The school buildings which are erected to-day are modeled along the lines laid down by this committee, and from a sanitary standpoint can be little, if at all, improved upon. The sites which are usually purchased for these buildings are, however, mach smaller than the prescribed size, and might be enlarged with great advantage, both for the purpose of providing suitable playgrounds for the pupils and of improving the lighting and ventilation of the building. As, however, the size of the site is usually limited by the amount of the appropriation, it will manifestly be impossible to improve this feature of our buildings unless larger appropriations can be secured.

The chief features of the schools, however, which have received the attention of this department, and in respect of which the recommendations above cited have not been complied with, are the heating and ventilation and the privy accommodations. The system of heating and ventilating which has been for years in general use (the so-called Smead system) is not, in the judgment of this department, satisfactory. The air supply is deficient in moisture, and unevenly distributed through the various rooms. Back drafts occur, which, while detrimental to proper ventilation at all times, are absolutely dangerous when the ventilating system is connected with the privy vaults, as is the case in many of the school buildings now in use. In those which have been erected since the recent appointment of a committee by the Commissioners, to investigate the heating and ventilation of school buildings, this system of vaults has been abandoned, and the water-closets which were introduced in the place thereof are practically separated from the general system of ventilation of the rest of the building; and it has been recommended by this department, March 19, 1897, that steps be taken looking toward the replacement of all such vaults by properly constructed water-closets. It is earnestly hoped that this recommendation can be carried out without delay.

Aside, however, from the matter of separating the heating and ventilating systems from the device for the disposal of excreta, it is desirable that present methods be replaced by the combined direct and indirect system of steam heating and mechanical ventilation. Recently erected buildings have been provided with facilities for mechanical ventilation, but the investigations of this department have shown that they are not at all times in use. Even in these buildings, however, it has not been possible to introduce steam heat because of the insufficiency of the appropriation. It is hoped that either by securing increased appropriations, or by economizing in other directions, it may be possible hereafter to introduce the improved methods of heating and ventilation suggested.

The investigation of the privy accommodations of the various schools, in which this department was assisted by the inspector of plumbing, showed 42 buildings provided with water-closets. In 16 of these such closets were located within the buildings, and in 26 they were in the yards. Dry closets were found within the buildings (the so-called Smead system of dry closets) in 39 instances, and in 17 box privies were located on the premises, but not within the building. The schools having box privies are, of course, county schools so located that sewer connections are impossible. Many of the buildings provided with the system of privy vaults formerly installed in connection with the so called Smead system of heating and ventilation, are, however, so located that sewer connections can be made and the vaults abandoned, which action, as has been recommended above, should be taken as soon as possible.

the plumbing of those buildings provided with sewer connections, which are, however, being remedied as rapidly as possible.

The recommendation of the Congressional committee above quoted was that water-closet accommodations for the pupils should be provided on each floor. Provision of accommodations of this kind would not only prove advantageous from a sanitary standpoint, but would tend to diminish the congregation of children about the closets, which is itself objectionable for moral reasons.

The investigation by the health department indicates the need of a superintendent of school buildings-whose duties might without harm be extended to the superintendence of all public buildings-who should have constant oversight of their general sanitary condition. This duty is now intrusted in each case to the principals of the buildings, and the general cleanly condition of the premises indicates that their duty is well performed. But these officials have not as a rule had the necessary technical or mechanical training to fit them for the performance of certain details of such work. For instance, it was found in one case that ventilators in a building had been permanently closed, but by whom or when or by whose authority no one could tell, the principal of the building not being aware of the condition until her attention was called to it. Similarly, defective plumbing was discovered in some cases which the principal of the building could not reasonably be expected to detect. The appointment of practical men having more or less technical education or training, to have general oversight of the condition of school buildings, would, it is believed, tend toward a better sanitary condition as to heating, ventilating, etc., and probably, by causing a more intelligent use of fuel and heat on the part of the janitors, result in a saving that would help to defray the cost of the service.

The proposed introduction of water filters into some of the school buildings, as authorized by an act of Congress approved March 3, 1897, must be considered more in the light of an experiment than in the view of a serious attempt to equip all such buildings with such appliances, as the amount so appropriated is manifestly too small for this purpose. The recommendation contained in the last report of this department for the establishment of a medical inspection of schools is respectfully renewed, and an appropriation asked for that purpose. The necessity for this is indicated to a certain extent by the fact that in a single month, in the city of Boston, there were discovered in the public schools, by means of such inspection, 137 cases of contagious disease, and in all about 1,700 children who were too ill to remain at school.

Attention is also invited to the previous recommendation in reference to modifications in the present method of distributing schoolbooks and in the arrangement of the cloakrooms, which recommendations are also renewed.

INSPECTION SERVICE.

The inspection force of this department has been increased during the past year by the addition of a veterinary surgeon, who is by law designated as inspector of dairy farms and of live stock. The inspection service, therefore, embraces at the present time general inspection of nuisances, of foods, of drugs, of marine products, of live stock, and of dairies, dairy farms and dairy products, and the supervision of the collection of garbage and dead animals. In view of the scope and amount of this work, the appointment of a chief inspector is respectfully recommended. with a salary commensurate with the duties and responsibilities of the office.

A safeguard to the work of this department was secured in the passage of an act to punish the impersonation of inspectors of the health and other departments of the District of Columbia, approved March 2, 1897.

Nuisances. As compared with the preceding year, the total number of nuisances reported and abated has diminished, having been 19,116 for 1896, while for the past year it has been but 16,587. This diminution has not been confined to any particular class, but has been generally distributed throughout the list.

TABLE K.-Consolidated report of nuisances for the year ending June 30, 1897.

Nature of nuisance.

Total.

July. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May. June.

TABLE L.-Consolidated report of nuisances for ten years ending June 30, 1897.

The most serious difficulty with which the health department has at present to contend in securing the abatement of nuisances is, under the rulings of the court, the absence of liability on the part of the agent for the sanitary condition of the premises under his control unless specifically charged therewith by the owner; and it not infrequently happens that where the owner of the property does not reside within the District of Columbia, and limits the power of his agent to the collection of rents, when a nuisance occurs upon the property for which the owner and not the occupant is by law responsible the agent declines to receive notice to abate the same, or to give information as to the address of the owner, thus leaving the health department practically powerless.

The abatement of nuisance is also delayed, and in some cases practically prevented, where the title to the property is for any reason unsettled.

There not infrequently occur, therefore, conditions which undoubtedly constitute nuisances, and which are essentially in violation of law, but for the abatement of which the remedy provided by law fails. It is therefore respectfully recommended that authority be asked for the abatement of nuisances upon private property by or under direction of the District government whenever the owner of such property can not be found, the cost of such abatement to be assessed against the property as a tax, and to be collected in the same manner as other taxes are collected.

Under the act to provide for the drainage of lots, approved May 19, 1896, 800 sewer and water connections have been made. As in the case of the general-uuisance laws, difficulty is experienced in requiring the

connection of property belonging to nonresidents. For, while the law authorizes connections to be made in such cases, the cost thereof to be assessed against the property, the only fund available for the payment of such cost, in the first instance, is the emergency fund, which is utterly insufficient for the parpose, and the maintenance of which is so important as not to justify, in the judgment of this department, any recommendation for such use of any part of it.

In this connection attention is respectfully invited to the condition which arises from the present method of enforcing the payment of water rent by cutting off the water supply in case of default. While the act above referred to requires water and sewer connections to be made, the former being practically necessary for the proper maintenance of the latter, it occasionally happens that the water supply is cut off by the government, thus creating nuisances which the owner or agent sometimes will not and the tenant can not abate. It is suggested, therefore, that from a sanitary standpoint it would be better if the water tax were assessed against the property and collected in the same manner as other taxes.

An important advance in the sanitary regulations of the District was made by the promulgation by the Commissioners, on April 19, 1897, of an amendment to the police regulations making it unlawful to spit on any part of any street-railway car or other public vehicle. And a still more important advance was made by the promulgation three days later of regulations governing the use and occupancy of buildings and grounds. Prior to the promulgation of the latter, the health department was practically without authority over unsanitary conditions existing within occupied buildings, although having the right to abate such nuisances as might exist in open lots; but by these regulations ample authority is, it is believed, granted, so far as lies within the authority of the Commissioners.

Notwithstanding, however, the authority granted by these regulations and by the various other laws in force in this District, a large number of dwellings exist which are totally unfit for occupation, and for the condemnation and removal of which there is no remedy. This condition was brought so forcibly to the attention of the Central Relief Committee in the course of its charitable labors during the past winter that through its efforts a bill was prepared and presented to the Commissioners which will, if enacted into law, provide the necessary relief. And as a means toward providing better accommodations for the occupants of such buildings as should and may be demolished, and so as to encourage the erection of a better class of dwellings to be rented at reasonable rates to those in poor and moderate circumstances, there has been organized through this committee a company for the purpose of building such dwellings.

Smoke nuisance.-Under date of December 4, 1895, the Commissioners directed the committee which had been previously appointed to investigate the heating and ventilating of school buildings to include in the scope of its investigations smoke-preventing devices and the most practicable method of doing away with the smoke nuisance from soft coal in the city of Washington. The committee, of which the health officer was a member, after giving the matter careful consideration, presented a report under date of January 16, 1897, together with the draft of such legislation as was recommended in that report. This legislation, in substantially the form proposed, was presented to Congress (S. 3648), but was not acted upon owing to the adjournment on March 4.