Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1903 — State Health Board Bulletin. [ARTICLE]

State Health Board Bulletin.

There were 612 cases of smallpox during December, with seventeen deaths in forty-one counties. This is shown by the December bulletin of the State Board- of Health issued yesterday. The bulletin shows that for the twentythird consecutive month smallpox was the most prevalent disease in Indiana. But just what Dr. Hurty means by “the most prevalent disease” is not very clear. There is pneumonia, for instance, which caused more than 20 deaths to smallpox’s one, and no doubt was much more prevalent, probably ten times as many cases. And even in spite of Hurty’s hollering about smallpox we notice that little old despised whooping cough scored one more death during the month. The number of deaths reported during the month was 2.631, which makes a death rate of 12.3. In December, 1901, there were 2,683 deaths. The death rate in the cities during the month was 14 5, and in the country, 111. The deaths from important causes were as follows: Consumption, 319; typhoid fever, 91, diphtheria, 57; scarlet fever, 11; measles, 1 ; whooping cough, 18; pneumonia, 367; diarrheal diseases under five, 23; cere-bro-spinal meningitis, 14; influenza, 19; puerperal fever, 8; cancer, 96; violence, 120; smallpox, 17.