Municipal sanitation in the United States / by Charles V. Chapin.

  • Charles V. Chapin
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Municipal sanitation in the United States / by Charles V. Chapin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    In villages, towns, and cities of small or moderate size, the health officer is expected to do nearly all of the sanitary work of the com- munity. He acts as the secretary of the board of health, attends per- sonally to communicable diseases, puts up placards, gives instructions, and often does the disinfection himself. He investigates nuisances and prepares the orders which are passed by the board, often serves them? and sees that they are obe}'ed. With increase in tin- size of tin- city come increased duties, the collection of garbage, the care of sick poor. a communicable disease hospital. the registration of vital statistics, ami the supervision of the food supply. It becomes manifestly impossible for a single man. even if he devotes his whole time to tin- work, to attend to all the sanitary duties pertaining to the department. The appointment of subordinates becomes necessary and the health officer then does less of the detail work but attends chiefly to its superin- tendence. In cities of 100,000 and over, if the department of health is even fairly well organized and supported, the duties of the health officer are almost exclusively those of directing, the details being carried out by clerks and inspectors. For examples of rules governing health officers of cities see the printed ordinances and regulations of Charles- ton, Cincinnati. Cleveland, Denver, Mobile, and St. Louis. The secretary as well as the president is provided for in ex-officio hoards, but otherwise is usually elected, though not always. Thus Bridgeport and Qtica which have an independent board, have the citj clerk for clerk of the hoard. In Jersey City the clerk of the hoard of police commissioners is clerk of the hoard of health. When chosen, the secretary, unlike the health officer, is more often a member of the board. In small communities his duties would be light, and he would serve without compensation as do the other members. In larger com- munities the duties are often performed h\ the health officer, and often the secretary is an appointee of the hoard with duties sufficient to require ;i salary. In such cases he is often more property termed a clerk than a secretary. Among important assistants of the health officer may lie mentioned sanitary and medical inspectors, inspectors of food and milk, clerks or registrars of vital statistics, chemists and bacteriologists. All the officials that have been mentioned ma\ he reasonablj looked f«.r in cities of 100,000 and over, and they are often found in much smaller communities. The varying development of different phasi sanitary work in different cities ha- resulted in the appointmeii officials in one city that are unknown in other cities of nun ] si/.'. Moreover, different local condition- due t geographical industries and character of population, and the notions of tl