Chapter 17 cont. EXTRACTS FROM MINUTES. At the meeting, July  28, 1857, the desirableness of a city register of mortality was presented by Dr. Ames; and Drs. Ames, Baker and Adler were appointed a committee to prepare a memorial to the city authorities upon the subject.  This seems to have been the first inception of what has grown into an active and important part of the city's work, viz: that of the board of health.  Action was slow, however, and three years later, July 31, 1860, a committee was again appointed to wait on the city council with reference to the passage of an act requiring the registration of births and deaths, and in April, 1886, steps were taken to present the matter of registration of births and deaths before the state society, with a view to general action urging the enactment of a state law to that effect.  At the same meeting, the approach of cholera being anticipated, the city council was requested to act immediately in cleansing the streets and sewers. During the cholera season of 1873 the society cooperated actively with the city board of health to improve sanitary conditions.  These sultry, depressing days of late July, August and September, when citizens, well at one setting of the sun, had been stricken down and buried before the next, are still a gruesome memory to those who passed through them.  The record from July 14th to September 28th, as presented to the society by Dr. Maxwell, was: cases, 258; deaths, eighty to eighty-five.  A mortality of one in three was bad enough, but even this was far exceeded druing the first half of the epidemic, when scarcely one of those stricken recovered.  At its meeting of the following May the society expressed by resolution its strong disapproval of the action of the city council in constituting a health board without a representative of the medical profession to insure its intelligent action; also setting forth strongly the danger inherent in cesspools and the need of efficient sewerage.  That our city is today almost free from cesspools, latrines and surface wells, while its excellent sewer system is at last being extended to the neglected north slope, is largely due to the persistent efforts of Drs. Cantwell, Peck and others of the Scott ocunty society, who have had preventive medicine most strongly at heart. At the annual meeting in 1881 the desirablility of having especially educated and licensed plumbers and a sanitary engineer was urged, and in May of the same year the board of health was strongly recommended to take action forbidding burials within the city limits. The state board of health also owes much to this society, whose members have been firm supporters of that beneficent organization form its inception.  Dr. Cantwell, in his presidential valedictory, January, 1878, recommended that delegates to the state society be instructed to favor the movement for a state board of health with powers similar to those of the state board of Illinois; Dr. Peck, through his position as surgeon of the Rock Island road, succeeded in making operative the recommendations of the newly organized board with reference to the transportation of dead bodies; and the kindly and erudite Dr. Robert J. Farquharson, who planned our contagious disease hospital, now called St. Robert's in his memory, was the efficient secretary of the board from 1880 until his death. In March, 1861, the society makes feeling record of the first death among its members, that of the young and cultured Dr. Ezra James Fountain who, through an overdose of chlorate of potassa, fell a martyr to his zeal in professional investigation.  Two years later, April, 1863, another honored member, Dr. James Thistle, one of those who called the first meeting, head finished his earthly labors. In April, 1865, smallpox was reported as existing in the city, and Dr. Peck was made chairman of a committee to confer with the city authorities with a view to securing compulsory vaccination. As bearing on the present move for the introduction of kindergartens into the public schools, it is interesting to note that as early as 1867 Dr. A. S. Maxwell brought before the society, at its annual meeting, the desirablility of less crowding and shorter hours for the primary pupils; and the society, through its committee reporting in May, declared that:  "The Scott County Medical society as a body, looking to the physical and mental welfare of the younger school children of our community, do most heartily approve and recommend the plan of requiring children to attend but one session of three hours each day in the primary department of our city schools," and pledged itself to cooperate with the board of directors and teachers to effect the change.  On numerous subsequent occasions the Scott county society has shown its interest in the schools by offering sanitary inspection, and urging prevention of disease by the vaccination of pupils and by quarantine of those affected with scarlet fever or other contagion. At the November meeting, 1872, Dr. J. W. H. Baker presented an appreciative letter from President Thatcher of the state university, acknowledging the donation to the medical department of that institution of "The Thistle collection of medical books."  The founder of this department, one of the foremost medical schools of the west, and many other active workers, were contributed to it by the Scott County Medical society. Debbie Clough G-erischer G-erischer Family Web Site http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/ Assistant CC, Iowa Gen Web, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ List Manager for: IASCOTT-L * G-erischer-L * D-encker-L Fitzpatirck-L * V-lerebome-L * Huntington-L * Otis-L * Algar-L EIGS-L * Pickens-L * McNab-L * Patris-L - Rankin-L