Annual report of the Board of Health of Lynn / by the Chairman of the Commissioners appointed under a resolve of the legislature of Massachusetts, relating to a sanitary survey of the State.

Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Board of Health of Lynn / by the Chairman of the Commissioners appointed under a resolve of the legislature of Massachusetts, relating to a sanitary survey of the State. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH. [The Sanitary Commission, in their “ General Plan for the Promotion of Public and Per- sonal Health,” recommend that Local Boards of Health be established in every city and town in the State; and that these Boards be required to make reports, annually, concerning the sanitary condition of their respective localities. To illustrate a mode by which such re- ports may be made, and the topics which they might profitably notice and discuss, the Com- mission have presented two specimens, one purporting to be made by the Board of Health of Plympton, and another by that of Lynn. They are not reports which were actually made by Boards of Health in those towns, but which might have been made from the facts that existed therein. The following report, reprinted from that given by the commission, purports to be made for the year 1849, and to be presented March 1, I860, at the close of the municipal year. It is, however, dated and contains information subsequent to the period at which it would have been proper that it should be made. This apparent anomaly will not diminish the force of the facts and the intended illustrations it presents. See Report of the Sanitary Commission, pp. 124. 487, 498.] To the Inhabitants of the Town of Lynn : The Board of Health in submitting their annual report at this time, seem to be called upon, in the discharge of their duty, to notice more particularly than usual the circumstances that have transpired in the sanitary history of the town ; and they proceed to do it in as con- cise a manner as the great importance of the topics to be noticed will admit. 1. Proceedings of the Board of Health. The Board of Health, at their election, March 12, 1849, felt that an office of iabor and responsibility had been conferred upon them ; and they have been desirous of discharging its duties in such a manner as would be satisfactory to themselves and useful to their fellow-citizens. During the year 1848, a portion of the town suffered very severely from an epidemic dysentery ; and when the board was constituted, it was still suffering from scarlatina—also a dreadful scourge. The Asi- atic cholera, too, had then appeared in some parts of the country ; and it was apprehended that it might extend its ravages to this State and neighborhood, and perhaps to this town. It was supposed that a clear conception did not exist, in the minds of the inhabitants generally, as to the powers and duties of boards of health ; nor as to the manner in which they might be publicly bene- ficial. The act establishing the Board of Health was passed June 16, 1821, and under it such boards have been nominated and chosen in town meeting, like tithing-men, fence-viewers, and other similar officers; and the members seem to have considered the office rather a nominal than an active one ; and seem to have acted, when they acted at all, upon their individual responsibility, without much systematic organization or cooperation. No records of their proceedings, if any were kept, have come to our knowledge. The present board