Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/488

 470 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The chief medical officer. At the beginning of the present administration, Dr. Herman H. Biggs, formerly the director of the Bacteriological Laboratories, was made chief medical officer. This position was created at the instance of Mayor Low, it being felt that, if a layman was made executive head of the depart- ment, there should also be a competent physician at the head of the medical work.

Honorary appointees. It has long been the custom of the Board of Health to call into consultation certain leading physi- cians and specialists. These men are classed either as members of the Medical Advisory Board, as members of the Board of Honorary Visiting Physicians to the contagious disease hospitals of the department, or else as individual consulting specialists. But until the present year (1902) this branch of the service seems rather to have fallen into disuse. And although the pre- vious administration had its advisory boards and honorary com- mittees composed of distinguished physicians who had signified their willingness to offer their services and advice free of charge at any time, they were seldom called upon by the department. But when the present administration entered upon its duties at the beginning of 1902, the new board at once appointed a dis- tinguished body of medical advisers, whom it has called into consultation periodically.

In this way the most cordial relations have been established between the department aud the private medical profession, to the obvious advantage of both. For it is certainly to the interest of the city at large that private physicians co-operate with the Board of Health wherever possible, and unless they comply with the rules of the Board in regard to the systematic reporting of all contagious diseases, the work of the city health authorities is greatly retarded. These gentlemen, though at the head of their profession, may not always be men of administrative or practical ability, but they can certainly render the department great service in a scientific way. Furthermore, it is absolutely essential that the health inspectors should in no way interfere with the practice of private doctors, and the cordial relations established by Commissioner Lederle with the medical profession