Corrected Mortality Among Children, Week Ending March 1, 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. Week Ending Nov. Dec. Dec. Dec. Dec. Jan. Jan. Jan. Jan. Feb. Feb. Feb. Feb. Mar. 14. 21. 25. I. I. Total deaths.... 1,251 1,420 1,333 1,481 1,403 1,519 1,512 1,546 1,461 1,440 1,568 1,732 1,836 1,699 12.62 14.32 13.44 14.93 14:15 14.75 14.68 15.01 14.19 13.98 15.23 16.82 17.83 16.50 Annual death rate........ Typhoid Fever.. Whooping Cough Diphtheria and Croup.. •2000 0 6 15 7 26 25 33 38 38 41 17 14 21 13 18 11 21 19 3 4 6 71 5 2 I 3 Mean barometer. 29.93 30.02 29.96 29.81 29.93 29.69 30.16 30.19 30.04 29.84 29.91 30.01 29.89 29.81 ture (Fahr-40.1 48. 33.4° 41.1° 33.6 43.6° 39.9° 41.9 41.° 39.4 25.6 27.0 enheit). Maximum tem perature 40.0 33.7° 64.° 46.° 151. 44. 59.° 58.° 63° 60.° 61.° 35 49.° €2.° 59. (Fahrenheit) 55.0 perature 28.0 34° 18. 32.° 24. 30.° 18. 18. 27.0 23 Minimum tem (Fahrenheit)) 17 28 24 29 38 30 41 20 19 18 II 167 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 Telephone, 4720 Main Telephone, 1200 Jamaica .Telephone, 440 Tompkinsville Office Hours-9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 12 m. HOSPITALS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES Manhattan-Willard Parker Hospital, foot of East 16th Street. Telephone, 1600 Stuyvesant. Brooklyn-Kingston Avenue Hospital, Kingston Avenue and Fenimore Street. Telephone, 4400 Flatbush. LABORATORIES Diagnosis Laboratory, Centre and Walker Streets. Telephone, 6280 Franklin. Research Laboratory. Chemical Laboratory. Vaccine Laboratory. Drug Laboratory. Manhattan-West Side Clinic, 307 West 33d Street. Telephone, 3471 Murray Hill. Harlem Italian Clinic, 420 East 116th Street. Telephone, 5584 Harlem. Day Camp, Ferryboat "Middletown," foot of East 91st Street. Telephone, 2957 Lenox. The Bronx-Northern Clinic, St. Pauls Place and Third Avenue. Telephone, 1975 Tremont. Southern Clinic, 493 East 139th Street. Telephone, 5702 Melrose. Brooklyn-Main Clinic, Fleet and Willoughby Streets. Telephone, 4720 Main. Germantown Clinic, 55 Sumner Avenue. Telephone, 3228 Williamsburg. Queens-Jamaica Clinic, 10 Union Avenue, Jamaica. Telephone, 1386 Jamaica. Richmond-Richmond Clinic, Bay and Elizabeth Streets, Stapleton. Telephone, 440 Tompkins. SANATORIUM FOR TUBERCULOSIS 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 Hospitals, 426 First Avenue. Telephone, 8667 Madison Square. Hours 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. M. B. BROWN PRINTING & BINDING CO. 49 TO 57 PARK PLACE, NEW YORK 522-B-13 (C) 2000 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. Report for Week Ending March 8, 1913. NOTES ON THE PROJECTED "SPRING CLEAN-UP." It is a well-established fact that what may be called the general clean-up of any municipality, when conducted in a systematic manner and with a scope sufficient to accomplish its purpose thoroughly, has always resulted in a reduction in the mortality of the ensuing year. The experience of the Federal Government has shown that the rate of reduction has been in direct proportion to the amount of general sanitary work performed. These facts form the basis of the recent proposal for a general clean-up of New York City by the Department of Health. The problem, however, is of such magnitude that no one city department could hope to solve it single-handed, and for this reason the Commission of Health has requested the co-operation of other city departments and various civic societies. While the actual removal of refuse will be done by the city authorities, the moral support required to make a movement of this magnitude a success must come from the citizens themselves, for whose direct benefit the work is performed. It is pointed out to the various civic associations that, while we all wish that our city should be the cleanest and most sanitary in the world, a movement to successfully accomplish such a result must have the cordial co-operation of all individuals and societies interested in promoting public health. The removal of all collections of waste material detrimental to health is a sanitary measure, the importance of which, up to the present time, has been greatly underestimated. It is, however, obvious that the removal of small amounts of waste material from a city the size of New York can have but a very slight influence upon the general public health, and it must be remembered that hundreds of tons of this class of material are habitually removed daily under the present system. The fact must not be lost sight of, however, that a certain percentage always escapes removal and the result is a gradually increasing amount of waste material, distributed throughout the city in houses, cellars and stables. These collections remain more or less indefinitely according to the indifference or cleanliness of the owner of the premises, and while collections of waste material and filth cannot be said to originate disease, they do unquestionably, create conditions which are favorable for its production. It is on this account that the task of superintending a general clean-up of the city would seem to come directly under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health, but, as before indicated, the individual citizen has duties and obligations in this matter which he cannot rightly ignore. Every right-minded individual in the community will admit that in addition to his duties in regard to the preservation of his own health and that of his family, his responsibility invokes doing what he can to protect the health of his neighbors, and that in this connection he should not permit refuse or filth to collect in his home or in his place of business. In addition, the moral effect of collections of waste and filth upon the individaul himself is bad, and where filth is allowed to accumulate other defects in sanitary methods are usually to be found. The present movement inaugurated by the department has a triple motive. Not only does the department seek to remove all waste material which, by its very presence, may be detrimental to the general health, but it also endeavors to eliminate, as far as possible, breeding places of flies and other insects which harbor and transmit disIn the third place, it is hoped that the results, attained this spring will prove so beneficial as to create a precedent and that the movement for a clean city may become an established custom. ease. HOW THE WORK WILL BE DONE. In order to make a tentative study of the problem, sixteen inspectors, under a foreman, were detailed to the Department of Health from the Department of Street Cleaning, and an estimate of the amount of refuse to be removed from districts in different parts of the city is being made. The actual cost of removal is also being estimated. The figures obtained in this manner will give a fair idea of the magnitude of this work and its approximate cost. Men, horses and wagons will be obtained through the Department of Street Cleaning. The final disposition of the excessive quantity to be removed is a matter which has required consideration on account of the large number of barges which will be required for this purpose. Fortunately, these can be obtained at the present time, whereas later in the season it would probably be very difficult to supply sufficient means for the final transportation. DISTRICT ORGANIZATION. The clean-up process will take place from street and from house to house, and in this work the department expects to be aided by district committees formed in each of the boroughs, which will be composed, as far as possible, of the various social, charitable, civic and religious societies, desirous of co-operating, and an absolute equal opportunity will be given each to lend its aid in accomplishing the thorough cleaning of every house in New York. The city will be divided into sections, and the work will be accomplished by means of a system in which the unit will be a given area. CO-OPERATING DEPARTMENTS. The official co-operation of the Street Cleaning Department, Tenement House Department, Police Department, Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity, Department of Education, and the Bureau of Fire Prevention, has been requested. It may be mentioned that this work ought to prove to be of especial value to the Bureau of Fire Prevention, for, during the few days of tentative inspection, collections of material of an exceptionally inflammable character have been found in many localities, in some instances constituting a veritable firetrap. As the actual work of removal will be performed by the Street Cleaning Department, and, as Commissioner Edwards has recently pointed out, the Street Cleaning Department is daily engaged in a clean-up of its own and possesses only just so many horses and carts, it is evident that an enormously increased amount of work should not be forced upon it without due notice and a considerable increase in its force. Commissioner Thompson, of the Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity, in expressing his hearty co-operation has informed the Department of Health that all the water necessary for street flushings, etc., is fortunately available. The co-operation of the Department of Education will be of distinct value in the dissemination of information through the distribution of literature by school children, and in interesting the latter in the general movement. Lectures will be given by the inspectors of the Division of Child Hygiene of the Department of Health in the various schools of the city in order to familiarize the pupils and their parents with the necessity of a general spring clean-up. DENTAL CLINICS FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN. The Department of Health announces the opening of six dental clinics for school children. These clinics are maintained in connection with those already established, which have for the past year provided medical and surgical treatment for trachoma and diseases of the nose and throat, and a service for estimating refraction in the case of children with defective vision. The budget schedule for 1913 made provision for the employment of one supervising dentist and nine staff dentists. These dentists are now on duty, and six clinics have been established as follows: Two in the Borough of Manhattan, three in the Borough of Brooklyn, and one in the Borough of The Bronx. Since the department inaugurated the physical examination of children in the public schools, it has been increasingly evident that dental defects are not only more prevalent than other physical defects, but that the facilities for free dental treatment are absolutely inadequate to provide any relief for the situation. Approximately sixty per cent. of all children examined have been found to have decayed teeth. In many instances the defects of the teeth have been so extensive and far advanced that corrective treatment, even if it could be obtained, would be of little value. The present registration in the public schools is approximately 700,000. There are, therefore, at a conservative estimate, 420,000 public school children in this city in urgent need of dental treatment. The majority of these children are from families who are unable to pay for the needed care. The Division of Child Hygiene has made exhaustive efforts to obtain dental treatment for these children, but, owing to the lack of facilities, only a small percentage have received attention. In order, however, to carry out its policy of preventive hygiene, the school nurses of the Department of Health have for the past four years given instruction in dental hygiene to all children with dental defects and have successfully maintained a system of socalled "tooth-brush drills," with instruction in the care of the mouth and teeth for the younger children in the public schools. Up to the beginning of this year there were but eighteen free dental clinics in this city. Of these only one was exclusively for the use of children. This one |