Excerpt from Bulletin No. 1, Issued Quarterly by Vermont State Board of Health, Vol. 2: September, 1901

Ladies and Gentlemen: - In the few remarks which I am supposed to make at this opening session, I thought it might not be amiss to review very briefly the history of the public health legislation here in this state and make an attempt to measure practically the value of that legislation to the public health.

Previous to 1886, the laws pertaining to public health or sanitation here in Vermont were very few. There was a registration law which provided for the registration of births, marriages or deaths, or divorces, through the agencies of school and district town clerks and county clerks. That law was in force up to the year 1896, forty years. There was also a law on the statute books for a good many years giving the selectmen in towns certain authorities as local boards of health. In regard to the abatement of nuisances there was also a law. There was also a law pertaining to the subject of small pox. Those were the chief laws which bore directly or indirectly upon the present time. In 1886 a law was passed creating the State Board Of Health. The law instructs that they shall take cogui zanco of the interests and health of the people of this state. They shall make sanitary investigations under certain circumstances. They shall advise with the selectmen and municipal officers in regard to the sanitation of public buildings. Also promulgate rules and regulations in contagious diseases. Their authority, however, was limited, but it enabled them to issue rules and regulations applicable to epidemic diseases. After the amendment of it in 1894, it gave them authority not only in the presence of those epidemics, but to make rules that would lead up to the causes. The first board was comprised of A. S. Chesmore, J. M. Hamilton and C. Allen.

In 1888 a bill was passed which was very similar to the present one, and comprised a registration law which is similar to our present one.

In 1889 the State Board of Health, as then constituted, began to appoint health officers to be in touch with them in all the towns of the state so far as they could obtain those who would volunteer their services. They had no authority - recognized under the law. This was the first appointment, the first use of the name, health officer, in this state. That condition of things remained for about three years. In 1892 a law was passed which created that office legally. That law was very similar to the one passed more recently. In 1890 a public health bill was passed by the Senate, not including in it the registration provision, but simply a public health bill; also very much like the public health law we have now. In 1892 the present law in the main was passed - that is, regarding the powers and authorities of the health ofiicers and the controlling of epidemics and contagious dis eases. In 1896 a law was passed amending the health provision. In 1896 a new registration law was passed. In 1898 the chief public health law was passed, establishing the laboratory of hygiene. In 1900 this bill was extended and the laboratory was extended and the appropriation increased.

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