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468 tendent. The regular hours for work are from 9 to 4, with a half-holiday on Saturday, but any employee of the department may be required to exceed these hours if in the opinion of his superiors the necessities of the service require it. Furthermore, any employee may at any time be discharged or temporarily suspended by the board, for misconduct or neglect of duty, after written charges have been preferred against him, and he has been given a public hearing. On the medical side it is the duty of the inspectors to take all necessary measures to prevent the spread of contagious or infectious diseases, and for this purpose the men are divided into district and school inspectors and vaccinators. There is also a special corps of physicians during the summer months—the "Summer Corps," as it is called—who make house-to-house visits in the poorer tenement-house districts, and offer free treatment and advice to children and all others who may desire, or are in need of, medical help.

To the sanitary superintendent is also intrusted the general management of the various city hospitals for contagious diseases. But of this more later.

The registrar of records.—The Bureau of Records, under the supervision of the registrar of records, appointed by the board, at a salary of $4,000 per year, has charge of (1) the issuing of all burial permits; (2) the compilation of vital statistics; (3) the preservation of the records of the department; (4) the library; (5) the bookbindery. Under the registrar there are also five assistant registrars for each borough, who are appointed by the board, and receive a salary of $3,000. Each borough issues its own burial permits, and collects its own vital statistics, which are forwarded once a week to the central office in Manhattan, and there compiled for the whole city.

The assistant corporation counsel.—The corporation counsel of the city assigns one of his assistants to aid the Department of Health. Such assistant gives up his whole time in working for the board, and it is his duty (1) to act as the legal adviser of the commissioner of health in matters relating directly to the