Proceedings

have been observed in which calves and swine have become infected with tuberculosis through the consumption of skimmed milk from creameries supplied in part with milk from tuberculous cows. The danger of infection from milk or meat can only be avoided by obtaining these important foods from animals that are known to be healthy, or by destroying by heat the germs that they may contain.

Much progress is being made in the suppression of this important disease of domestic animals and this progress is due to several lines of work. In the first place tuberculous herds are inspected and diseased animals are destroyed outright, thus removing all danger that may accompany their existence. The premises occupied by such animals are thoroughly disinfected. The owners of cattle are placed on guard and upon the first appearance of tuberculosis they take precautions to prevent its spread. Great attention is being paid to sanitary condition of stables and farmers are now enabled to purchase cattle that are proven free from tuberculosis by application of tuberculin test as a result of the enforcement of the new law requiring inspection of all dairy cows and cattle for breeding purposes coming into Pennsylvania from other States.

The State Live Stock Sanitary Board is now engaged in some research work carried on for the purpose of discovering more as to the exact manner in which tuberculosis is transmitted from animal to animal, the infectiousness of the breath, saliva and secretions of tuberculous animals, the infectiousness of the milk at different stages of disease and the discovery of practical methods for the prevention of the spread of tuberculosis in infected herds.

In the beginning of this work there was some opposition to it by farmers on the ground that it is not necessary and would cause them financial loss. That they now appreciate its importance and benefits is shown by the fact that the State Veterinarian receives fully three times as many voluntary applications for examinations of herds as can be made with the funds at the disposal of the State Live Stock Sanitary Board.

CONSTITUTION.

Article I. The name of this Society shall be the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis.

Art. II. The Society is formed for the purpose of preventing tuberculosis (consumption): 1st, By promulgating the doctrine of the contagiousness of the disease; 2d, by instructing the public in practical methods of avoidance and prevention; 3d, by visiting the consumptive poor and supplying them with the necessary materials with which to protect themselves against the disease, and instructing them in their use; 4th, by furnishing the consumptive poor with hospital treatment; 5th, by cooperating with Boards of Health in such measures as they may adopt for the prevention of the disease; 6th, by advocating the enactment of appropriate laws for the prevention of the disease; 7th, by such other methods as the Society may from time to time adopt.

BY-LAWS.

ART. I. MEMBERS.

Any person who shall pay one dollar or more into the treasury of the Society shall be enrolled as a member for the year in which such payment is made.

ART. II. OFFICERS AND THEIR DUTIES.

Section 1. The officers of the Society shall be a President, three or more Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, a Treasurer, a Solicitor, and a Board of Directors.

Sec. 2. The President, Vice-Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer, and Solicitor shall perform the customary duties of their respective offices.

Sec. 3. The Board of Directors shall consist of fifteen members. It shall have entire control of the business of the Society and of the expenditure of its funds, except where otherwise provided for by the ByLaws; and it shall appoint such subordinate officers and agents as shall be necessary to carry out the work of the Society.

ART. III. MEETINGS.

Section 1. The Society shall meet annually on the second Wednesday in April.

Sec. 2. The Board of Directors shall meet regularly on the second Wednesday of every second month, beginning May 10, 1892.

Sec. 3.

The Secretary shall call a special meeting of the Board at the written request of three members.

The officers and Board of Directors shall be elected annually at the meeting of the Society in May. All vacancies shall be filled by the Board until the next annual meeting.

ART. V. EXPENDITURES.

Section 1. At each regular meeting of the Board of Directors all money in the treasury beyond that which is necessary for defraying the general expenses until the next regular meeting of the Board shall be set aside to be used as a Hospital Fund.

Sec. 2. When the money in the Hospital Fund shall amount to $150 or more, a tuberculous patient shall be placed in a hospital for every $150 in the fund.

ART. VI. AMENDMENTS AND NEW BY-LAWS.

New By-Laws may be adopted or amendments made by a majority vote of the Board of Directors.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER QUARANTINE STATIONS.

BY DR. J. J. CASTELLMANOS, NEW ORLEANS.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Conference-Answering your question as to whether the "State of Louisiana has some principal line of work which reaches nearer to perfection than the work of any other sister Board," I beg leave to state that, waiving odious comparisons, and in view of the benefit that is expected to accrue from the collective reports of our Boards, I will endeavor my utmost to comply with the demand. First and foremost, the Louisiana State Board of Health rightfully claims the undisputed prerogative of having been the first inaugurator of the present methods of disinfection, especially such as are connected with maritime quarantine sanitation. To Dr. J. C. Holt, of New Orleans, is unquestionably due the credit of having introduced them, after a most earnest and trying series of experimentation. Nor should Dr. C. R. Wilkinson, our present resident at the lower Mississippi quarantine station, nor should also Dr. Olliphant, our last year's retiring President, be ungratefully forgotten for their respective contributions toward the perfecting of the above-mentioned methods. Several other sanitarians might also be mentioned whose services our State Board is proud to recognize-but I must not be led away into digressions, and must refrain from now entering into what may be considered as the history of disinfection. Already long experience has satisfactorily confirmed the efficiency of our methods to shut out infection and contagion from our port. From a total of 2,500 ships disinfected at his station, Dr. C. Wilkinson records but three exceptional cases on which yellow fever

subsequently broke out. Quite lately the sulphur fumigation furnace, which produces 50 per cent. of S.02, has also been improved by a return pipe conveying the impure air in the ship's hold back into the furnace, to be purified and subsequently consumed for the production of the above gas. To Dr. C. Wilkinson we are indebted for the addition of moist to dry heat in the disinfecting cylinder.

The thoroughness of our disinfecting methods has in a great measure contributed to dispel much of the anxiety born of doubt as to the real value of our former methods and disinfecting agents. It has also led to some lessening of the detention period, thus reducing it from five to three days. In fact, so great is the trust we rest upon our maritime quarantine system of sanitation that we contemplate a still greater reduction in the detention period in the case of our tropical fruit vessels that ply and trade between this port and those of Central America. The perishable nature of their cargo, mainly consisting of bananas, their previous disinfection, both as to ship and crew, after leaving the infected ports, their detention at sea on their homeward trip-all these are considered as so many factors that may work out some degree of assurance. Owing to present exceptional circumstances, we have thus far this year deferred to a not very distant future period the carrying out of the quarantine relaxation above mentioned. For a long time it was a mooted question whether bananas were liable to disinfection, as any other cargo. Attempts in the latter direction were followed by such damages to the fruit as to justify indemnity suits. Lately, in view of their being cut down far beyond the reach of infection, in the neighboring country along the Central American coast, and being speedily transported by rail to the dock, and there handled by a special gang previously disinfected by our local medical representative stationed at each respective quarantinable port.

I have deemed it necessary to enter into this detailed explanation because of the commercial and sanitary problems that are yearly in conflict with one another, owing to this special class of trade.

I need not refer to our management of yellow fever epidemics, as I am convinced they have already been made familiar to you all. The articles unanimously adopted at the Atlanta Convention bind all the Gulf and South Atlantic States by a solemn compact. The importance to be derived from unanimous action of these States, who are ever so likely to suffer from yellow fever importation, is sufficient assurance against any violation of the trust that was pledged on that occasion.

We are all well aware that a new heat chamber, consisting of a double or jacketed cylinder with apparatus for producing vacuum inside of the cylinder, has been lately introduced. If I mistake not, the credit of the innovation is due to Dr. Doty, of New York City. The vacuum is produced either by means of the air-pump or the steam exhaust, the former being the more efficient, as a vacuum of twenty-six inches (the nearest approach to a possible ideal of thirty inches) has been obtained by it. The steam exhaust is, however, sufficiently perfect, and gives a vacuum of from fifteen to twenty inches. It is much quicker, less costly, and does not easily get out of order. A vacuum pump of high pressure requires more attention to keep in order. Dr. R. H. Carter, of the Marine Hospital Service, to whose ability and energy we are so much indebted in our part of the country for the radical extinction of the McHenry epidemic, has largely contributed to popularize the vacuum system, such as it was introduced by Kenyon and Francis, together with the steam jet exhaust of Walk and Murdock, of Charleston, S. C. The application of the same principle (vacuum) to enhance the penetration of formaldehyde was introduced by Kenyon, and is in use in New Orleans and detention camps, as also in some quarantine stations under the supervision of the Marine Hospital Service.