Cinchona, Quinine, and its preparations, especially the Citrate of Iron and Quinine. - Deficiency in the required amount of quinine.

Quinine Pills. Deficiency in weight.

Compound Spirits of Ether (Hoffmann's Anodyne). - Absence of its most important ingredient, the ethereal oil, or substitution therefor.

Spirits of Nitrous Ether (sweet spirits of nitre).- Deficiency in ethyl nitrite.

Salts of Bismuth. Excess of arsenic.

Tincture of Iodine. - Deficiency in iodine.

Iodide of Potassium. Excess of chloride, or other impurities. Bilartrate of Potassium. — Excess of lime, or other impurities, and substitution of starch and other ingredients.

Jalap. Deficiency in required strength.

Cochineal. Loaded with heavy foreign powders.

Essential Oils. - Adulteration with turpentine.

Pharmacopoeial Wines and Liquors. — Excess or deficiency in required strength of alcohol, and excess in solid residue, addition of water, alcohol, or sugar.

Since the enactment of the laws of 1882 and the succeeding years, providing for the inspection of Food and Drugs by the State Board of Health, 175 complaints have been entered in the courts against parties for violation of such laws in forty or more cities and towns of this Commonwealth.

The pecuniary benefit secured to the people by the execution of the food and drug acts has been referred to in previous reports, and some further data bearing upon the same subject will be found in the present report. Local inspection has also received a healthful stimulus, as appears from the reports of the milk inspectors of several of the cities and large

towns.

The following data relative to the milk-supply of Boston are compiled from the report of the city milk-inspector for 1886:

By reference to this table it will be noticed that the ratio of milk supplied to the population has increased from 81.9 gallons per day to each thousand inhabitants in 1862 to 114.5 gallons per thousand in 1885. The rate of increase, however, has by no means been uniform. A marked downward fluctuation occurred from 1876 to 1878, undoubtedly due to the effect of financial depression. In the census year of 1880 the ratio appears to have been about 80 gallons per thousand of the population, with a tolerably uniform rate of increase from that time to 1884, when the ratio was 93.7 gallons per thousand of the population. In the next year appears a very marked increase to 114.5 gallons per thousand inhabitants. A reasonable explanation of the change may be found in the thorough enforcement of the laws relative to the inspection of milk, in consequence of which the population is now receiving pure milk in the place of milk largely diluted, a proportionately larger quantity being required for the pur

pose.

A comparison of the results of early inspections made in 1883 and 1884 in the cities and large towns with the daily results of inspections now made in the same places affords convincing proof of the foregoing statements.

Reference has not hitherto been made to the disposal of the fines imposed for violation of the food acts. The money thus received during the past three years, if credited to the

work of inspection, would have rendered substantial assistance toward the work thus conducted.

PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.

By the provisions of section 1 of chapter 80, and also by an amendment enacted in 1886, the Board is required to render advice in regard to the location and other sanitary conditions of the public institutions.

This duty has been exercised in a single instance only during the period included within this Report.

Notice was received in July from the Superintendent of the State Almshouse at Tewksbury of the intention of its trustees to remove the old wooden structures used for hospital buildings for the women and to erect three substantial brick buildings in place of them. The Board visited the State Almshouse on the 26th of July for the purpose of examining the proposed location. The plan of location for buildings running east and west was not approved by the Board, which recommended that they should be placed in a north and south direction, that all of the rooms might in turn receive the sunlight. This recommendation was adopted, and the buildings are now in process of erection.

NOXIOUS AND OFFENSIVE TRADES.

The offensive trades act provides that the State Board shall grant a hearing to parties on complaint that certain trades or occupations are conducted in a manner which is injurious to the public health and comfort.

This act makes provision for the relief of such parties as have appealed to the local boards without success, and also for persons living in towns or cities, who are annoyed or injured by such occupations conducted in adjoining towns.

Of the latter class, one case has been officially brought to the notice of the Board. The rendering works of Mr. E. T. Jennison, situated on the south bank of the Charles River, opposite Watertown, were brought to the notice of the State Board by an application from the Board of Health of Watertown, complaining of the same. A hearing was granted, and the Board of Health of Watertown, together with many of its citizens who resided in the neighborhood of the

soap-works, were present, and the evidence presented by them was such as to show that a nuisance existed. People living on the north bank of the river opposite the factory, and also on the south bank in the immediate neighborhood, found the odor nauseating and annoying to them, especially during the summer.

Changes have been made in the manner of conducting the business of this establishment, and upon the assurance that further improvements should be made from time to time for the purpose of preventing nuisance, the proprietor was allowed to continue his business.

CONTAGIOUS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES.

There have been no serious outbreaks of infectious disease affecting large communities during the year. The State has been exempt from small-pox, with the exception of two cases, one of which was fatal. One of these cases occurred in June in the person of a young girl, a rag-sorter in a paper mill at Pepperell. There was no evidence that she had been vaccinated. The other case was that of a German immigrant who arrived in Boston October 4, having been taken ill before his arrival. He had been vaccinated in early life, but not since. His illness proved fatal.

Another case was reported from the town of Blackstone, but there appears to be a doubt as to the nature of the case. Two French Canadian families had recently arrived from the Province of Quebec, and one of their children was taken ill and died soon after their arrival, without medical attendance. Another child, dying soon after, was seen by a physician after death, who pronounced it a case of small-pox.

These three cases, including one fatal case well authenticated and one in doubt, make the year 1886 a year of the greatest immunity from small-pox since the beginning of registration in 1842, and probably for a much longer period.

For the purpose of obtaining every essential fact relative to this disease, and especially such data as pertain to its source or origin, the following blank has been prepared and is sent to all towns and cities from which cases of small-pox are reported, in compliance with the provisions of chapter 138 of the Acts of 1883: