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Show DR. HALL'S BEFOKT. The health commissioner, Dr. Hall, lias filed his first quarterly report, and it is a source of regret that through past neglect it should be impossible to institute insti-tute comparison with previous quarters, and also that through the imperfect working of the law at present it should bo impossible to obtain an absolutely correct record of our vital statistics. Certainly the birth rate is outrageously inaccurate, not perhaps so much fort ho reason stated by Dr. Hall as because under the old dispensation any irresponsible irre-sponsible person, alike ignorant of the law and obstetrics, could attend childbirth. child-birth. ' As soon as the new medical or- dinance is in working force it will be found that tha births in this city far exceed the number at present reported. Thirteen deaths in three months from lung diseases is a most remarkable showing, bearing out the claim that for this particular ailment no climatic conditions con-ditions in the United States are superior to those existing in Salt Lake; for while it is true that the quarter covered by the commissioner's report is the most favorable favor-able for pulmonary complaints, yet on the other band it is the most favorable season of the year when pationts from abroad seek this resort in quest of a cure. We doubt not but what the majority ma-jority of the thirteen casualties was furnished fur-nished by subjects of that class. In disagreeable oontrast with the numbor of deaths due to lung diseases is the number, nearly twice as large, due to typhoid fever. Dr. Hall vouchsafes vouch-safes no explanation of the fact, and we believe official neglect and stupidity stupid-ity have considerable to do with it. The Times has persistently callod attention at-tention to the filthy condition of cortain alleys and back yards which breed the germ of disease, but if any heed is paid to the warning we are not aware of It. The tearing up of the public streets in the line of wholesale improvements, and the extensive building operations which reader ns more liable to the ravages rav-ages of typhoid, demand greater vigilance vigil-ance on the part of the proper authorities authori-ties than they exercise. Rather than pester people with a series of rutes governing gov-erning the disposition of the dead, it would be well to instruct the living in the use of disinfectants and the need of removing foul matter for the protection protec-tion of their health. What the health officer says regarding regard-ing the relation of diphtheria to street sprinkling may be coincidence or fact, but at any rate it is worthy of the most careful oonsldoration. As the first quarterly report with which future comparisons of our vital statistics can be mad a Dr. Hall's statistics, statis-tics, however moagre and unsatisfactory, unsatisfac-tory, have an uncommon importance. |