Boroughs. Corrected Mortality Among Children, Week Ending December 20, 1913. Includes Small Pox, Measles, Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria and Whooping Cough. Deaths According to Cause, Annual Rate per 1,000 and Age, with Meteorology and Number of Deaths in Public Institutions for 14 Weeks. Total deaths.... 1,359 1,237 1,248 1,301 1,153 1,160 1,183 1,281 1,250 1,388 1,288 1,372 1.343 1,439 Annual death rate.... Typhoid Fever.. ....... Scarlet Fever.... Whooping Cough Diphtheria and Influenza Croup Cerebro-Spinal Tuberculosis Pulmonalis Meningitis. =: : 32 11.26 11.49 12.44 12.14 13.48 12.51 13 32 13 04| 13.97 10 I 5 4 3 5 7 7 I 3 6 4 5 2 I 4 4 Mean barometer. 30.08 29.98 29.73 30 01 29.86 29.85 29.89 30.07 29 83 9 98 0.13 29.97 29.85 29 93 61.0 63.7 61.766 3 56 7° 55.1° 52.7 51.0 45 3 52.4 44 10 45 4° 37.6° .Soin! 74 € 77.0 69.66.° 72. 65. 65 ° 39.0 72 70.0 58.0 57.° 55.0 230 334 319 328 295 324 740 641 630 650 712 227 193 202 238 245 &ཀྐཥྞ =tâཌཀླི ོ དི ༅།, 27 13 II 18 92 94 87 81 91 226 209 326 294 798 710 784 264 284 557 490 199 190 16 20 99 107 86 81 75 211 233 292 305 770 268 24 I 13 105 $9 86 311 807 207 221 DIRECTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH OFFICES Headquarters: S. W. Corner Centre and Walker Streets, Borough of Manhattan Borough of The Bronx, 3731 Third Avenue. Telephone, 1975 Tremont Office Hours-9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 12 m. Telephone, 1600 Stuyvesant. Manhattan-Willard Parker Hospital, foot of East 16th Street. Diagnosis Laboratory, Centre and Walker Streets. Telephone, 6280 Franklin. CLINICS FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN Manhattan-Gouverneur Slip. Telephone, 2916 Orchard. Pleasant Avenue and 118th Street. Telephone, 972 Harlem. P. S. 144 Hester and Allen Streets. Telephone, 5960 Orchard. 1249 Herkimer Street. Telephone, 2684 East New York. The Bronx-580 East 169th Street. Telephone, 2558 Tremont. Richmond-689 Bay Street. (Dental only). Telephone, 686 W. Tompkinsville. Manhattan-Centre and Walker Streets. Week days, 9 to 10 a.m. TUBERCULOSIS CLINICS Manhattan-West Side Clinic, 307 West 33d Street. Telephone, 3471 Murray Hill. Harlem Italian Clinic, 420 East 116th Street. Telephone, 2375 Harlem. Southern Italian Clinic, 22 Van Dam Street. Telephone, 412 Spring. Day Camp, Ferryboat "Middletown," foot of East 91st Street. Telephone, 2957 Lenox. Brooklyn-Main Clinic, Fleet and Willoughby Streets. Telephone, 4720 Main. Germantown Clinic, 55 Sumner Avenue. Telephone, 3228 Williamsburg. Brownsville Clinic, 64 Pennsylvania Avenue. Telephone, 2732 East New York. Eastern District Clinic, 306 South 5th Street, Williamsburg. Telephone, 1293 Williamsburg. Queens-Jamaica Clinic, 10 Union Avenue, Jamaica. Telephone, 1386 Jamaica. Richmond-Richmond Clinic, Bay and Elizabeth Streets, Stapleton. Telephone, 1558 Tompkinsville Otisville, Orange County, N. Y. (via Erie Railroad from Jersey City). Telephone, 13 Otisville. TUBERCULOSIS HOSPITAL ADMISSION BUREAU Maintained by the Department of Health, the Department of Public Charities, and Bellevue and Allied M. B. BROWN PRINTING & BINDING CO. 49 TO 57 PARK PLACE, NEW YORK 592-L-13 (B) 200 All communications relating to the publications of the Department of Health should be addressed to the Commissioner of Health, 149 Centre Street, New York Entered as second-class matter May 7, 1913, at the post office at New York, N. Y., NEW SERIES. VOL. II. DECEMBER 27, 1913. No. 52 THE BOARD'S ACTION ON DR. BIGGS' RETIREMENT. In recognition of the valuable services rendered the department by Dr. Hermann M. Biggs, whose retirement, after twenty-six years of service, was announced in the last publication of the bulletin, the Board of Health of the Department of Health has adopted the following resolution: "Whereas, The present high standing of the Department of Health is inseparably connected with the work of preventive medicine, and "Whereas, Through the establishment of bacteriological laboratories, the organization of a disinfection service, the initiation and development of measures for the administrative control of tuberculosis, the provision of facilities for the bacteriological diagnosis and specific treatment of diphtheria and other infectious diseases, the administration of the Department of Health of The City of New York has everywhere been conceded to be a model of its kind, and "Whereas, All these activities are due almost wholly to the genius and initiative of the General Medical Officer of the Department of Health, Dr. Hermann M. Biggs, whose broad scientific knowledge and sound judgment has been of inestimable value to the Department of Health, and Whereas, Through the retirement of Dr. Hermann M. Biggs, after a service of over twenty-six years, the Department of Health and The City of New York lose the services of one of the most distinguished public health administrators; therefore be it "Resolved, That the Board of Health records its appreciation of the high services rendered by Dr. Biggs to the Department of Health, to the community and to the cause of public health everywhere, and be it further "Resolved, That Dr. Biggs be appointed a member of the Medical Advisory Board; Honorary General Medical Officer of the Department of Health, and Medical Adviser to the Otisville Sanatorium." PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF CHILDREN IN INSTITUTIONS. In the appropriation for the Division of Child Hygiene for 1913 was included an item of ten thousand dollars, to be expended by the Division in extending to the child caring institutions of the City the same system of physical examination of children as was provided for in the public and parochial schools. Five Medical Inspectors were assigned to this duty, under the direction of a Chief Inspector. For many years, under the State Public Health Law, the Department of Health, through the Division of Child Hygiene, has made monthly visits to all child-caring institutions, in order to ascertain whether the sanitary and hygienic conditions necessary for the welfare of the children were maintained. The children, themselves, however, had received no direct attention and this special appropriation made this extension of the work possible. There are sixty-three of these institutions in New York City, divided as follows: Manhattan, 16; The Bronx, 14; Brooklyn, 25; Queens, 4, and Richmond, 4. Work under this special appropriation was begun in March. The institution managers were notified of the department's desire to give each child a physical examination with the idea of furnishing the institution with a health record of each child, so that appropriate treatment, when indicated, might be obtained for it. In all except one instance the most cordial co-operation was met with. In the instance referred to the lack of co-operation was not on the part of the institution authorities, but was due to the objection of the attending physician. From March 29 to October 18, 14.697 children were examined. Of these 6,486 were found to be normal, 8,211 suffering from one or more physical defects. The total number of defects found was 10,884, divided as follows: In general, the percentage of defects noted is about the same as that found among children in the public and parochial schools, an exception being noted in the case of defective teeth. This defect was found among the institution children in only 38 per cent. of the cases, while among the children in the public and parochial schools 49 per cent. were found to have defective teeth. This condition is undoubtedly due to the greater attention paid by the institutions to defects of this nature. After each examination the institution authorities were furnished with a record showing the physical status of the child and its need of treatment. The Medical Inspector co-operated with the institution in obtaining assistance required by the attending physician, if such were needed. In this way much volunteer corrective work has been done by the physicians of the City and appropriate treatment has been obtained at an early date. In October these children were all re-examined to determine whether or not the treatment provided had had the desired result. It was found at that time that 2,730 or 44 per cent. of the children were entirely cured: 1.868 or 30 per cent. were improved, while 1.593 or 25 per cent. remained unimproved. Considering the brief time elapsing between the original examination and the re-examination, the percentage of children cured is remarkable and indicative of what may be accomplished in safeguarding the health of children when it is possible to apply direct and prompt attention to their needs. There can be no question whatever but that the City owes to these dependent children the same supervision over their health that it owes to the other children of the City, and even the brief time that this work has been in operation has shown the need for such supervision and the beneficial results that may be obtained. THE STORY OF AN UNREPORTED BIRTH. Not long since application was made to this department by a father for the record of his child's birth in order that the child might gain admission to school. No record of the birth could be found, and the applicant was advised to secure a certificate of birth from the attending physician. He returned several weeks later and reported that he had made several unsuccessful attempts to secure a certificate from the physician. The doctor was then sent for and the following is his story: |