polis' hired doctors.

[Illustration: DR. CHARLES V. CHAPIN

SUPERINTENDENT OF HEALTH IN PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, ONE OF THE CITIES
WHICH HAS BEEN FOREMOST IN PROSECUTING PHYSICIANS FOR FAILURE TO GIVE
NOTICE OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE]

The province of the city, State, and Federal health organization is
broad. "Control over all matters affecting the public health" is a
comprehensive term. "All the powers not already given to the school
committees," observed a Massachusetts judge, "are now ceded to the
Boards of Health." In theory, then, almost unlimited powers are vested
in the authorities. But how carefully they must be exercised in order
not to excite public jealousy and suspicion, every city health official
well knows. More serious than interference and opposition, however, is
the lack of any general equipment. At the very outset the loosely allied
army of the public health finds itself lacking in the primal weapon of
the campaign; comprehensive vital statistics.

[Illustration: DR. JOHN N. HURTY

SECRETARY OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH IN INDIANA, WHICH HAS RECENTLY PASSED A
LAW FORBIDDING THE MARRIAGE OF IMBECILES, EPILEPTICS, AND PERSONS
SUFFERING FROM CONTAGIOUS DISEASE]

_Our Absurd Vital Statistics_

Vital statistics in this country are an infant science. Yet they are the
very basis and fundament of any attempt to better the general health.
Knowledge of what is killing us before our time is the first step toward
saving our lives. The Census Bureau does its best to acquire this
essential information. For years Director North has been persistently
hammering away at this point. But progress is slow. Only fifteen States,
representing 48 per cent. of our population, are comprised in the
"registration area"; that is, record all deaths, and forbid burial
without a legal permit giving the cause of death and other details.
Outside of this little group of States, the decedent may be tucked away
informally underground and no one be the wiser for it. This is
convenient for the enterprising murderers, and saves trouble for the
undertakers. Indeed, so interested are the latter class, that in Iowa
they secured the practical repeal of a law which would have brought that
State within the area; and in Virginia this year they snowed under a
similar bill in the legislature, by a flood of telegrams. Ohio, the
third largest State in the Union, keeps no accurate count of the ravages
of disease. Probably not more than 60 per cent. of