Book Description

Excerpt from Pennsylvania Health Bulletin, Vol. 65: January, 1915 Under the law a Commissioner of Health is appointed by the Governor, and an Advisory Board of six members. The Commissioner of Health is the executive officer of the Department and has direct charge of all its activities. He is also ex-officio a member of the Bureau of Medical Education and Licensure, of the State Dental Commission, of the State Water Commission and of the State Quarantine Board, thereby blending the work of these various bodies whose duties to some extent touch upon the public health with the work of the Department of Health. It is the duty of the Commissioner of Health to adopt and employ the most practical means for protecting the lives and health of the people of the State for which purpose he and his assistants and employees are given police power. He is also clothed with all the powers and duties formerly conferred upon the State Board of Health. It is the duty of the Advisory Board to meet at the call of the Commissioner of Health and to advise the Commissioner on such matters as he may bring before it and to draw up reasonable orders and regulations for the prevention of disease, for the protection of life and health, and for the proper performance of the work of the Department of Health. In order to meet the several requirements of the law and fulfill the duties imposed upon the Department, the Commissioner of Health has organized the Department in several divisions as follows: First. The Division of Medical Inspection. Under this division an experienced physician is employed for each county of the State except Philadelphia County under the title of County Medical Inspector, and the rural districts, to wit, second-class townships just now 622 in number, are divided into districts, and a Health Officer is appointed for each district. The County Medical Inspector acts as the Departments consultant and has direct charge of the Health Officers in his county, makes investigations of unusual prevalence of disease, confirms doubtful diagnoses, examines suspected cases of disease where no physician is in attendance, and assists and advises local health authorities in the county whenever called upon. The Health Officer establishes quarantine and performs disinfection for all the contagious diseases in his district, thereby protecting the cities and towns from infection and possible epidemic from isolated cases in the rural districts on which they must rely largely for their milk supply and market products. He also makes minor investigations and sanitary inspections for the abatement of nuisances. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.