolute control of all health matters of the State. It should have control of all local boards of health, water supplies, river and stream pollution, milk supplies, adulteration of food, vital statistics and sewage disposal.

When the Board has this power, when complete statistics are kept, when every township in the State has an efficient health officer, then and not till then can good work be accomplished in the State. Another suggestion is that the Legislature be asked to make an appropriation for the codification of existing health laws and the issuing of this code to every board of health in the State.

THE DISPOSAL OF GARBAGE.

By M. L. Davis, M. D., Lancaster, Pa.

We would feel like apologizing to you for referring to the importance and necessity of the sanitary disposal of garbage were it not a fact that in the closing days of the 19th century the great majority of the centres of population are without any means or system for this purpose, other than to remove it from the most objectionable place in or near the buildings to one a little less undesirable be cause more out of the way. The great State of Pennsylvania, with its 6,000,000 inhabitants, has 49 cities having more than 10,000 people; and in only 8 of those 49 cities have any other means been adopted for the disposition of garbage than by dumping it at some unfrequented place.

The practice for many decades has been for inland cities to convey their garbage to a dumping place, whilst sea port cities loaded it on scows which by the terms of the contract were to be towed ten miles out to sea and the cargo then thrown overboard; this we presume was sometimes carried out, but we know to a certainty that New York harbor as well as Delaware bay has been the depositing

place for many a barge load. Philadelphia, until within the last five years, has emptied all of its sewage and much of its garbage into the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers; the solid portions have deposited upon the bottom of the channel until it became too shallow for large vessels to enter the port, and now we witness the interesting spectacle of the United States government expending millions of dollars to remove the filth which Philadelphia dumped in front of her own door.

Philadelphia by this irrational and unwise action had cut off the possibility of large vessels entering her port, thereby losing valuable shipping trade. Inland cities are doing just as irrational a thing, but in a different direction. They deposit their garbage in some old abandoned stone quarry, an abandoned sand pit, or "sink hole," there to decay and poison the air by the fumes arising from its decomposition, and the water supply when well water is used, by the filthy material carried into the ground by rain, finally finding its way into the wells.

It is interesting to note how the cities of America dispose of their garbage; an investigation made some time since by Mr. Rudolph Hering, of New York, into the methods employed by one hundred and fifty American cities, elicited the following:

Forty-six cities disposed of it by filling in or plowing into land. Fourteen cities disposed of it by dumping it into the sea, lakes or large rivers.

Forty-three cities employed it to feed animals.

Seventeen cities employed reduction plants, recovering the grease for soap making, and making the residue into fertilizers.

Thirty cities disposed of it by burning in various kinds of garbage furnaces.

Thus while one hundred and three of the cities investigated disposed of their garbage in dangerous and improper ways, only forty seven adopted safe methods.

It is only of late years that any scientific method of garbage disposal has even been sought for.

The rapid advancement of sanitation, the establishment of boards of health in cities, enforcing greater cleanliness, made a demand for a better method of disposing of this dangerous refuse and nidus of disease-breeding germs. The law of demand and supply came to our relief, as it always does. The inventor's mind was turned to the subject, and as the substance to be destroyed was impure, naturally the only sure purifier in nature-heat-was suggested. Various methods were devised to apply the heat in the best possible manner to burn the material to be disposed of.

It is our desire to explain to you how this can be accomplished in