regions. Have seen seven well-marked cases in four different localities, two in Dorchester and two in Milton; also two cases of uncertain character, but under the same roofs with the other cases, and suspected to be of the same nature.

First case in September, 1882, a laborer at shops where fleeces are washed. A characteristic case of tertian intermittent, an Irishman about thirty-five years old, previously healthy and able-bodied. The wool-yard in which he worked is a low tract of seventy-five or one hundred acres on Pine Tree Brook, a tributary of the Neponset. A fog often clings to this tract while air on hills around is clear. For about ten years past the brook has been dammed through a part of the year and the meadow flowed for the purpose of securing an ice harvest. A portion of the water is allowed to remain through the

summer.

Second case. Female, aged thirty-three; married; previously healthy. Lived with husband and three children in the village of Milton. Taken July, 1883, with a well-developed case of tertian intermittent. The rear and west sides of this house lie close to the border of a five-acre lot of woodland of recent growth. The lot is not well drained and has standing water upon it in the cold

season.

Third case, Oct. 15, 1884, on the Dorchester side of the Neponset. A married women aged thirty. Lives upon a badly drained lot of land, like the last named.

Fourth case. A seven-year-old daughter of case 2, taken ill July, 1885. Had a chill followed by fever; a second paroxysm prevented by treatment.

Fifth case, August, 1885. Man, aged fifty, in same house with Nos. 2 and 4, in another tenement. Had a succession of violent paroxysms of a tertian type with vomiting and prostration in the cold stage. He had a recurrence in 1886.

An adult son of No. 5, without chills or fever, became weak and had an aspect of malarial cachexia. He also had tenderness over the spleen.

Another child of No. 2, three years old, has had an attack, also tertian, making four or five cases in this house.

Oct. 21, 1886, a case presented itself on the southern border of Vose's grove in Dorchester, in a new house near a salt marsh. Boy three years old and form of disease quotidian. Within a day or two after the beginning of his illness an infant of fourteen months, in same family, died after an illness of several weeks, following a blow of a stone on the upper lip. There was an abscess with necrosis of a part of the bone. The diagnosis was pyæmia. The sequel suggests the possibility of malarial poison. The house is on a knoll,

partly surrounded by marsh, and within twenty feet of tide-water at highest tides. The water of the well has a marshy taste and smell. Another case in the practice of another physician occurred in the same neighborhood, a man employed at a coal wharf. Two of the localities involved are at the head of tide-water and near the edge of a marsh; the other three present as the only new condition, artificial obstruction by a dam or causeway to the natural drainage of adjacent soil. In two places where a plurality of cases is recorded it is probable that the well water is injuriously affected.

Four other physicians practising in Dorchester give replies which are entirely negative.

Roxbury."No experience of bad results. Malarial troubles are possibly due to this cause, but it is doubtful.”

"Never saw a case among patients near the river which I thought could be affected unfavorably by proximity to it."

"Have had no cases of sickness traceable to the condition of the river."

Six other physicians of Roxbury give replies of an entirely negative character.

Neponset. "There has been a decided increase of malarial troubles in this neighborhood for ten or twelve years past. Think it not due to Neponset meadows but to faulty sewerage."

Mattapan. "Know of very little trouble that could be said to be attributed to the river. Complaints are made of foul odors from the river. Have noticed river every day. A scum appears on it like grease or soap. Dead animals are occasionally seen. The condi

tion of the river is bad."

THE MANUFACTURE OF CLOTHING MADE IN UNHEALTHY

PLACES.

The Legislature of 1891 enacted a law entitled " An Act to prevent the manufacture and sale of clothing made in unhealthy places." Since some of its provisions require certain duties to be performed by the State Board of Health the act is herewith quoted in full.

AN ACT TO PREVENT THE MANUFACTURE AND SALE OF CLOTHING MADE

IN UNHEALTHY PLACES.

Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

SECTION 1. Whenever any house, room or place used as a dwelling, is also used for the purpose of carrying on any process of making, altering, repairing or finishing for sale any ready-made coats, vests, trousers, or overcoats, it shall, within the meaning of this act,

be deemed a workshop: provided, however, that the exercise of such work in a private house or private room, by the family dwelling therein or by any of them, shall not of itself constitute such house or room a workshop within this definition; every such workshop shall be kept in a cleanly state and shall be subject to the provisions of this section; and each of said garments made, altered, repaired or finished for sale in any of such workshops shall be subject to the inspection and examination of the inspectors of the district police, for the purpose of ascertaining whether said garments, or any of them, or any part or parts thereof, are in cleanly condition and free from vermin and every matter of an infectious and contagious nature; and every person so occupying or having control of any workshop as aforesaid shail, within fourteen days from the passage of this act or from the time of beginning work in any workshop as aforesaid, notify the chief of the district police or the special inspector appointed for that purpose, of the location of such workshop, the nature of the work there carried on and the number of persons therein employed.

SECTION 2. If said inspector finds evidence of infectious disease present in any workshop, or in goods manufactured or in the process of manufacture therein, he shall report the same to the chief of the district police, who shall then notify the state board of health to examine said workshop and the materials used therein, and if said board shall find said shop in an unhealthy condition, or the clothing and materials used therein to be unfit for use, said board shall issue such order or orders as the public safety may require.

SECTION 3. Whenever it shall be reported to said inspector, or to the chief of the district police, or to the state board of health, or either of them, that ready-made coats, vests, trousers or overcoats are being shipped to this Commonwealth, having previously been manufactured in whole or in part under unhealthy conditions, said inspector shall examine said goods and the condition of their manufacture, and if upon such examination said goods or any of them are found to contain vermin, or to have been made in improper places or under unhealthy conditions, he shall make report thereof to the state board of health, which board shall thereupon make such order or orders as the safety of the public shall require.

SECTION 4. Whoever knowingly sells or exposes for sale any ready-made coats, vests, trousers or overcoats which have been made in a tenement house used as a workshop, as specified in section one of this act, shall have affixed to each of said garments a tag or label, not less than two inches in length and one inch in width, upon which shall be legibly printed or written the name of the state and the city or town where said garment or garments were made.

SECTION 5. No person shall sell or expose for sale any of said

garments without a tag or label, as aforesaid, affixed thereto, nor shall sell or expose for sale any of said garments with a tag or label in any manner false or fraudulent, nor shall wilfully remove, alter or destroy any such tag or label upon any of said garments when exposed for sale.

SECTION 6. The governor of the Commonwealth is hereby authorized to appoint two additional members of the inspection department of the district police force qualified to perform the duties of the members of such department.

SECTION 7. Whoever violates any of the provisions of this act shall forfeit for each offence not less than fifty dollars nor more than one hundred dollars. [Approved May 28, 1891.

By the provisions of the foregoing act the State Board of Health is required to issue such order or orders as the public safety may require, first with reference to the manufacture and sale of ready-made clothing made in Massachusetts (section 2), and secondly, with reference to such clothing as may be sent to Massachusetts from any place outside the State (section 3), upon information received from the chief of district police.

But one case has thus far been brought to the attention of the Board under the provisions of this act, the circumstances of which were as follows:

On Sept. 15, 1891, a communication was received from the chief of district police stating that "ready-made clothing was being made under unhealthy conditions in a building numbered 455 Hanover Street in Boston." The Board therefore caused an investigation to be made, and found that a Portuguese woman with her nine-year-old child was living at the place in question (a tenement-house); that the child had been ill with diphtheria and was convalescent. The sick-room had been disinfected by the city board of health, which was also about to disinfect the kitchen or other room of the tenement. The tenement-house was occupied by people of several nationalities who had many children. The Portuguese woman's entire support was derived from the finishing of trousers for a clothing house in Boston. No action was deemed necessary on the part of the Board in this case, since the manufacturers of the clothing, having become aware of the existence of infectious disease in the family of their employee, declined to receive any clothing from her which had been made during the illness of the child, and until the

premises and clothing had been disinfected by the local board of health.

In comment upon this law, under which but one case has thus far been brought to the attention of the Board, it may be said that the law is liable to become inoperative, for the following reasons: 1. In consequence of the indirect methods of execution. 2. Since all questions relative to the management and control of infectious diseases are very properly referred by the existing statutes to local boards of health, who possess all the necessary power and authority to deal with them.

Every case of infectious disease occurring in a tenementhouse in a family where ready-made clothing is made, or under any circumstances whatever, must by law be reported to the local board of health both by the householder and by the attending physician. There is no reason, therefore, why this question should not have been referred to the same board, under a properly framed statute.

ARSENIC IN WALL-PAPERS AND FABRICS.

During the past twenty years the subject of the possible danger to the public health in consequence of the common practice of using arsenic in the coloring of wall-paper and fabrics has been brought to the attention of the Legislature, and finally resulted in the enactment of a law which provided that children's toys and confectionery containing arsenic should not be made or sold. The same law required the State Board of Health to make investigations relative "to the existence of arsenic in any paper, fabric or other article offered for sale or exchange, and to report upon the same before Feb. 1, 1892."

The Board appointed Dr. W. B. Hills of the medical department of Harvard University to make these investigations, and the results of his inquiries are printed in the present report.

NOXIOUS AND OFFENSIVE TRADES.

Several cases, either relating to slaughter-houses or rendering establishments, were informally brought to the notice of the Board during 1891, but no petitions having been received for hearings upon the subject, no action was taken under the provisions of the statutes relating to this class of nuisances.