Kentucky Board, part payment of expenses of their secretary while acting on quar antine commission in 1892, .

Debts of former years paid in full or reduced, Amount overpaid by Louisiana and refunded,

Total payments,

49 09

En resume: Your executive committee has collected, since the Nashville meeting, $551.73 (deducting $5.00 refunded), and it has been thus enabled to pay all of its current expenses $(295.78), and to reduce the debts remaining unpaid at the Nashville meeting from $356.99 to $101.91.

To help the collection of assessments, I would suggest the Conference to enact the following rules:

I. Any board neglecting to pay its annual dues, after a request made by registered letter, will be considered as having resigned. Any such board, however, will be readmitted at any time on paying two years' arrears.

II. State and provincial boards having an annual grant of less than $2,000 will have only to state the fact when they receive their bills of dues to have the assessment against them canceled.

III. Members of the Conference will have to pay the assessment whether they were present or not at the meetings of the Conference.

The reason for the first and second rules is obvious. As to the last, it is necessary to pass it; otherwise, should all the boards not represented at a meeting abstain from paying the assessment, we would have to give up printing our proceedings. As the absentees will get our proceedings, same as those who were present, they cannot complain of the proposed regulation being unfair to them. Respectfully submitted,

ELZEAR PELLETIER,

Treasurer.

Dr. C. O. Probst, chairman of committee appointed to audit the treasurer's report, in due time stated that the same had been found correct, and that the committee recommended the adoption of the sug gested rules governing the collections of assessments which were submitted in the report.

On motion it was voted that the audit be accepted and the rules be adopted.

Upon motion of Dr. C. O. Probst, of Ohio, seconded by Dr. H. B. Baker, Michigan, it was voted that the thanks of the Conference be extended to the treasurer for the faithful performance of his trust

and duties, which vote of thanks was responded to by the treasurer, Dr. Pelletier.

The President appointed Mr. T. R. MacClure, of Detroit, assistant secretary.

The Secretary read a communication from the Mt. Clemens authorities extending an invitation to the delegates to visit that resort, and to also indulge in the baths.

Dr. H. B. Baker, of Michigan, stated that the invitation which the Secretary had just read had been handed to him by the secretary of the Convention League of Detroit, and that if the members could not visit Mt. Clemens in a body, that provision would be made for escorting small parties.

On motion, the invitation was accepted with thanks.

The President stated that the acceptance of the invitation would not make it compulsory upon any delegate to take a bath if he did not want to. (Laughter.)

On motion of Dr. Gardner T. Swarts, Rhode Island, Dr. C. L. Wilbur, Chief of Division of Vital Statistics, Michigan, was accorded the floor and spoke as follows:

"Those of you who are members of the American Health Association know that for the past four years a uniform classification for the causes of death has been under discussion. Last year the committee on nomenclature and form of certificates recommended that the Bertillon system should be adopted as the system to be used by all registration offices in Mexico, Canada and the United States. The system has already been adopted and is in practical use in Mexico. It has been adopted in Canada during the past year, in the Province of Ontario, upon recommendation of the registrars of the Dominion census. Of the three countries, the United States, Mexico and Canada, two of these have practically expressed themselves on this question. There only remains its adoption by the United States, or by the several states of this country, for its complete prevalence on this continent. It has already been adopted by the states of Michigan, Vermont, Indiana and Maryland; and the states of Minnesota, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine are ready to adopt it as soon as action is definitely taken by this association. I therefore offer the following resolution:

"Resolved, That the Conference of the State and Provincial Boards of Health of North America recommends the adoption of the Bertillon classification of causes of death as soon as such change may be conveniently made from the systems in use in registration offices. "The word 'convenient' is of great importance. It is not desirable for a city or state which now has a fairly satisfactory system in use to make the change at once. It might be better to wait a year or two. There is a prospect that this system will be revised by action of

the registration officers. But for a state that wishes to adopt a system now, it is recommended that it adopt the Bertillon system as it now stands, and as it has been adopted by the states of Michigan, Maryland and Indiana."

Dr. C. A. Lindsley, Connecticut. "I regard this resolution as a very important matter, and I hope it will receive the sanction of the Conference. It seems to me most desirable that there shall be some uniform method adopted to facilitate comparison between states. I think this matter needs no argument, and I move the adoption of the resolution."

Motion seconded.

Dr. P. H. Bryce, Toronto, Can. "I also consider this an important matter. I think we all recognize the fact that the systems used in the census of the United States and of Canada during the last two decades were very unsatisfactory. While I most heartily favor the adoption of the resolution, I think it should either be enlarged upon or a new resolution made, containing the recommendation of the Conference to the United States government and the Canadian governments that the United States census of 1900 and the Canada census of 1901 be based upon this system of classification. We all know that in matters of government the individual opinion of the officer naturally stands for a great deal, but we have no doubt that such officers would recognize what we recognize, and that is, the desirability of having our census returns comparable in every respect. Mr. President, I move that the resolution be amended by adding that the governments of the United States and Canada be asked to adopt the Bertillon system in the coming census of the United States in 1900 and in Canada in 1901."

Dr. C. L. Wilbur, Michigan. "I most heartily accept that amendment. The only reason I did not incorporate something similar in my resolution was because I feared it might be too far-reaching."

Dr. W. B. Baker, Michigan. "Might I not suggest that the amendment proposed by Dr. Bryce include the United States of Mexico?"

Dr. Bryce. "Certainly, if it has not already been adopted in that country. As I understand it, I think the system is already in use in that country."

The President. "The Chair begs leave to ask Dr. Bryce to offer his amendment as an original motion. The motion recommending the adoption of the resolution has been seconded, and if there are no further remarks a vote will be taken."

By vote, the resolution was adopted.

Dr. Lennares, Louisiana. "I move that the Secretary notify each and every board in affiliation with this Confererce of the action just taken with reference to vital statistics, and that this notification be accompanied with a full explanation of the subject. My reason for

offering this motion is because there may be some who do not understand the system thoroughly. I consider something of this kind necessary in order to fully carry out the intention of the resolution." The motion was seconded, and, upon vote, carried.

Dr. P. H. Bryce, Toronto, Can. "In view of the adoption by the Conference of the State and Provincial Boards of Health of North America of the resolution recommending the adoption of the Bertillon classification of disease, I move that the governments of the United States, Mexico and Canada be likewise requested to make this classification the basis of their mortality census in 1900 and 1901." Motion seconded and carried.

Dr. James Evans, South Carolina. "As chairman of the committee appointed to consider the recommendation that the Conference shall meet in Washington, D. C., each alternate year, I desire to report that the committee has held a meeting, and that we endorse the rcommendation."

The President. "I accept the report of the committee, and will bring it before the Conference at the proper time."

The next order of business was answers by the represented boards of health to the questions suggested by Michigan: "What are the Principal Lines of Work of Your Board?" "How Is Each Accomplished?" "What Modification, of any, Does the Experience of Your State Suggest?" The roll of states was called in alphabetical order, that the representative from each state might have an opportunity to be heard. The first to respond was Dr. D. D. Crowley, of California, who spoke as follows:

"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: The principal work that we are doing in California at present is an effort to prevent the entrance of tuberculosis into our State. We have come to the conclusion that our 'state has been so great a sanitarium for this disease, that it is doing us a great deal of harm. We are making a strong effort to prevent its getting a greater foothold than it has now. Another effort is being made to wipe out tuberculosis so far as cattle are concerned. The cattle men, however, are very wealthy, many of them being millionaires, and they defeat every sanitary measure which we ask the Legislature to pass. At the last session of the Legislature we endeavored to pass a law to have all milch cows examined, but they defeated it. I am speaking now of tuberculosis. In addition to this, we are trying hard to keep Texas fever from obtaining a foothold in our State. It is believed that Texas fever is propagated by the tick. It has been suggested that the State of California should employ an expert veterinary surgeon to act in unison with the Board of Health, and in this way do away with the quarantine laws. I suppose the State of California is absolutely quarantined from all other States-from Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, from Mexico-and therefore,

while cattle can come into this State, they cannot be shipped out again. We also have quarantine laws across the State to prevent southern cattle passing to northern cattle. There is another matter which is also engaging the attention of the California State Board of Health. We have land quarantine, which will prevent any conta gion entering the state by land, but we have no control over the harbors. The Chief of the Marine Hospital Service, Dr. Wyman, is supreme here. I feel that he has usurped power that should be vested in the State Board of Health. So, while we can guard against the approach of disease by land, and secure statistics regarding disease coming that way, we know nothing about disease coming in by ships -by steamers-and it places us in a very awkward position. We feel that we should have control of our harbors.

"These are the matters which are engaging the attention of the State Board of Health of California. I should be glad to receive suggestions from the members of this conference regarding these matters. At the present time we are in somewhat of a quandary."

The Connecticut State Board of Health.

Dr. C. A. Lindsley, New Haven, Conn.

The principal lines of work of our board are three: First, the estab lishment locally of an effective and trustworthy sanitary adminis tration in every town, borough and city in the state; second, the work of securing, preserving and tabulating the fullest and most accurate vital statistics possible; and third, a careful chemical and microscopical examination of the natural waters of the state, including wells, reservoirs and running streams. These are the three most prominent objects our board is aiming to accomplish. Our success in either of these directions has been marked by a slow and inconstant progress to such results as have been attained. Our board is endowed with only advisory powers, and cannot undertake aggressive sanitary work, except as specifically directed by special legislation. Some state boards have broader powers conferred upon them.

In the matter of organizing local sanitary administration in towns and cities, it has been a growth rather than an event, an evolution, the result of careful cultivation of some small germs in the public