DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH Report for Week Ending January 4, 1913 AN ANNOUNCEMENT IN REGARD TO DEPARTMENTAL PUBLICATIONS. In inaugurating the publication of the Weekly Bulletin in improved form with the first issue of the new year, it will perhaps be a suitable occasion to describe briefly some of the plans of the Department of Health with reference to its various publications. There has been more or less criticism, both as to the form of the publications of the Department, and more particularly as to the delay in their appearance. Much of this criticism has been justified and the effort is now being made to effect a measure of improvement. Perhaps it will not be regarded as a favorable omen that this statement of new plans should appear in an issue which is itself delayed, but better results are expected when the reorganization of the publication work which has been put into effect at the beginning of the year shall be completed and the machinery put in running order. ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON STATISTICS. A strong impetus to the improvement of the publications of the Department was given by the report of the Advisory Committee on Vital Statistics which was appointed by me in July, 1910, and consisted of such eminent authorities in public health and statistical work as Prof. Walter F. Willcox, Prof. C. E. A. Winslow, Dr. Cressy L. Wilbur and Dr. Roger Tracy, serving with some of the chief officials of the Department. This committee recommended the establishment of a Monthly Bulletin (which was done forthwith), the issue of a Weekly Bulletin in more popular form, and the creation of a division of publicity to extend and improve the methods of the Department in reaching and educating the public. In accordance with this recommendation repeated application has been made for a budget appropriation to cover the establishment of this division, but this request, while very favorably received by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, has failed each year under the stress of considerations of budget economy. It is hoped that a third application in the estimates for 1914 will result favorably. DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON PUBLICITY AND EDUCATION. In the meantime, in order to make the best possible use of existing facilities in the Department, there was created by executive order, dated December 6, 1912, a Committee on Publications, consisting of the following officials: Dr. Hermann M. Biggs, General Medical Officer. Dr. Walter Bensel, Sanitary Superintendent. Dr. Robert J. Wilson, Superintendent of Hospitals. Dr. S. Josephine Baker, Director of Child Hygiene. Dr. J. S. Billings, Jr., Chief of the Division of Communicable Diseases. Dr. Herbert W. Wootton, Medical Inspector, Office of the Commissioner. This Committee has undertaken general supervision of all the publications of the Department, the development of a reference library and the establishment of a permanent exhibit in the headquarters building, to be open to the public. In general, the educational activities of the Department will be organized and directed by this Committee. THE WEEKLY REPORT. Under the direction of the Committee the Weekly Bulletin appears in the present remodeled form, and with a much enlarged edition. This represents a revision of the form and purposes of this publication which was begun but only partly carried out in 1912. The Department, in accordance with a provision of the Charter of The City of New York, has published a Weekly Report for many years. This report has been confined to tables of vital statistics and has been available, outside of its appearance in the CITY RECORD, only in a small edition of 600 reprints. In this form, while of value as a statistical record to close students of health conditions in this city, it has made but small appeal to the public interest. either as reflecting the actual work of the Department or as a source of general information and instruction in matters pertaining to public hygiene. It is the intention to make the Weekly Bulletin the official medium of communication between the Department of Health and the physicians, social workers, journalists and other groups of citizens of New York who are especially interested in the work of the Department. It is not the intention that the Weekly Report shall be a popular bulletin in the specific sense. It is believed that the object of spreading information among the people regarding the causes of disease and the means of prevention, which is recognized as one of the chief duties of a public health office, can be better attained in New York by means of special bulletins, leaflets and circulars, prepared with reference to a particular subject and seasonal appropriateness, and distributed in large quantities at the time and points where they are most needed. This work, already done on a considerable scale by several of the divisions, will be extended and standardized under the general supervision of the new Committee. In addition to the present tables of vital statistics the Weekly Bulletin will hereafter contain topical reports recording at regular intervals the work performed in the several divisions of the Department and summarizing conditions relative to various diseases. A prominent place will be given in the Bulletin to official announcements of the transactions of the Board of Health, such as amendments to the Sanitary Code, the adoption of new rules and regulations, new modes of procedure, and like matter of general interest. The Department has occasion not infrequently to communicate by circular letter to the medical profession and other groups of citizens, and such communications will hereafter appear in the Weekly Bulletin, whether or not they are sent out in addition in the form of individual letters. It should be added that it is the intention at the earliest possible date to enlarge the edition sufficiently to include the name of every physician in New York City. Under this plan the Bulletin will reflect much more fully than at present the entire work of the Department, and while not addressed primarily to the general public, it will, it is hoped, prove a useful source of authoritative information to the newspapers of the city and other periodicals which reach directly a much larger public than the Department itself can reach. OTHER PUBLICATIONS. The Monthly Bulletin will be continued as heretofore and will include, beside the usual monthly summary of vital statistics, a special article in each number relating to the work of some one of the divisions or offices or to some special topic. Meanwhile, during the past year, two new series of departmental publications have been instituted and these will be continued. The "monograph series" will include original papers by officers or employees of the Department, containing studies of some one function or subject in more extended form than is possible within the limits of the Monthly Bulletin. The "reprint series," as its name implies, will furnish the means for distribution in standard form of shorter papers by employees of the Department originally published elsewhere, but officially approved by the Department for reprinting and distribution in this form. The annual and quarterly reports and the publications of the Research Laboratory will be continued as heretofore. The annual report, however, will be published in much more condensed form than in former years and will be made uniform in style with the reports of other City Departments, in order that it may be included in the projected Municipal Year Book. PUBLICITY IN HEALTH MATTERS. It is fully recognized that the instruction and education of the public is one of the first duties of the modern health officer. In many respects progress in public hygiene has gone nearly as far as it can under the older methods of active intervention under the police power of the State for the correction of specific conditions. The reduction of the death rate from those causes most amenable to public sanitary control has been one of the remarkable phenomena of the last fifty years. This reduction may be considered as having approached a practical limit. Meanwhile, the death rate from the chronic diseases of later and middle life remains stationary or increases. In this field particularly, the greatest hope of further progress, resulting in a further general reduction of the death rate, lies in a conscious and well-directed effort toward increasing the spread of general information as to better habits and conditions of living and the specific means of avoiding these diseases. The history of scientific progress in the Department of Healh of The City of New York forms a proud record, but in the matter of spreading its knowledge among the people_the Department has perhaps exhibited too conservative a spirit. Recently the effort has been made to develop this function in a manner which shall be dignified and, at the same time, effective. In so far as the present plans for carrying on the work during 1913 will enable the Department to utilize to better advantage small fractions of the time and experience of the many capable representatives of medical and scientific |