Board of Health: 1912 Annual Report

The Old City Hall offered up a Piece of History from 1912

“The Annual Report of the Board of Health for the Year 1912 to the Select and Common Councils of the City Williamsport, Pa” was found in the ceiling here at the City Hall Grand Hotel during our renovations in 2017.  It truly thrills me when a piece of history seems to find US!

According to this report, Williamsport experienced a measles epidemic that Spring, with 565 cases reported by the end of the year.  Although there were no deaths directly resulting from the measles, the board did not mince words pertaining to the repercussions brought about by the residents of the city:

“The foolish carelessness of many parents in permitting their children to be exposed to its contagion is to be deprecated, as many children are left with sequels of this disease, which includes abscesses of ears, diseased eyes and throats, as well as furnishing the soil for the development of tuberculosis, either at the time or later in life, thus causing physical defects which prevents innocent children from getting out of life what they are justly entitled to.”

Cases of chickenpox and diphtheria were reported in smaller numbers, spread by what the board identified as “carelessness.”  Of the 45 cases of diphtheria, only one death was reported, proving the value of “antitoxine” which was the only remedy used at that time.  Twenty-seven cases of scarlet fever were reported in the same year.  According to the board, the most fatal of the infectious diseases was pneumonia, with 76 deaths that year, and no good means of prevention or treatment. 

There were 25 cases of typhoid fever in 1912, “only” four of which resulted in death.  The board attributed this low number of fatalities to infected food as opposed to epidemic tendencies, and proudly stated that “vaccination, as a preventative of typhoid fever, has now proved itself to be one of the great beneficial discoveries of modern medicine.”

Tuberculosis took thirty lives in 1912, all but four of them resulting from consumption of the lungs and the remainder from illness affecting other parts of the body.  The board commended the efforts of the “State and Anti-tubercular organizations” for no increase in cases over that of 1911.  “Owing to its peculiar insiduousness it is hard to overcome, but far-seeing sanitarians freely predict that the time is not far distant when the great white plague will be overcome.”

Williamsport’s Annual Report in 1912 stated the most fatal of infectious diseases that year was pneumonia.

In total, the Board of Health for the city of Williamsport, reported 481 deaths for the year 1912.  The greatest number occurred in the month of December, largely due to the 70 deaths from pneumonia.  This number reportedly broke all records that year and increased the “death rate to about thirteen per thousand on an estimated population of 35,000, deducting stillborns and accidents.”

“FACTS BY THE NUMBERS” from 1912

I hope you find these as interesting as I did!

• 146 animals were received and buried at the dump, the majority being cats and dogs.
• 1,898 rooms were fumigated with formaldehyde gas for contagious diseases. 
• 878 houses were placarded for contagious diseases.
• 610 births reported (146 less than the previous year – by reason of doctors failing to report).
• 315 marriages were reported with one or both parties being a city resident.
• 481 deaths were reported (an increase of 37 over the previous year, wholly due to the unusual deaths from pneumonia).
• 360 school children were vaccinated against smallpox at the cost of $.50 per child.
• 100 - 500 is the number of dollars it cost the city for each case of smallpox.
• 3,700 is the number of dollars appropriated to the Board of Health in 1912 by the councils of the city.
• 157 dairies were inspected, 10 of which were considered “extra good”; 105, first class; 41, second-class; and one in third-class, which was forbidden to sell milk in the city.
• 1903 cows were found in these dairies.
• ZERO complaints were received as to the quality of the water supplied by the city.
• 16,871 one- and two-horse loads of garbage and refuse were received at the dump at the foot of Locust Street.
• 335 separate nuisances were reported and examined that year.

(Shown Here:  Student Nurses Lab at the Williamsport Hospital in 1935. Photo courtesy of James V. Brown Library.)