should not be received as guides of public action. Caution and careful examination should be used before executing any measure not generally sanctioned.

Under the operation of sections 19 to 24, of the 21st chapter of the Revised Statutes, the sheriff can, if he chooses, with or without the consent of those interested, appropriate any person's house and any one's provisions and personal services, for the use of the sick. This summary power has existed in this Commonwealth for nearly two hundred years; but, notwithstanding its antiquity, it is deemed proper to modify it in some degree, as in the 21st section of the proposed act. Cases may occur, however, where, in a house or a locality, a nuisance or a disease may exist, which is directly injurious to the health of the neighborhood, and which the owner or occupant, even after persuasion and remonstrance, refuses to remove or abate. In such cases it becomes the duty of the Board of Health to interfere. Public safety requires it-human life demands it. And for such cases the authority of this section is very properly given.

IX. WE RECOMMEND that an appropriation be made annually by the State, for the purchase of books for the use of the general Board of Health; and by each city and town for the purchase of books for the use of each local Board of Health.

We have said that a knowledge of what ought to be done, and of the best way of doing it, is an important requisite in the discharge of any duty; and in none is it more important than in matters relating to health. The principles on which the science of public health is founded, the different modes by which those principles have been applied, and the practical experience of those by whom they have been carried forward, are from time to time published, and are accessible to the public. And as a means of enlightened action and judicious economy, an appropriation should be made by the State, and by each city and town, of such a sum as circumstances may render expedient, for the purchase of the most useful and important of these publications for the use of the several Boards of Health. They would aid in the adoption, application and administration of different measures, in different localities; and thus enable us

to avoid the useless and expensive mistakes made by others, and to which we may be liable. The expediency of this measure is too obvious to need discussion. The Board of Health of Philadelphia is the only one in this country, to our knowledge, which has commenced the formation of a Sanitary library. Their excellent example is worthy of imitation by others. Section eleven of the act provides for this matter. In the appendix we have given a list of several works that have come under our own immediate examination, and which we have found to be valuable for such an object.

X. WE RECOMMEND that each local Board of Health be required to make a written report annually to the town, concerning its sanitary condition during the next preceding year; and to transmit a written or printed copy of the same to the General Board of Health.

The cause of education is not of greater importance than the cause of public health; and what has been done for the former may very properly be done for the latter. It is now twenty years since one of this Commission, being then a member of the school committee of the town of Concord, prepared and published a new code of school regulations for that town. Among other matters it was provided that bound blank books for school registers for each school district, prepared under such form as he prescribed, should be furnished by the general school committee to the several teachers at the commencement, and returned at the end of the successive school terms; and that the committee should make written reports to the town at the annual meeting, concerning the schools, under their superintendence, during the next preceding year. The first written report was prepared, presented, and published by him in 1831. This regulation was original with him; and as far as his knowledge extends, this was the first annual school report of that description ever presented in a public town meeting in Massachusetts. Subsequently this regulation was introduced into Cambridge, Northborough and other places; and it operated so well that, at his suggestion, while a member of the legislature, the law of April 13th, 1838, relating to this subject, was matured and passed. And it may with perfect truth be said that no one

measure, aside from the establishment of the Board of Education, has done so much good.

What has done so much for education may do as much for public health. The annual school reports have made education a subject of abiding interest among the people, prevented ignorance and saved the intellectual character of the State. The sanitary reports would bring matters of no less importance before the people of every town; make public and personal health a subject of no less abiding interest; and thus tend to prevent disease and physical suffering, and save life. They would be annual lessons on sanitary science, localized and reduced to practice in the known experience or observation of the citizens.

The materials for the composition of these reports will of course vary in different places and in different years. Concerning large towns and epidemic seasons, more may, with propriety, be said than concerning small towns and healthy seasons. But to the Boards of Health of every town, in every year, a sufficient number of topics will be suggested for a report, which might be so drawn as to be made interesting and valuable. The births, marriages and deaths; the different diseases and causes of the deaths, and the external circumstances under which they occurred; the amount and kind of sickness suffered among different occupations, and in the public schools; a description of localities where diseases have been most prevalent; facts which develop the causes of disease; means suggested for their prevention; and the various subjects mentioned in this report, and especially in the circular in the appendix, relating to a sanitary survey, or developed in the practical discharge of duties, will furnish to Boards of Health ample materials and facts for discussion. We have inserted in the appendix reports which might have been made in two towns for the last year, to illustrate our ideas of what such reports might contain.

A copy of the reports from every town in the State is to be transmitted to the General Board of Health to furnish materials for their annual reports. In this way a sanitary survey of the State would be made and published every year, imparting information of the utmost importance.

XI. WE RECOMMEND that the sanitary and other reports and statements of the affairs of cities and towns which may be printed should be in octavo form, on paper and page of uniform size, (similar to the public documents of the State,) and designed to be bound together, as THE ANNUAL REPORTS OF THE TOWN; and that five copies be preserved by the Board of Health, one copy be furnished to the General Board of Health, one to the State Library, and that others be given to Boards of Health elsewhere in exchange for their publications.

The system of exchanges of public documents and works, was introduced into this State, by a member of this commission, by a resolution which passed the Legislature, April 23, 1838. This was some years before Mr. Vattemare was known in this country as its promoter. Though much less has been accomplished in carrying out the provisions of that resolve, than might have been done, yet considerable benefit has already resulted from the measure. A uniform collection of all the printed documents of a city or town, bound and preserved; and in addition a collection of similar works of other towns and public bodies, would constitute an exceedingly valuable fund of the recorded experience of the age; and could not fail of being of great use to all interested. We have accordingly provided for it in section eleven.

The city of Baltimore requires reports from all the departments of the government and city institutions, to be made annually in January; and these reports are published together, in a volume, forming an exceedingly valuable depository of official papers, showing the history and progress of the city. A similar practice, embracing a part only of the city institutions, prevails in Salem, Lowell, Cambridge, and in some other places, in our own State. It should be generally adopted by all municipal corporations, any of whose documents are printed.

XII. WE RECOMMEND that the successive enumerations of the inhabitants of the State be so made, abstracted, and published, that the most useful and desirable information concerning the population may be ascertained.

Several important purposes are attained in an accurate enumeration or census of the inhabitants. The constitution of the

United States and of this State both require such enumerations to be made, as the basis on which the number of representatives to the national and state legislatures shall be determined. This is a political purpose. The character of man, as a social being, is modified by the circumstances of his existence, and varies as these circumstances vary in their development in different places and at different periods; and it is desirable for a social and scientific purpose that such characteristics may be ascertained as will exhibit these varieties or differences. An exact knowledge, too, of the living inhabitants in a given locality, is the first, and an essential element, for estimating their sanitary condition. This is the third most important purpose.

It should be the main design of every census, taken for a scientific or sanitary purpose, to ascertain some positive facts, concerning the then existing persons enumerated, which may be compared with other similar facts, as a common standard, or together, to show the characteristics of different populations. Two censuses, one containing a class of facts as to ages or other circumstances, and another, a different class, cannot be so compared together, and hence are nearly useless. The value of the six different enumerations of the inhabitants of the United States, would have been much greater than they are, if all of them, both of the free and slave population, had been made and abstracted upon a well digested and the same uniform plan. As they are, they contain but a few classes of facts which admit of comparison with each other. It is well to consider, before taking a census, what facts or characteristics are most desirable and important; and, when determined upon, the same facts should be obtained in every subsequent census. To fulfil all the political requirements of the constitution of the United States, and of this State, an enumeration of the whole number of the inhabitants, merely, without any particulars except a statement of the free and slave population separately, and "excluding Indians not taxed," is all that is required. But the scientific and sanitary inquirers are not satisfied with such an enumeration. They desire to know something more than the mere numbers of the people. They know that the social character and elevation, and the sanitary welfare