Health

STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
State Board of Health
Chairman: Perry F. Prather, M.D.

Huntington Williams, M.D., Dr.P.H.,
Commissioner of Health, Baltimore City

A. Austin Pearre, M.D., 1961; A. L. Penniman, Jr., C.E., 1961;
Lloyd N. Richardson, Phar.D., 1963; Ralph J. Young, M.D.,
1963; George M. Anderson, D.D.S., 1965; Aaron Deitz, M.D.,
1966.

Perry F. Prather, M.D., Director
Edward Davens, M.D., Deputy Director
V. L. Ellicott, M.D., Dr.P.H., Chief, Bureau of Medical

Services and Hospitals
John Whitridge, Jr„ M.D., Chief, Bureau of Preventive

Medicine

Leon H. Hetherington, M.D., Chief, Bureau of Tuberculosis
C. A. Perry, Sc.D., Chief, Bureau of Laboratories
Robert M. Brown, M.P.H., Chief, Bureau of Environmental

Hygiene
Clemens W. Gaines, Chief, Bureau of Management

301 W. Preston Street, Baltimore I Telephone: Vernon 7-9000

The State Department of Health, established in 1874, is governed by
the State Board of Health. The Board is composed of the Director of
the Department, who also serves as chairman; the Commissioner of
Health of Baltimore City; and six members appointed by the Governor,
with the advice and consent of the Senate, to serve six-year terms
(Code 1957, Art. 43, sec. 1).

The Department of Health serves the State through twenty-three
county health departments, each of which is in the charge of a health
officer, who serves as the Deputy State Health Officer for his county.
For regulatory purposes the Baltimore County Council, the Montgom-
ery County Council, and the Board of County Commissioners in each
of the other counties serves ex officio as the county board of health
(Code 1957, Art. 43, sees. 6-10, 45-53).

The State Board of Health has broad and inclusive powers over
health and hygiene. It collects, studies, and publishes communicable
disease data; makes laboratory analyses of water, sewage, trade
wastes, milk products, food, drugs, and other materials that may be
responsible for the transmission of infectious diseases; examines and
supervises public and private water supplies, sewage disposal, ventila-
tion, and heat and lighting in public institutions ana controls nuisances;
registers, tabulates, and publishes vital statistics (including birth,
death, and marriage records); studies the causes of death and illness
among mothers and young children and provides services for mothers
and children; administers a medical care program for indigent and
medically indigent residents of Maryland's counties; operates the hos-
pitals placed under the Board's jurisdiction; investigates complaints
made by physicians or affected citizens; licenses midwives; and makes
laboratory tests of food and drug specimens to assure compliance with
laws prohibiting adulteration and misbranding, and prosecutes vio-
lators (Code 1957, Art. 43, sees. 33-44).

To carry out these duties the Board of Health has established within
the Department six bureaus as follows: Bureau of Laboratories;
Bureau of Preventive Medicine, including Divisions of Maternal and