Saloons are open to the public, but one dislikes to make use of the sanitary privileges offered without purchasing something. To a man of mature age, who is perhaps in the habit of taking an occasional drink, this phase of the subject has little importance; but for a young man in a strange city, driven for lack of comfort stations into a saloon the question assumes a moral side. The only way to avoid the saloon is to make use of an alley or other dark place, thereby breaking a city ordinance and creating a nuisance which gives the offence a public health aspect. The frequency with which this is done is evidenced by the familiar sign “Commit No Nuisance.” In London I saw a sign that to my mind was much less objectionable and equally effective; it read simply “Decency Forbids.”
The establishment of comfort stations at convenient points would I think contribute greatly to public health.
JOTTINGS
INFANT MORTALITY RATE IN N. Y.
The January Bulletin of the Department of Health in New York city shows that the downward curve of the death rate during 1910 and 1911 was continued in 1912 and that the lowest point ever recorded in the city has been reached. In 1911 the death rate was 15.13 for 1,000, while in 1912 it was 14.11. The difference of 1.02 between the two years means that 5,276 lives were saved in 1912, for, if the rate of 1911 had prevailed last year, New York’s death roll would have been larger by just that number. In analyzing the returns it is found that the decrease has affected those diseases which the Department of Health seeks to control; namely, the acute infectious diseases, tuberculosis of the lungs, and the diarrhoea of children. On the other hand, there is a decided increase in the mortality from those diseases which seem to be peculiar to our modern society and which are not under public health control, organic heart disease and Bright’s disease.
The infant mortality rate is low. Calculated on the basis of reported births the deaths of children under one year number only 105 per thousand born, and in all probability this is a little too high, for New York city does not claim to have more than from 90 to 95 per cent birth registration. The record is encouraging when compared with the figures for Great Britain and Germany. The rate for England and Wales in 1911 was 130; that for Berlin in 1910 was 157.
HEALTH OF LONDON SCHOOL CHILDREN
Only in the last few years has the law required every child attending an elementary school to be physically examined on entering and leaving and, therefore, statistics on the health of school children in England are only now available. About a million and a half children are now examined annually. The report of Sir George Newman, chief medical officer of the Board of Education for 1911, has just been issued. It shows the condition of 186,652 children in thirteen counties and sixteen urban areas and is far from satisfactory. Only in one urban area did the percentage of “good” nutrition reach 45, and from this figure it ranged down as low as 3.8. Of 200,000 children examined in London more than half were found to be defective and over 78,000 were recommended for treatment. According to this report the malnutrition is due in the great majority of cases to ignorance of the relative value of foodstuffs and the means of using them economically, and only in the minority to poverty. About .5 per cent of the children are feeble-minded and of these about one-seventh are of such low grade as to be uneducable.
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON SCHOOL HYGIENE
The preliminary bulletin of the Fourth International Congress for School Hygiene announces a meeting, which is to be held in Buffalo, N. Y., August 23 to 30 next. The three preceding congresses were held in 1904 in Nuremberg; in 1907 in London, and in 1910 in Paris. The president of the congress is Charles W. Eliot, president emeritus of Harvard University; the vice-presidents are: Dr. W. H, Welch, professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Henry P. Walcott, chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Health. The lists of vice-presidents and members of the international committee includes the names of some of the foremost men of science in Europe and Asia. Buffalo has raised $40,000 to meet the expenses of the Congress and to entertain the delegates.