Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/656

 632 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

such case to be immediately transferred to one of the contagious- disease hospitals of the department.

Where the patient is not removed to the hospital, it is the duty of the medical inspector to make a visit at least once a week, or oftener if the patient is too poor to afford the services of a private physician, and to send in a daily report of his work to the department. Twice a week he must report in person to the division chief; during the other days, in order to save time, notices of cases are telephoned directly to him at his office, daily or oftener. If the case is that of a school child, the inspector must at once report its name, address, etc., by postal card to the proper school ; and after the disease is over the child must obtain from him a duly signed certificate before it can return to school.

Naturally the work of the district medical inspector is one calling for great tact and much hard work. He must be all- careful not to interfere with the private doctor, and he must be willing to work long after hours if necessary. The writer went out with one inspector who made fifty-three inspections from 9 A. M. till 9 P. M. one of the best records in the department. The following day, however, the same doctor had only seventeen inspections to make, and still another time only six inspections. This means, of course, that while the work is often heavy, it is also irregular, always falling off very much in summer. And this probably accounts for the comparatively high grade of men which the department is able to secure, in spite of the low sala- ries which it pays.

An interesting reform recently inaugurated by the present administration is the appointment of a special corps of men to distribute the antitoxin manufactured by the department. This is supplied free to diphtheria patients upon the request of the family physician, or where there is no private doctor.

Every private physician in the city is required by law to notify the Board of Health at once of any case of contagious disease which may come under his observation. All such cases, as well as those discovered by private citizens, public officials, or the medical inspector in his daily rounds, must always be reported to the Health Department. The Division of Contagious Dis-