USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1885 > Part 18
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Fifty-six visits have been made to the Police Stations, and for- ty-three to the City Farm and Almshouse.
The condition of the wards of the city at the Farm remains sat- isfactory. No unusual sickness has visited them this year. Those that have been ill have received kind and thoughtful care. Those that have died have suffered mostly from the ravages of incura- ble disease or the wasting condition of feeble old age.
The following is the list of deaths :-
Ann Rice, 92, Old Age.
Lewis Brooks, 40, Delirium Tremens.
Edward P. Johnson, 65, Senile Debility.
George A. Rice (infant), Infantile Debility.
William Cather, 76, Pneumonia.
Mary Kambird (infant), Infantile Debility.
Alice Foley, 66, Marasmus.
Honora Leary, 49, Congestion of Lungs.
Mary Houlihan, 50, Blood Poisoning.
Mary McGovern, 50, Chronic Asthma. Patrick Leonard, 1 week, Infantile Debility.
Albert H. Barrett, 40, Heart Disease. Thomas McCann, 71, Senile Debility. Ephraim Willard, 56, Dysentery. Mary Keohan, 70, Senile Dementia. Frank H. Mason, 26, Epilepsy.
Zephaniah Spurr, 67, Paralysis.
Mary Foley, 36, Consumption.
Margaret Miller, 74, Paralysis.
John J. Broderick, 33, Consumption.
The additions and improvements to the buildings now fur- nished render the care of the patients much easier, and enhance
290
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 40.
the comfort of every member of the household. Classification is now possible. This is of especial benefit to the insane. The experiment of caring for a certain number of quiet, incurable in- sane paupers at the Farm has now been tried long enough to warrant its success. These unfortunate citizens receive at our hands the same kind care and constant watching which they did at the hospitals, and rather more out-of-doors life and individual attention.
Divided into small groups or classes, according to their mental condition, they are as well off as they can be anywhere. I regret that a hospital ward was not included in the plan of improvements. It is almost a necessity in an institution like ours, where so many sick and feeble persons are to receive special nursing and isolation.
The hospital for contagious diseases remains as it was, small and inadequate. Within the last few months its limited accom- modations have troubled me not a little, in view of a probable invasion of small-pox. It is valuable for its immediate availabil- ity, but it could but feebly assist the authorities in the manage- ment of a dangerous and fatal epidemic.
This condition of things ought not to continue. The city of Worcester should have a hospital extensive enough for all our probable wants, ready and waiting for our use, with all modern appliances. A fatal epidemic can often be arrested by the proper isolation and care of the first few cases. Let us turn our earnest attention to Montreal.
In obedience to the laws of 1884, I have kept a full record of contagious diseases prevailing in the city. This record embraces four hundred and thirty separate entries. Each record requires the number of case, the date, disease, name, street, number, the age, and the name of the physician reporting, and the deaths. Every house where contagious disease has existed has been promptly reported to the Superintendent of Schools. Twenty- five of the poor of the city have died under my care at their homes. The following is the list :-
Mary Ann Williams, 79, Bright's Disease.
Michael McCann, 63, Consumption.
.
291
OVERSEERS OF THE POOR.
Henry P. Jones, 54, Consumption.
Thomas Kennedy, 49, Consumption. Barbara Folen, 2}, Whooping Cough.
Jeremiah O'Conner, 69, Bright's Disease. Mary Gilchrist, 7 months, Diphtheria.
Anthony E. Carpenter, 67, Pneumonia. Abby I. Sawyer, 27, Consumption. Bridget Walsh, 52, Pneumonia.
Thomas Melsop, 73, Chronic Diarrhea.
Alonzo Dodd, 73, Bright's Disease. Catherine Stackers, 50, Heart Disease.
Patrick McCormick, 60, Heart Disease.
John Coffey, 26, Consumption. Hannah Ryan, 67, Burns. Agnes Hayward, 7 months, Cholera Infantum.
Mary Ruby, 45, Consumption.
Horace W. Fleet, 42, Consumption. William Donahoe, 25, Consumption. Alexander Jacobs, 8 months, Pneumonia.
Lucy Quinn, 60, Paralysis.
Ellen Bresnihan, 57, Consumption.
Several others who were attended by me in their last sickness, but were not under my care at the time of their death, are not included in this list.
The ambulance has been placed at my disposal by the courtesy of the City Marshal.
I have been greatly assisted in my duties by the Clerk of the Board of Overseers of the Poor, by the Superintendent and Matron of the City Farm, and by the police force, on all occa- sions. I return thanks to them all for their kindness and uni- form courtesy to me.
Respectfully submitted.
RUFUS WOODWARD,
City Physician.
REPORT
OF THE
BOARD OF HEALTH.
To His Honor the Mayor, and Gentlemen of the City Council :
The following report is submitted by the Board of Health :-
Appropriation,
$2,400 00
Received from licenses, &c.,
116 00
$2,516 00
Expended (for items, see Auditor's Report),
2,470 08
Balance unexpended,
845 92
During the past year the following complaints have been received at this office, and investigated :-
General filthiness,
15
Foul privies and cess-pools,
408
Foul closets,
240
Defective plumbing,
75
Imperfect drainage,
240
Estates compelled to reconstruct their drainage,
246
Insufficient water supply, water shut off,
152
Houses not suitably trapped,
846
Filthy yards,
162
Filthy cellars,
64
Filthy estates,
23
Foul hennery,
1
Offensive trade,
·1
Wells closed,
2
Houses vacated,
6
Foul alleys,
20
10
294
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 40.
Foul urinals,
5
Low lands filled,
6
Dead animals removed,
18
Privies abandoned,
275
No cause for complaint,
75
Whole number of complaints,
1,897
Whole number of visits made,
5,600
Nuisances abated,
1,750
1
The registration of contagious diseases continues in force, and reports from the following cases have been received :-
1885.
1884.
Number of cases of diphtheria,
360
398
Number of deaths,
49
64
Percentage of deaths,
15.1
13.6
Number of cases of scarlet fever,
73
60
Number of deaths,
1
4
Percentage of deaths,
1.3
6.6
From the above tables, it will be seen that the work of the Board has increased very largely during the past year.
The character of the work, also, is constantly changing. During the early years of its existence, little attention was paid to plumb- ing and drainage. When its office as guardian of the city's health becomes better recognized and understood, it can more easily assume the work of preventing the spread of contagious and infectious disease. At the first, many large nuisances existed, which have been gradually abated, until at the present date there are few conspicuously unhealthy localities in the city.
The increase of the number of complaints has made it neces- sary to employ a permanent inspector throughout the year. Dur- ing the early months of the summer, two additional persons were engaged to make house-to-house inspection in the tenement-house sections of the city, where diseases have been especially prevalent. The condition of a large per cent. of the houses visited showed how much this kind of work is needed, and it is the intention of the Board to continue it until the whole city has been visited. In this connection it is gratifying to state that in nearly every case
295
REPORT OF BOARD OF HEALTH.
the inspectors were well received by the tenants and property owners, and the improvements ordered by the Board, cheerfully made.
In order to have the plumbing regulations of the Board better enforced, steps were taken to have them embodied in an ordi- nance of the city, and all plumbers doing business here are now required to take out a license from the Board of Health. The importance of this matter of plumbing can hardly be over-rated. The sewers and cesspools are the breeding places of disease. Every house must of necessity be connected with them, and unless this connection be properly made, it is a source of the greatest danger to the community.
The experience of the past year has shown that it is useless to rely upon private enterprise to collect and care for house-offal. The first object of the public scavenger department is to gather and remove swill and house-offal. Making of pork is only a secondary consideration, while sickness or accidents to the swine kept at the City Farm has no effect upon the effi- ciency of the service. With individuals the result is quite different. If the stock die they have no use for the swill and cannot afford to collect it simply for the good of the public. Hence it has been decided to extend the area of public scavenger work to the Island and Sonth Worcester districts, and to allow individuals to take out licenses to collect from the hotels and larger restaurants only.
The Board again recommend that a public service be estab- lished for the collection of ashes and rubbish. Worcester is be- hind many other cities in this respect.
Individuals spend each year twice the amount necessary to carry on such a service without obtaining one-half the efficiency. This material, which consists chiefly of ashes, house-sweepings, and other non-decomposing matter, could be used by the Board of Health judiciously in filling low lands.
For the last few years, the complaints of dead animals left in public places have increased to such an extent, that it has been deemed advisable to license a person to remove and care
296
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 40.
for them. The Board has fixed the fees for such service as follows : -
For the removal of a dead horse or neat cattle, $2 00 For the removal of any other dead animal, 25
Said money to be collected from the owner of the animal, or the person on whose estate the animal is found.
The need of a hospital for contagious diseases repeatedly comes to the notice of the Board of Health and to the City Phy- sician. Strangers suddenly seized with diphtheria, servants in families, operatives in boarding-houses, suffering from this or other kindred affections have no place to which they can be re- moved.
By its rules the City Hospital cannot take them, the Alms- house and Police Station have no place for them, the pest-house is not available for such cases. In our present condition such persons must provide for themselves as they can, and in their en- deavor to find a shelter, expose numberless persons to contagion and disease.
The providing such a hospital involves too great an expendi- ture to be undertaken by this Board, but they do earnestly rec- ommend that one be built in connection with the Worcester City Hospital as speedily as possible.
During the past year the epidemic of small-pox has threatened the whole State. Worcester, by its position on the main lines of northern travel, was particularly exposed to this danger. Most fortunately there has not been a single case. Local quarantine was found to be impossible without a large outlay and much in- convenience to the traveling public. Therefore an arrange- ment was made with the New Hampshire State Board, the Man- chester and Nashua Boards of Health, to vaccinate all emigrants from Montreal or vicinity who were ticketed to Worcester and did not show satisfactory evidence of previous vaccination and to notify us of all suspicious cases whose objective point was Wor- cester. Notice was also sent by these officers to our Board of all cases that were thought to need watching.
297
REPORT OF BOARD OF HEALTH.
The thanks of the Board of Health are due to the gentlemen connected with the Manchester, the Nashua, and the State Board at Concord, for the thorough and efficient manner in which they did this work, and for the courtesy which they showed us on all occasions.
The Superintendent of Schools called the attention of the Board to the large number of unvaccinated children in the parochial schools of the city. A physician was at once employed to inspect these schools, and vaccinate all who presented no evi- dence of recent successful vaccination. Three hundred and fifty-three were found to require this prevention.
Public vaccination of adults and infants was established at the same time, and one hundred and eighty-three persons availed themselves of it. The inmates of the City Farm were also exam- ined, and those who had no scars-to the number of eighteen- were vaccinated.
The arching of the main sewer between Franklin and Pond streets has been accomplished by the Sewer Department, during the past year, and this work will be continued through the city limits as soon as practicable.
No official return of deaths from our prevalent diseases has ever been made, and it has been thought desirable to publish from the records of the City Clerk, the number of deaths from the principal contagious and infectious diseases during the past twenty years.
298
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 40.
Popula-
tion.
No. of
Deaths.
Death
Rate.
Typhoid
Fever.
Diph-
theria.
Croup.
Scarlet
Fever.
Small-
Pox.
Measles.
Diarrhœal
Disease.
Malaria.
1864
29,041
917
3.54
27
20
30
74
4
17
103
0
1865
30,06 +
800
2.66
31
11
20
0
0
46
124
0
1866
32,26.
717
2.22
21
14
19
46
3
1
95
0
1867
34,777
705
2.04
20
4
27
8
1
14
103
0
1868
36,687
789
2.15
39
10
2
16
1
2
64
1
1869
38,896
836
2.14
24
1
6
14
3
5
81
0
1870
41,005
964
2.34
39
22
23
36
17
8
133
0
1871
42,737
1193
2.70
36
35
57
94
2
4
130
3
1872
44,369
1437
3.23
29
18
30
131
0
74
186
0
1873
46,001
1103
2.37
30
10
25
33
17
1
108
0
1874
47,633
1027
2.27
18
9
16
8
0
2
135
0
1875
49,255
1091
2.21
23
11
28
26
0
13
126
0
1876
50,000
1110
2.20
32
35
35
90
0
0
151
0
1877
50,000
1131
2.26
43
62
19
23
0
13
128
0
1878
52,000
995
1.90
20
41
22
11
0
2
84
0
1879
53,000
981
1.85
19
24
23
7
2
5
91
2
1880
58,295
1290
2.21
36
17
10
35
13
2
147
3
1881
61,000
1212
1.98
27
26
22
47
0
10
92
1
1882
65,000
1302
2.00
32
17
20
22
0
5
181
3
1883
67,000
1380
2.00
25
32
22
12
0
14
140
2
1884
68,000
1386
2.03
24
85
42
9
0
2
142
0
1885
70 000
1394
1.90
19
71
34
4
0
0
159
2
Death rate for ten years ending 1875, 2.17.
Death rate for ten years ending 1885, 2.05.
Respectfully submitted.
HENRY GRIFFIN,
Board
JAMES C. COFFEY,
of
LEMUEL F. WOODWARD, )
Health.
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
.
DIRECTORS IN 1886.
TERM EXPIRES.
SAMUEL A. PORTER,
ALBERT WOOD,
Dec. 31, 1886.
JONAS G. CLARK,
FRANCIS H. DEWEY,
1887.
FRANCIS A. GASKILL,
JAMES E. ESTABROOK, 1888.
ADIN THAYER,
GEORGE SWAN,
1889.
THOMAS GRIFFIN,
E. HARLOW RUSSELL,
1890.
JOHN O. MARBLE,
A. GEORGE BULLOCK,
1891.
ORGANIZATION FOR THE YEAR.
PRESIDENT. FRANCIS H. DEWEY,
SECRETARY AND TREASURER. JAMES E. ESTABROOK.
COMMITTEE ON THE LIBRARY.
JONAS G. CLARK,
ALBERT WOOD,
ADIN THAYER, JAMES E. ESTABROOK, FRANCIS A. GASKILL.
COMMITTEE ON THE READING-ROOM.
GEORGE SWAN, E. HARLOW RUSSELL, JOHN O. MARBLE.
COMMITTEE ON THE BUILDING.
SAMUEL A. PORTER, THOMAS GRIFFIN, ALBERT WOOD.
COMMITTEE ON FINANCE.
FRANCIS H. DEWEY, JONAS G. CLARK, A. GEORGE BULLOCK.
LIBRARIAN. SAMUEL S. GREEN.
ASSISTANT-LIBRARIANS.
LUCIE A. YOUNG, JESSIE E. TYLER, ELLEN L. OTIS. M. JENNIE BARBOUR, SARAH D. TUCKER.
WORCESTER FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
DIRECTORS' REPORT.
To the Hon. Charles G. Reed, Mayor, and the City Council of the City of Worcester :
The Directors of the Free Public Library respectfully submit their twenty-sixth annual report.
The reports of the four Standing Committees of the Board, together with the report of the Librarian, and that of the Treas- urer of the Reading-room Fund, are herewith transmitted.
We have continued cause to congratulate the citizens of Worcester on the growth and usefulness of the Free Public Library.
The number of bound volumes in the Library is 63,941, being an increase for the year of 2,737 volumes.
The number of volumes delivered for home use has been 147,486, as against 135,021 the previous year; the number delivered for reference use has been 58,036, as against 57,497 the previous year ; making an aggregate of 205,522, or an aver- age daily delivery of 669 volumes. This does not include the delivery on Sundays, for use within the building, of 2,076 vol- umes, which would make 207,598. The entire delivery for the year 1883 was 165,834 volumes, showing the astonishing increase in the delivery in three years of 41,764 volumes.
On a single day during the present year (Jan. 31, 1885), there was a delivery of 1,477 volumes. A mere statement of the above facts is sufficient, without comment, to prove the great. value and usefulness of the Public Library to all classes of our citizens, and to entitle it to your liberal support.
302
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 40.
The Librarian very properly calls our attention to the fact that we have been prevented from buying as many books as deemed desirable during the year, on account of being obliged to use a considerable sum from the city appropriation in improving the heating apparatus required for warming the library building. We trust that hereafter all such cases may be provided for, with- out rendering it necessary to use funds needed for the purchase of books.
The Reading-rooms continue to be a popular department of the Public Library. They are frequented at all hours of the day and evening, and often crowded with interested readers, for whose use two hundred and sixty-six newspapers, magazines and periodicals have been provided. On Sundays, they are opened from 2 to 9 P. M., and the average number of persons using them on that day is 249.
The amount of the Reading-room Fund is only $10,812, originally raised by contributions from some of our own citizens. The reduced rate of interest has diminished the income, and it is insufficient. And the Directors heartily commend to some of our wealthy and liberal citizens the suggestion of the Committee on the Reading-room, that it would be a source of gratification if some citizen or citizens would find it agreeable to add to the amount of the fund a sum sufficient to make its income adequate to creditably maintain this department of the Library, without recourse to an appropriation made by the city ; until this is done, an appropriation of not less than $500 will be needed annually, in addition to the income of the present fund.
The Building Committee report that during the present year a new steel boiler for heating has been substituted for the old one, and a radiator placed in the front hall to heat a portion of the building, another room has been shelved in the basement for the accommodation of the circulating library, leaving only one more room which can be devoted to the storage of books in that de- partment, and which will be required for that use during the next year.
In this connection the Directors desire to call your attention to that part of the report of the Librarian in which he says that the
303
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
need for increased quarters for the storage of books and conse- quent enlargement of the library building is imminent, and if the consideration of this matter is longer postponed we shall find ourselves seriously inconvenienced.
In the accompanying report of the Finance Committee will be found detailed statements of all the funds, and of all receipts and disbursements during the present year.
The Directors herewith submit their estimate of the amount of appropriation which will be needed for the requirements of the Public Library for the ensuing year, and while they feel that a much larger sum could be profitably expended, knowing the gen- eral advance for retrenchment in all departments of the city government, have asked only for such an appropriation as will enable them to meet the necessary wants of the Library.
It is hardly necessary for the Directors to renew, as they do, their annual statement of the value of the services of our Libra- rian and his continued courtesy in aiding in every way all who resort to the Library for information and investigation.
The increased use of the Library has added materially to the labors of all the assistants of the Librarian, but they have cheer- fully met and satisfactorily performed all the duties of their several positions.
In behalf of the Directors,
FRANCIS H. DEWEY,
President.
Worcester, December 29, 1885.
REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN
OF THE
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
To Hon. Francis H. Dewey, President of the Board of Directors of the Free Public Library :
I herewith present the twenty-sixth annual report of the . Librarian. It is the fifteenth which I have prepared.
The tables which usually form a part of this report will be found at its close. They show the receipts and expenditures of the library, its accessions, the number of volumes used by readers and students and the extent of the use of the reading-rooms on Sunday, and record such other facts in the history of the library for the past year as it is our custom to call attention to.
There has been a large increase in the use of the library during the past year, thus duplicating the experience of the previous year.
The whole number of volumes given out to readers and stu- dents is 207,598, an increase over the year before of 13,277. This use is divided among the different departments as follows : Circulating department 147,486 ; reference department, secular days 58,036 ; Sunday reference use, 2,076.
So large a growth in the use of the library is the more gratify- ing as it follows a very large increase in 'the previous year, and because it is observable in both departments, and in Sunday as well as week-day use.
The large use of the reference department has grown up almost wholly in fifteen years, and as reported here, is exclusive
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 305
of the immense use of the 266 papers, magazines and reviews to be found in the reading-rooms.
The week-day reference use, it may also be added, is almost wholly for purposes of study.
It is gratifying to note, also, that the great increase in the use of the circulating department during the past year has been brought about without lowering at all the high standard which we have always maintained in our purchases, and while on the other hand we have even raised that standard very considerably.
The use of books by scholars and teachers both in the library building and in the school-houses continues to increase, and some new experiments in doing this kind of work have been success- fully tried during the year.
The whole number of volumes in the library is 63,941, an in- crease during the year of 2,737 volumes.
I am sorry not to be able to report a larger increase, but we were prevented from buying as many books for the Circulating and Intermediate Departments as in the previous year, on account of the necessity of using a considerable portion of the city appro- priation in improving the heating apparatus required for warming the library building. The number of volumes bought for these two departments is 600 less than that reported for last year. It is very desirable that $4,000 should be spent for additions to these portions of the Library the coming year.
A list of persons and institutions to whom we are indebted for gifts is appended to this report. Our thanks are due to all the givers. We owe especial gratitude to the Boston Athenæum, Harvard College Library, the Boston Public Library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and other libraries, for generously lending us many books which citizens of Worcester have wished to use, and we have greater reason to be grateful because the kindness which libraries have shown to us during the past year has been extended to us during a series of years.
It is my duty to call the attention of the Board again to the fact that the need for increased quarters for the storage of books and consequently for an enlargement of the library building is imminent. If the consideration of the matter is longer post-
.
306
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 40.
poned, we shall soon find ourselves seriously inconvenienced. The nearness of the time when the space in the present building applicable to the purpose of housing the books of the Circulating Department will be exhausted is remarked upon in the report of the Building Committee. Immediate action in regard to this matter is very important.
The executive officers of the library wish me to say to the Board of Directors that they are sensible of the kindness which it manifests in all its relations with them, and are desirous of expressing gratitude for its courtesy and kind actions.
Following is my account of money collected for fines, etc., with the signatures of the three members of the Finance Com- mittee, which were attached to it after examination of the account by the Committee : -
CITY OF WORCESTER,
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY, December, 1885.
We have examined the Librarian's account from December 1, 1884, the date of the last settlement, and find it stands as follows :-
Cash balance in librarian's hands, December 1, 1884, $197 47
Received for fines,
476 45
from sale of catalogues and lists of books,
127 37
from deposits by persons not regularly allowed to take out books,
29 00
from the sale of books, waste-paper, etc.,
7 90
$838 19
Paid in return of deposits, etc.,
$ 28 39
W. S. Barton, city treasurer,
603 63
$632 02
Balance in librarian's hands, December 1, 1885,
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