Fifty Cases of Scarlet Fever and One Health Officer

The board of health is charged with a very serious responsibility. There are some fifty cases of scarlet fever in the city, with only one health officer to look after the sanitary conditions. Scarlet fever is a disease whose spread is by contact. The danger is greatest when patients are convalescing, because the dry scales of skin may fly from the body and carry the disease. These retain their pernicious vitality for a long time, and the utmost care is needed to check the disease. It is now well in hand. If its spread can be stayed many hundreds of children will be spared and many lives removed from jeopardy. No man can tell where the dagger lurks or feel secure against visitation. An error of judgment on the part of the board might imperil lives which no afterthought could restore. No parent who suffered loss of a beloved child would excuse failure to apply laws carefully to check all epidemics in the beginning. In the face of so grave a responsibility few men would care to harass the board of health or deter it from performance of what it conceives to be its duty. The man who is willing to risk his own child's life in order that his neighbor's child shall not be deprived of a week or two of schooling is the only man who should stay the board's hand. It is not a question of construction of statutes or of the relative importance of the authority of rival boards. It is a question of the safety of our children.